Disorganized? Know a student who is disorganized?
The Organized Student: Teaching Children the Skills for Success in School and Beyond by Donna Goldberg is an excellent resource for students in middle school and high school. It is useful for their parents as well. Goldberg is an organizational consultant and founder of a company called Organized Student. The book has excellent tips and the Goldberg does a great job of breaking down the organization process for parents and children. Read the chapters that are most interesting, but don’t feel like you need to read the book in one witting. Goldberg gives excellent advice for organizing a student’s locker, her back pack, school and home paperwork and homework areas. She also discusses time management, planners, end-of-the-year wrap up and the teenager’s bedroom.
My favorite tips are listed below:
- When talking to children about working on organization tools focus on one area at a time and use the tools that are easier for the child to start.
- Give the systems time to work – Goldberg reminds the reader that habits take 21 days to form.
- Use the assessments that Goldberg provides to make sure you are properly customizing the organization system for the child.
- If a binder doesn’t work well, a clear plastic accordion file works well to organize all of a child’s school subjects.
- Use a Desktop Filing System to keep papers organized at home. If you have a file box for each child organized by subject, they can easily file their paperwork every couple of weeks.
- If the child doesn’t do homework at their own desk, or likes to do homework in different places, a tackle box or art supply box can be used to hold/organize all school supplies and go with the student where ever they study.
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