I find many disorganized kids who can become very distracted in a matter of minutes, need something other than the traditional studying method to keep interested in the subject.

When searching for an interactive gaming site for my daughter to create a game for her class, I came across classtools.net.  What a fabulous simple site to help parents, even kids, to develop an interactive studying tool for kids.  There are games such as the trash can game, the slot machine game and the jeopardy game that all kids will find exciting.

Up here in the northeast, school ends in about 2-4 weeks. High school students are trying to finish up the year by completing all the remaining assignements and them plan for final exams.

The greatest strategy I found to help with planning a schedule for studying for finals is to make a plan for each week FROM the final exam. For example, if there are 4 weeks left to finals, make 4 sheets putting one week on each sheet. On each sheet, make a calendar of the week. Insert all the activities you are committed to in the next 4 weeks. Then start with your last exam and work backwards, inserting the subjects you can study on certain days. Alternate subjects and days, for example, every Monday, Wednesday Friday and Sunday study one subject and on the other days study another one. Make sure to study for at least 20 - 30 minutes ( high school) and take a 10-15 minute break.
Some students feel pressured by inserting exact times when they have to study. Don't feel that you have to insert the time...this schedule is to relieve the stress not create more.  Good luck!

I'm having a hard time realizing that summer is just around the corner.  For most of us, there are about 6 weeks left of school.  The shopping and packing for summer camp can be tedious. I found a great page on The Container Store website. They give great ideas for items to use for packing including trunks, shelves, markers and such.  Check it out!

Many high school kids have their AP exams next week and the following week.  For some other schools finals are beginning.  Check out this sire for tips on memorization.  The disorganized child will need help with studying if they don't have any strategies.  Stay tuned for more test taking and study tips for kids.

If you're child has been storing his/her schoolwork in the file box, it's just about time to start sorting through the papers.  For many schools finals are next month.  

Before starting the purging process, get some post it's ( super sticky) and large paperclips.  Take out a file at a time.  Sort through the papers by Chapter or topic.  Clip the papers together and write the chapter title on the post it.  Stack the chapters in a pile in the order the material was taught.  You might want to divide the groups of chapters into sections or units.

I've known this to be very helpful for students who have final exams.  The visual of clumping the work into manageable piles relieves some of the anxiety and stress that most students feel at the end of the year.

Disorganized kids can become easily distracted in school.  Ask the teacher if your child can sit in the front of the class and away from the window.  Placing these kids next to "chatty Cathy" is not a good idea either.  The sounds of others talking is so distracting that they focus on  the other conversations rather than what the teacher is saying.

Soccer, dance, baseball, lacrosse, softball….the list is endless of the after school activities our kids are engaged in during the spring season.  I’m not immune to such a crazy schedule since my children are 12 and 14 yrs old.  Last night I opened a link from my daughter’s softball coach to see of a lost of over 20 games to be played in about 10 weeks. No joke.  Since I have quite a few high school boys in my practice who play baseball, I’m amazed and a little appalled at the amount of games they need to play during the season.

I’m feeling the urge to rant about society’s demands to inundate our children with insurmountable schedules. Ultimately the kids suffer from these overwhelming schedules especially if they have poor executive functioning skills such as time management and foresight.  Disorganized children struggle the most in these situations.

I’ve discussed many times in my blog about chunking school work and creating a good time management plan for your child.  For the sake of not repeating myself, I will defer to past posts to give details on all the “how to’s”.  What I will do is stress the importance of helping your disorganized child even the somewhat disorganized child, to set up a plan to ensure that his/her school work is completed.  You don’t want to be surprised at the end of the school year, when you child’s teacher informs you that he’s missing 4 homeworks and a report from your child.

Expandable Folder from Staples

For those Comfy/Cozy Organizers who want to keep all their books, notebooks, and floders with them at all times, think about carrying around a few expandable files.  They can have a folder for each subject to hold all the items needed for class, including the text book.  No rummaging through the backpack looking for your notebook and folder, just take out the expandable folder and everything you need is right in front of you.  They don't seem to take up a lot of room either.

This weekend I sat with one of my high school client's, who has a crazy schedule for the next month involving a week of baseball games, drivers ed, tutoring, and the usual rigors of 11th grade homework.  The poor kid walked into my office, head hanging low, looking completely exhausted and distraught. 

We quickly addressed the issue.  Instead of creating a monthly calendar of events, we broke the month into weekly calendars.  These 5 sheets of weekly calendars made for a visual of tasks he could handle.  Looking at a sheet listing a months worth of activities can be exasperating for the overwhelmed child.  Next we, inserted after school time lines and the priority activities that he know of- games, tutoring, drivers ed, Dr's appointments and such.  We also factored in time to eat and travel from one location to another.  People always seem to forget to include this task.

Tell your child that the time management schedule you just made is not edged in stone but to be used as a guide to what assignments /tasks need to be accomplished.  For those of you who don't want to hear me say "post it's", cover your eyes....and ears for those of you who are having this read to you.  Write each task on a small post it and place it in the time slot you want to finish the task.  If you decide not to complete the task in that indicated time, for whatever reason, take the post it off and place it in another time slot that you'll be able to complete the task.  When the task has been completed, throw away the post it.