Help DS set up system to be organised for starting secondary

[sydenhamhiller]

Hi O wise M-netters.

I would be so grateful for some experienced advice on this. I think we are going to have to set up a system for organising all the paper/ books/ homework etc for secondary - I have 2 younger children, and I want DS to be/ feel organised from the beginning, and have a 'system'. Which does not appear to come naturally to either of us. His younger sister on the other hand, could start secondary school tomorrow.

I digress. I remember someone posting on a thread about having a different magazine file for each day, and just slotting each day's work/ subjects into that. School suggest that they have different coloured plastic folder for each subject, and they just slot exercise books/ textbook (!) and handouts into that. But then that will be a slithery pile at home?

Any tips gratefully received! Thanks.

Talking of a full pencil case, Ds1 has two, one with pens, pencil, ruler, calculator, pritt stick. One with coloured pencils and maths equipment like his compass, protractor etc.

Pencil crayons wise he has crayola as they give a very deep colour when you press on hard. He also has a highlighter which they were told was part of their day to day equipment and yes to a book to read.

We did the shelves divided by day, like someone above posted, and then DS2 had a different ring binder (usually provided by school) for each subject. Once he came home and did homework etc the binder went into the day slot when it was next required at school, so when packing bags for the next morning on e.g. Tues he could just grab everything in the Weds slot.
Top tips for keeping things together - buy some of those clear plastic wallet things for ring binders then worksheets, booklets etc can be kept there until hole punched.
Get him into the habit of organising files every week/month/term etc, or when it comes to revision time he will just have a pile of paper worksheets and no idea where they beling
In terms of organisation, can I suggest you also get him into good habits with regard to school email organisation (assuming his school uses an email system). Most of the students I know have never been taught the basics of keeping up with your inbox, saving stuff in folders, deleting old things etc and since so much homework and important information comes in by email, it can get a bit unwieldly. They also all look at their emails on their phones, and seem to miss important attachments etc and then forget to go back to them.
5 mins a day checking school emails on a computer/laptop would help I think.
Also think about where the family printer is (if there is one). Ours was in a loft office, but once the kids were at Secondary the printed homework requirement was so great that we bought an extra little one for downstairs.
Good luck!

Wonderwine,

Have you been on the wonder wine?

This thread is three years ols.

Girls resurrected it first then Wine just posted after that.

I didn't notice the date until I came across my own posts on here under a different name

The information still stands, all good ideas to get new starters organised.

aargh! How did I not see that?!

I demand the OP @sydenhamhiller comes back to report on how her DS is managing!!

Ha ha! This made me smile! How much changes: DS now is y9. This was such a helpful thread back in 2015, thanks again for all those tips.

What we went with in the end:
-plastic envelopes, labelled with name/ class/ subject that he could put books/ notebook/ handouts in and keep together
-massive plastic box (may or may not have been from well known Scandinavian store) that he dumped said envelopes/ pe kit/ mouth guard/ miscellaneous in.

• 2 copies of weekly timetable stuck up downstairs and in bedroom

-pack bag every night

And it served him (me!) well. He is not a 'systems' kid, and unlike his sister was never going to hole punch handouts and place them in appropriate lever files every night, and was also super scatty, so having everything in one massive box meant he always knew where to go for 'missing' stuff.

@wonderwine that's a great tip about being on top of emails.