I’m almost in the same mind frame as I was in September; mixed emotions about the kids going back to school. I’d be lying of I didn’t it was a hectic week with play dates, rides to the mall, car pooling to friends houses and of course trying to squeeze in a family activity. Though I was sick the entire vacation, I did enjoy not having to wake up at the crack of dawn everyday. God did I love that!
The Christmas vacation is a good time to sort through your child’s papers, folders, binders, and backpack. If you haven’t done so yet, take the time to sit with your child and her school bag and look through the contents. Discuss with your child the following:
1. Look at a binder or folder and ask your child if they need any of the papers dated prior to November. Some teachers require certain papers to be kept with the students throughout the year. Keep those papers. The other papers which are no longer needed are to be filed.
2. Check the condition of the folders, binders, and notebooks. Some very disorganized children find that their folders and binders have a life of about 3 months. Times up!
3. If you’ve established a morning routine that hasn’t worked out….stop! Brainstorm with your child to develop a new strategy. Maybe you need to wake him up 30 minutes earlier or have her place all her school items packed up and placed by the door the night before.
4. lf your child continualy notes that he is doing “fine” in school, but you seem to have your doubts, contact your child’s teacher’s for a progress report. Sometimes disorganized children have this overly confident sense of having the ability of becoming organized without anyone’s help…it usually isn’t successful.
5. Take this opportunity to discuss with your child the organizing strategies that have been working and the ones that may need some tweaking.
Good luck on Monday, I’ll be thinking of you getting up like the rest of us.

Look through the backpack and see if the notebooks and binders are usable. Very disorganized children can go through 3 or 4 binders in a school year. Make sure the clasps are working and not ajar. Once the binder rings become misaligned, papers will start to rip.

I gave a lecture last night to parents of school age children in Westchester, NY. Fter I gave a brief description of the disorganized child and the three organizing styles, the audience broke out into groups according to the grade level of their children. They were instructed to write pertinent questions they may have regarding organizing their child to discuss in the groups.

As I walked around to observe the groups, I was fascinated yet not completely surprised that the underlying theme among all grade levels was motivation. Parents were struggling on how to get their children motivated to complete homework, projects, or any task at hand. Some parents needed help on how to get their child to just start the task.

I take the stance that children who appear unmotivated usually are feeling overwhelmed. In the situations discussed last night, it appeared that the children may be overwhelmed by the amount of homework they have.

Parents need to help their children chunk the homework or projects. For some children, parents may need to chunk the assignments into smaller tasks if their child is very overwhelmed. Keep in mind that the goal is to complete the assignment. Some parents raised the issue of smaller chunks creating more of a visual overload for the child. In these cases, some parents may have to only give the child a only few tasks at a time.

The motivation factor is the feeling of success the child will gain when the task is completed. Sometimes it’s that simple. Test it out. Give a child small chunks of a difficult task and watch the confidence build and a smile appear! Nothing like to feeling of accomplishment.

Many parents of high school students often tell me that they walk a thin line between assisting their disorganized child and enabling him/her. I empathize with these parents since that line can be very fine. However, when a disorganized child struggles to find the strategies and techniques that work for him, parents need to step in and loan their child some executive functioning.

What am I talking about? Well, if your very disorganized high school student is having a difficult time handing in homework, there is nothing wrong with either following up with the teacher to check in on the homework OR checking in with the student to make sure he put his homework in a folder /binder where he’ll remember it. Until organizing strategies have been embedded in the students, the adults will have to be involved.

Now is the time to check out the pros and cons of your child organizing system . What does his progress report indicate about homework being handed in on time or assignments missing? Is there a note about inconsistent effort? If so, take note.
Investigate the comments and ask the teachers for details. Do not rely solely on your child’s interpretation of why “comments” were made on the progress report. Sometimes there is a miscommunication between the teacher and student AND/OR student and agenda book!

We are embarking on the full swing of school. Our kids have a few tests and quizes underneath them, we’ve started the new class projects and some of us, sadly, have received some progress reports letting us know that our child may be struggling in school.
Let’s get right to the point. Yes, money is tight for most of us. The new curriculum in most schools seems so foreign, especially the math.
Assuming the role of “tutor” for your child, can sometimes ignite a war.

