Tips for Helping Your Child Be an Organized Student

September is full of all things new: new shoes, new backpacks, new teachers, and new schedules.  This is a great time to start your child on a routine that will make things easier for them throughout the school year.  For many students being organized will make the difference between having a successful and not successful school year.  It is the job of the parent to help the child come up with a routine that will work for them and simplify his/her lives.  Throughout the month of September, I will be talking about many different ways to help create an organized student.  This first week I am going to focus on creating a new daily schedule.
THE DAILY SCHEDULE: 

Morning wake-up time:
It is FAR better to have a little extra time in the morning to get ready rather than a huge blur of a rush out the door.  For most children, about an hour is needed to get up, get ready, eat, etc.  If your child must be at the bus stop for 7:30, wake them up no later than 6:30.  If your child tends to be a bit of a slug in the morning, you will need to wake them up earlier and/or put them to bed earlier at night.

Morning routine:
There are certain tasks that truly take minutes that can (and should) be taken care of first thing in the morning.  For example, have your child learn to make his/her bed before leaving their room in the morning. In addition, have them put their dirty clothes in the hamper and wipe the sink out when they are done brushing their teeth. For younger children you may want to set up a timer and give them a certain amount of time to wake up, get dressed, do their morning tasks, and come for breakfast.  You can make this a game with a prize if they make it to the breakfast table all week long before the timer goes off.  A good prize would be a board game with Mom and/or Dad.  Rewards should not always be monetary…get clever and be creative!!

After School:
Homework truly should take precedence over anything else.  Sit down with your child and come up with a workable time block for homework.  This time block does not have to take place at the same time each evening, just try not to make this be the last thing that they do before going to bed.  In addition, it is not always a good idea to simply say they have to do their homework before they can go outside/watch television/etc, because that is just asking for them to rush with their homework.  A good idea is to set aside a certain amount of time and tell your child that this is schoolwork time.  Homework time should not be a race to get done.  If they get done ahead of time they can read a little extra, or you may want to come up with another educational time filler (word finds, crossword puzzles, etc).  It is really a wonderful idea if you can sit down at the table with your child while they do their homework.  Use this time block to do any paperwork that you need to get done as well.

Before bedtime:
This is the big time-saver of the schedule!  Have your child lay out their clothes the night before.  Personally, I like to have all the clothes for the week picked out on the weekend, but I know that is not for everyone.  Mornings are not the time to find out that Suzy can’t find the shirt that goes with the pants that she just NEEDS to wear today!  Have your child not only lay out the clothes, but also their underwear, socks, accessories and shoes. If you have a younger child who wants to be able to pick out his/her own clothes I have a fun idea for you.  Assemble an outfit including clothes, socks, shoes, etc. and take a picture.  Do this with several other outfits.  Using the pictures, allow your child to choose her ensemble and then she can get her clothes together fairly easily using the picture as a guide.  Keep adding to the photo collection and soon you will have a full wardrobe of pictures.

In addition, prior to bedtime set the timer for 15 minutes and have a big “15-minute Clean-up.”  Have everyone run through the house with grocery-sized bags and collect items that don’t belong in certain rooms and put them away.  Finally before sending your child to bed, make sure backpacks are filled and ready by the door.  Once again, you can come up with a fun reward if this is taken care of all week!

Throughout this month, I am going to discuss ways to help you simplify your life during the school year.  I am going to discuss healthy, quick and easy breakfasts many of which you can make ahead so you can feed your child, and yourself, without stress in the morning.  In addition, I am going to give you tips on how to pack healthy, inexpensive lunches easily (many of which can be made ahead as well).  In addition to the food suggestions, I will be bringing you tips on how to reward your child for sticking with the schedule and also what to do if the schedule does not seem to work.  Finally, I will be talking about school paper clutter.  What do you do with all those papers that come home?  How do you know what to keep and what to throw out?

Have a wonderful 2006-2007 school year!!
Betsy