Keeping homework organized has always been a challenge in our house. With two very active kids, we are often running from school to sports and afterschool activities. We had papers all over the house, in the car, in the backpacks, and it was getting hard to keep it all together. After one particularly busy week, I realized that I had lost a permission slip for a school performance that my youngest was looking forward to. I felt horrible and knew that I needed to do something to get it together. I decided to set up a system for us all to follow to make sure that nobody’s work was getting lost.
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Develop a Routine
Find the best time of day to open those folders or dig into backpacks and review what is in there. Keeping the time consistent helps everyone (especially your kids) remember what to do. For us, we empty folders as soon as we talk through the door. Sometimes that’s right after I pick them up from school. Other times it’s after practice. No matter what, we go through folders before backpacks are put away for the evening. We also add important dates to a calendar to make sure that noting is forgotten. At my kids’ school, homework is always due on Fridays. If we have assignments due on different days, we add those dates to the calendar as well. For larger projects, we break the assignment down to smaller tasks and plan when they will get done. That way, nobody is rushing to finish everything at the last minute.
Have a Place for Everything
Once those papers are out. Have a place for everything so you don’t end up with stacks on every counter. We use these clipboards to keep things organized. Homework and permission slips or items that need to be returned the next day are placed on top of the clipboard. All other papers (class newsletters, flyers for events later in the month, returned assignments, artwork, etc.) goes inside the clipboard. I set aside time twice a week to go through the inside of the clipboard and throw away anything that we don’t need to keep. Artwork gets displayed in one of these frames or on this line in my office.
Set up a Designated Homework Space
Always keep homework and school papers in a designated space. Just like we need to have dedicated office space, it’s important for kids to have a place, too. At our house, we keep homework clipboards on a small table in our dining room so the kids can grab it and sit at the kitchen table to do their work. We can easily bring out our project boxes and anything they need when it’s homework time. I’ve found that working in a common space is easier than having my kids work in their rooms where there are more distractions.
Stay Prepared for Unexpected Projects
There’s nothing worse than hearing at the last minute that your kid has a project due the next day. We started keeping “project boxes” at home so we are prepared as much as possible when things come up. It has saved so much time and eliminated some of those last minute trips to the store to buy a few things. We keep larger items stored in a closet and one of these tubs with everything else next to their homework binders in the dining room. They are great because we keep paper and stickers in one and the supplies in the other. Here are the items we keep on hand just in case.
- A set of project boards for presentations.
- Tagboard for the smaller projects.
- Construction paper in a variety of colors.
- Letter stickers are a huge time-saver for adding titles to poster board.
- Large cutouts are great to have on hand.
- Double-sided glue tape is great for just about anything. It saves time and eliminates the need for messy glue or glue sticks that are inevitably dried out when we need them.
- These paint pens will write on just about anything.
- Craft scissors make cutouts fun and are great for adding a decorative edge to pictures.
- Full size sticker paper makes printing easy without having to deal with finding label layouts. The kids can type what they need or find an image to print on this paper and cut out.
- Large markers and some smaller ones. We keep these on hand just for projects since the washable ones don’t work as well on poster board.
- Rainbow tape for outlining projects or adding decorations.
- We also keep a stash of general school supplies just in case we need them (Glue sticks, sharpened pencils, crayons, markers, scissors, etc.).
Managing homework does not have to be a chore. Set a routine, develop a system for keeping things organized, and stay prepared for unexpected projects.
Have you tried some of these tips? Do you have tips of your own to share? Share them in the comments!