How do you handle the situations? I suggest to man parents to contact the local high school and ask for the teacher who is mentoring the National Honor Society. Students who are inducted into this Honoe Society, need to complete service hours. Ask the teacher if the students can tutor your child. It’s a great way for the high school students to received their hours and for your child to get tutored for free!

Besides the binders, many teachers request notebooks for each subject. The variety of notebooks offered today can be overwhelming. We often hear parents say, “I stood in the supply store in front of a sea of different styles of notebooks: single subject, three subject, spiral, marble composition, some with folders, and some without. I couldn’t decide.” So, let’s look at each.

Marble

Remember the plain black and white marble design notebook with the pages stitched into the covers that us baby boomers used in school? That’s the marble notebook. Teachers like these notebooks for young students because of their durability. Students cannot tear pages out of these notebooks as easily as the spiral, and the hard cover makes for a longer lasting book. Young students who are more visual may like the wider spaced lines in these notebooks.

Wider spaced notebook lines will give the student who struggles with penmanship a wider area to write.

Spiral

There are enough varieties of spiral notebooks to make your head spin. They come in single, double, or three subject notebooks. The spiral notebook can be useful for students whose classes require more note-taking, especially in the middle and upper school.

Some spiral notebooks use folders inserted between the pages to indicate where the subjects are divided. We don’t encourage actually using these folders. Rather, the 2-pocket folder we’ve already described in other posts, in the appropriate subject binder is sufficient. Using the notebook folders can just add to the confusion of lost items. Keep it simple!

I took a quick ride into Staples the other day and found the love of my life….Post it’s! Okay, I know that sounds a little quircky but I absolutely crazy about post its.
Last year, I purchased the “super sticky” post its . I highly recommend these for disorganized kids. The adhesive is stronger than the regular post its; they the can withstand the constant wear and tear most others cannot.
For kids who have not been successful in using agenda books, I’ve suggested that they place a “Super Sticky” post on the inside of their binder. For each homework assignment, they can use a fresh post it. Later, when they start their homework, they can remove the post its they wrote their assignments on, separate them, and place the post its on the wall, table, post it calendar or wherever they’re finishing homework. When the assignment is complete, remove the post it, crumple it up and throw it away. A very tactile approach!

Some children love to have all of their important papers and handouts on one place. The accordion folders can meet the needs of these children. The folder will have about ten dividers for subjects. When the child opens the accordion folders, the subjects are all displayed at once. The first two sections in the front should be used as “Take Home” and “Take to School” sections, corresponding to the left and right sections of the bi-fold above. In the back, there might be a section labeled for extra-curricular activities.

If your child wants the accordion folder, we highly recommend the accordion folder with a zipper to hold all the materials inside. Don’t use the accordion folders with a string to wind around a knob or one that uses a clasp to close. The child won’t bother closing such folders—and you want the folder closed! Zippers are faster and will out live the plastic clasps or string. Children who like this type of folder seem to never go back to the binders.

 Visual organizers may find the accordion folder overwhelming—too many pockets for too many papers.
 Spatial organizers may not like the feel of the jagged edges of the zipper when he puts his hand in the file papers.
 Chronological organizers will love the orderliness of this accordion folder.

I still remember last year when I went down to the New Jersey shore for July 4th and found back to school supplies already on display in the local K Mart. I couldn’t believe it. Of course my daughter was thrilled to be able to sift through the piles of cute folders with animal pictures and current Disney stars adorning the covers. I, on the other hand, found myself feeling a bit frustrated at this display.

The mom in me wanted a break from school, including supplies. The therapist in me was annoyed that stores didn’t have this supply display flaunted all throughout the school year. So many of the disorganized kids I work with need to replenish their supplies during the year. Many times they’ve hit road blocks when searching for the right supplies. Moms report being told by store employees that some school supplies can only be found during the early school months. Obviously, the executives at these supply companies do not have disorganized kids.

So let the races begin. Stock up on the appropriate school supplies to last throughout the year. Remember to check out our book, for the best list of school supplies.