Organization Tips for Elementary School Students
Once your child enters elementary school, the homework, sports and school activities start to pile up quickly, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed or forget events amid the chaos. To help your child learn the skills needed to not only remember tasks, but also to stick with them all the way to the end, you need to teach him some organization tips.
1 Calendar
A calendar can help your elementary school student get organized, while keeping you straight on your child’s various activities, events and appointments. Get one of the larger versions and hang it somewhere you’ll see often, like next to the coffee machine. Show your child how to correctly and legibly add events as they come up. This works well for doctor appointments, soccer practice, birthday parties, sleepovers or school plays. If there are several types of activities, you could use a color-coded system, such as a red pen for appointments, blue for sports and green for school events.
2 Planner
A student planner can help your child keep organized and up-to-date on his homework and activities. Purchase one that is small enough to fit in his backpack so he can take it to and from school to write down his assignments. He can also write science project or book report due dates in there and early release days, nonschool days and parent-teacher conferences. Ask to take a look at the planner each evening to keep yourself in the loop on what he’s suppose to be doing and offer gentle reminders that due dates are coming up.
3 White Board
A white board can be hung in an easy to see area and divided equally by lines made with dry erase markers. Names can top each column, with tasks clearly written below. If your child has difficulty finding time for all of his household duties, chores and homework, sit him down and write out a daily schedule. Assign blocks of time for every activity, such as afterschool snacks, homework, dinner, chores, reading and getting ready for bed.
4 Sorting and Organizing
You can pull out some trusty plastic bins and explain how to sort and organize that disaster of a bedroom. This type of skill may not come easily to some kids, so keep encouraging your child to use those bins. Those plastic interlocking building blocks can go in a red bin, while his art supplies go in a blue bin and his toy cars go in a bin of another color. When you actually catch him putting the items back in the correct bin, praise, kind words and encouragement will help reinforce this behavior.
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