Getting your Children Ready to go Back-to School

By: John Meschisen, Huntington Center Director

Organize, organize, organize!

Back to school is a time full of so much change. Your child may have a new school, new teachers, new classmates, new schedules, and new expectations. The best way to help manage all of these new changes is to teach your child to be organized. Keeping an organized planner, setting aside an organized space for homework, and sticking to an afternoon/evening schedule will go a long way in helping your child start the year strong.

There are many types of planners and organizers and each has strengths and weaknesses. When choosing a planner make sure your child is choosing it because of how the inside is structured and not simply because of the picture on the cover. A good planner should have enough slots to write down daily assignments for each subject. The planner should also have weekly and monthly calendars. This will ensure your child can plan out study times for large tests and steps to complete long-term projects and papers. The most important thing when setting up a planner and a system for using it is to make sure it can be used effectively, efficiently and independently.

Having a functioning homework space is something that can be taken for granted. Where does your son or daughter do their homework? In their room with the door closed? In front of the TV? Down the street at a friend’s house?  Children need a specific space where they can focus solely on homework or studying. This space should be quite, organized and in a part of the house where they can be seen. The dining room table or at the breakfast bar is ok, but ideally it should be a space that is only associated with school work.

Some children prefer to get their homework done right after school. Others need a break before they begin. Either is fine as long as they stick to that schedule and more importantly, the work is completed during that time. By having established homework time from the onset of the school year, there will be fewer fights to actually get your child to sit down and do homework. This structured time will also allow you and your child to build in activities and sports without interrupting time set aside for homework.

Encourage your child to have an active part in setting up these systems, but be prepared to step in and make the final decision. Trial and error is a huge part of setting things up. At the end of the day any system of organization that does not deliver academic results needs to be adjusted. So be firm in helping your son or daughter be organized, but be open to changes along the way.

John Meschisen is an educator and the Needham Center Director for Huntington – Your Tutoring Solution  (@HuntingtonBOS).  He can be reached at Needhamma@hlcmail.com.