Organisational skills - how to teach year 7 - Excel spreadsheet or app? or notebook?

[keyboardwithpaper]

Just wante dto start teaching DD some organisational skills - for example, now she has got some assignments deadlines from online courses), where woudl I ask her to write deaadline - to do app or excel spreadsheet or just to buy her a notebook to note her ideas/ projects/ deadlines? Thank you

Honestly? Let her get it wrong and figure it out herself. I know that sounds brutal but unless there are some specific needs she needs to do this herself. My dd is y7 and asked for folders to put work to do and work to hand in. It worked beautifully until lockdown. Since then we’ve had a few instances of not submitting work and I’ve made it clear she needs to take responsibility and no, I’m not going to check her emails for when her German is due!

There are some excellent apps that I recommend to a level students. Look
For Thomas Frank on YouTube

I think you just need to try a few things and see what works for her.

I'd personally go for a paper list but also if the list gets 'long' to write when she is going to do each task. But then, I prefer paper to online.

I don't think there is a one size fits all for how much help they need. Some children will be fine and can work out their own system independently. Others will need guidance and scaffolding until they get the hang of it. A few (like my DD1 who turned out to have dyspraxia) will need assistance for a lot longer.

Second the Thomas frank videos on YouTube. A bit cheesy but ds enjoyed them.

I aked him to watch some and note down the ways he suggested to organise notes and revise. Then he told me what he thought would and wouldn't work for him, then he went off and tried it. We would chat now and again about what he found best and I would provide any resources he needed or make suggestions.

Yr7 they need a bit of guidance still, they would normally get this in school, so nothing wrong with supporting /pointing them in the right direction to learn the skills now before they get into exams years

I did a pin board, covered it with bright paper (one colour) then drew on lines to divide the days of the week horizontally.

With more bright paper but multi-coloured I cut out rectangles that fit between the lines. When Ds1, now 17, was given homework from year 7 onwards, he would write "English, finish sheet" and the date it was due in.

Visually you can see what you need to do and work out what you need to tackle first. He used one colour for one week, another colour for the week after. Also as parents we could see what work he had to do. Once he had done it he took it down. It worked for him. Ds2 now 14 has the same system.

With DD1 (who needed help all through secondary due to dyspraxia), I also used to get her to estimate how long the task would take, so we could see whether it was a 15min task for a 2 hour one.

I have two very different children - one very organised (self taught!) and one very disorganised.

The younger one is the organised one and he uses Trello to organise his school work and extracurricular projects. It is on-line and I don't know much about it (he discovered the site himself), but it does involve active use so I think it is better for those who are more motivated to organise.

The elder is exceedingly disorganised but he has never missed deadlines by plugging everything into iCal and having 2 reminders programmed. Prior to this, I tried the paper calendar method and list method to no avail.

As others have said, she really needs to find her own way.

An idea not mentioned (particularly if she likes visual cues) is to have a whiteboard and stick a post it on it for every piece of work - post it would have a summary of what was needed, estimate for time needed and deadline. Then they are organised so she can see at a glance what deadlines are coming up soonest.

If this is deadlines from online courses, does she not already have a screen which lists all the things she has to do and when they are due?