I know when I started back at college a couple of years ago, after many years of being away from school, my first class was a class on how to study. I found it very useful as it showed me how to organize myself and track my assignments on a calendar and I also used it to mark my online posts as conversation pieces (a requirement of being taught online). I was taught to take your due date of an assignment and work backwards just as I do with projects at work. To do this effectively you must remember what you have going on in that time period such as your children’s activities/appointments/vacation days and so forth. At the time my daughter had cheer several times a week. That meant I had to think about what nights my homework would be cut short after dinner, her homework, and cheer.
This is coming into play with last year in Elementary school and now her fresh start in Middle School next week. Now instead of one teacher, she will have six teachers and six different requirements and that will take organization.
Many students have to go between two houses and while my daughter always does all of her homework at my house, there is one day a week that she spends with her dad and she has to make sure she has everything she needs for the next day when he takes her back to school. This means extra planning. She takes the date the assignment is due and works back marking on the calendar what activities she has or when she is not at home. She always begins her assignments early for several reasons. She is slow and very meticulous about her homework, and because I am in school – my time is valuable too. Plus, this year she wants to try out for several organizations which will cut into homework time.
Without organization, we would never have made it through fifth grade with all the assignments and due dates that finally gave points off if you were late.
One thing I realized in fifth grade was that her backpack was a mess. Every night I looked at her agenda and assignments, but I felt that her backpack was like my briefcase and I didn’t want to invade her space. Well at the end of the year when I saw all the candy and ripped paper cartoons, I realized she was not yet mature enough to manage her “briefcase”. This year I have bought several different soft pencil cases for different things. One for pencils, and one for products such as her little lipsticks and so forth. She now has a new book bag with several pockets for organizing and a binder with tabs for each one of her classes.
I’m hoping my efforts to keep her organized will make her a better student as she gets anxious when she falls behind or can’t find something.
I found this article that helps get your children ready for the new school year. And become an Excellent Student. http://www.wikihow.com/Become-an-Excellent-Student
I would love to hear your tips on organizing for school. Please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of my post or email me at [email protected]
