At the beginning of the school year, every student starts off organized. They have brand-new folders, a tidy binder and a clean backpack. But, for many, maintaining neatness can be a real struggle.
So, how can parents help their kids get and stay organized? Ann Dolin, founder of Educational Connections Tutoring and author of “Homework Made Simple,” shares her advice with WTOP.
Q: It’s one thing to be organized on the first day of school, but how can kids keep it up?
The real trick to helping kids stay somewhat neat is to set up a reoccurring system. I call this one the “Clean Sweep.” It’s a weekly appointment to get organized.
For example, you can use Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 7:20 p.m., and everyone in the family — not just your disorganized kid — is straightening up their materials and getting organized for the week. It could be that your kids are organizing their binders, getting their papers ready for the upcoming week, and you’re cleaning out your purse or maybe organizing the junk drawer. It doesn’t really matter what it is, but the idea is to have that standing appointment to maintain neatness on a weekly basis.
Q: For some families, it’s the mornings that can be the most hectic. Any ideas?
Now, a lot of the family energy during the school week is spent on mornings, making sure that everybody is ready to go and out the door on time. But, as they say, a truly productive morning starts the night before.
So, instead of leaving everything until the morning of, a great way to stay organized is to do things, such as packing backpacks, the night before, making sure that all assignments are in there and ready to go, and making lunches the night before.
You can even put it all together into a basket or in a specific spot next to the door each time, something we call “The Launching Pad.”
Q: When it comes to actually starting homework, how do you get your kids going?
First, I always encourage kids to make a plan before they start anything.
I’ll tell kids, “When you get home from school, don’t start with a subject. Don’t start with science, or English, or math, or history! You want to start with organization — and the first step you can take is to make a very simple to-do list.”
This to-do list could be as small as a few things needed to complete for homework each night. When you make a list, it helps to visualize the tasks at hand. So, as parents, when our kids get home from school, instead of saying, “What do you have for homework?” ask, “What are your priorities tonight?” It gets kids thinking about what they’re going to do first, second and third.
Q: Kids seem so over-scheduled these days. What’s the best way to better manage time?
It’s very common for kids to have very little time to manage because they’re involved in travel sports, and all kinds of extracurricular activities. So, when these activities take over the after-school hours, homework gets pushed later into the evening and kids stay up late to get it all done.
It’s often helpful to sit down with your child and write out the schedule for the week. Add in an hour, or however long it takes, of homework time. Schedule this time just as you would schedule a flute lesson or a soccer practice.
And, if you find you can’t quite fit everything in without some downtime for your child, there may be something that needs to go.
Ann Dolin is the president of Educational Connections Tutoring.
