Tips for Organizing School Responsibilities

What are some very simple tricks that our disorganized family can use to make dealing with school responsibilities easier for everyone? — Disorganized
Answer: Many complain as you do about not being organized. Certainly, being disorganized can affect how well your children do in school. Besides leading to lower grades, it can start or end the day in a totally chaotic manner. Here are a few simple organization tricks that can make life far easier for families:
1. Teach your children to put their books, homework and school papers in a backpack every night before they go to bed. Have them place the backpacks by the door along with coats, sweaters, etc.
2. On arriving home after school, have your children place their backpacks and outer garments in a specific location.
3. Choose a definite time each day in which all school communication (permission slips, teacher notes, school bulletins) will be read and handled by parents. This could be the first thing the children do before starting their homework.
4. Set up a system in which your children spend 15 minutes at a definite time each week organizing their notebooks and cleaning out their backpacks. For example, your family could choose Sunday at 9 a.m. It works best if parents also use this time to organize some of their papers.
5. Keep all study materials (pencils, paper, folders, dictionaries) in a specific place.
Start with these organization tricks and add more as they become habits. For example, it really helps for children to have definite homework times in which they will do schoolwork whether or not they have assignments. A definite dinner hour on most days also makes it easier for families to be organized. Plus, life goes smoother when families list all activities on a master calendar. How to fit everything in the following day can be discussed at dinner. Please e-mail or write us with additional organization tricks that work for your families.