We know that being organized will help your child be more successful and learning these skills now will not only help your him this year, but throughout middle school, high school, during his college years, and beyond. Why are we talking about this when the school-year is half-way over? Because these are skills that need to be revisited from time to time, and even if the year started out with A1 organizational skills, by this time some attention may have slipped, some areas where organization may be lacking have likely surfaced, and a refresher is needed.
Here are a few reasons why this is an important focus and an important key to success:
Your child is less likely to “forget” about assignments.
Your child is less likely to be unprepared for tests and quizzes.
Your child will be able to easily locate supplies and school-work when they are needed because everything will have it’s place and will be easily found.
Your child will have fewer late assignments and more assignments turned in.
Your child’s self-esteem will rise as they are able to turn in work that they’ve spent time and effort on, without the penalty for tardiness or missed assignments.
Your child’s increased self-esteem will lead to continued success in the classroom, knowing that his work is a job well done and credit is received.
Tips and tricks for getting and staying organized:
Make sure that your child has a good book bag/backpack. It’s likely that the one he started the year off with is in need of replacing or could use a re-thinking. Get one that is sturdy, has enough zippers and compartments so that there is a place for everything, but not so many that he’s constantly looking for his stuff. Having a tote bag for in-school use might be a good idea as well, if the school allows it. That way he’s not having to lug around a huge load of books throughout the day. Remember that the recommendation is to not carry around more than 10% of his total body weight in those backpacks in order to avoid pain in shoulders and back.
It's time to take another look at the supplies on-hand. Re-visit the teacher’s supply list and restock as needed. Your child will need fresh notebooks, paper, pencils, folders, highlighters and binders too, one for each class. Make sure that every notebook, file, and binder is labeled for each class and if you can, color coordinate for each class.
Make sure that your child is using a pencil case to collect his writing implements, erasers, sticky notes, paper clips, markers, etc. rather than just throwing them blindly into his bookbag where they’ll be too hard to find when needed.
Have a hole-punch for the binder so that any classroom hand-outs can be instantly added to the correct binder.
Organize loose papers: Reiterate for your child: do not just shove all papers into the backpack or they’ll never be able to be found quickly and may become damaged or lost completely. Everything in its place!
Make the locker more useful: Consider buying a small whiteboard with magnetic pencil holder to hold markers. Attach the board to the inside of the locker door for quick notes. A locker organizer is useful also and can be used for dividing books into sections such as morning classes/afternoon classes.
Update the planner with after-school activities, class schedule, meetings, project due dates and other assignments.
Make sure that everything has a place and everything is in it’s assigned place. For example, history papers do not belong in the math notebook and nothing should be tossed into the dark maze of the book bag willy-nilly.
Re-visit the daily routine/schedule. Is your child waking up in the morning to eat a good breakfast and get ready for school? Is he routinely getting to school on time? After school, is he sticking to a set time to get homework done?
Homework list: Another tip: if your cidl has a lot of homework and/or homework in many different subjects, before starting, take a sheet of paper and write down each of the subjects and the assignment for each. That way nothing will be forgotten and being able to cross each subject off the list as he goes along will serve as positive reinforcement. A white board will work for this tip as well.
Down time: You also want to make sure that your child is getting plenty of down-time built into the day, and getting to bed with enough time to get a good amount of sleep each night.
This may sound time-consuming, but taking the time to get re-organized will pay off and help your child to finish off the year with success!