Organized?

I'm getting there. Thought I would share a couple tips for back 2 school routines & organization.

Every start of a new school year brings loads of paperwork for mama to complete. I send back duplicates for reuse by the school. I promptly complete & return the others to the school. As I receive info from teachers re: weekly classroom schedules I jot it down on a piece of paper. Once I have all the kids schedules I form this quick reference card (shown below):

The column on the left lists the weekdays & each of the kids (P, D, E, N). This helps me help remind them to return library bks on library day, to wear tennis shoes on PE days, etc.,

If its my childs snack day I put that on the master family calendar as that ties in with our budget, grocery shopping etc.,

The column on the right are phone lists for quick reference, bus schedules, routes, etc., (blacked out for privacy), lunch & student # info, & our High Schoolers schedule which helps bcuz when contacting teachers they always need to know which period your student has them for. Also if there is an emergency & you need to contact or retrieve your child you know where to go. You would be suprised how quick you can forget the bus barn's # when the bus passes your house & keeps driving off with your kindergardner (last yr). This quick reference card is super handy in our house. I keep one on our bulletin board in our kitchen & one in my planner notebook.

EMAIL TIP:
I add all my kids teachers email address' to my email address book. For the highschooler I do periodic check ins w/ all 7 of his instructors w/ 1 email (so i create a email address group containing his 7 teachers, cc: his counselor & myself). This worked very well last year. Often times Esis (the online tool that shows your childs grades etc., is not current data), so most teachers prefer email coorespondence to keep up to date. It is a lot easier to help your child if you know right when they're starting to fall behind than repair damaged grades. Payton is doing fantastic this year!

ATTENDANCE OFFICE AT H.S.:
Another tip for parents of high schoolers would be to contact the attendance office about notifying you the day of any absence your child has. Otherwise you wont know till a week later by an automated phone call . Since enacting that system last yr there were no more mysterious absences from math class. Another helpful tool.

GRADE SCHOOL KIDS BACKPACK CONTENTS:
For our 8 and under kids we have one drawer in our dining room hutch which holds their homework in progress & library book storage. My kids know the minute they walk in the door they put all their papers & books from their backpack on the dining table. That way it is there staring me in the face till I deal with it, which is usally immediately. I review completed work, praise the kids, often we discuss something, and then we recycle the work. Special items I add the date to w/ note & add to their scrapbooking drawer. The weekly newsletter I have asked to receive electronically instead of hard copy. Other paperwork I take action on - some are items to add to the calendar - some are bills - if I know my kids are not going to play fall sports then I recycle the flyer, etc.,

MULTIPLE CALENDARS WITH DIFFERENT INFO:
Our School District prints a district wide calendar which only lists some basic data on each school in the district, & there is a separate H.S. planner calendar w/ sporting & HS events on it. The grade schools inform us of monthly happenings in the weekly newsletter. It all makes for a lot of highlighting what does apply to your family & what doesnt & consolidating the data all on 1 calendar. I wish our school district had these different calendars available electronically where we the parent could checkmark the items you want printed on your familys calendar & then print at home. It is quite cumbersome.

SPORTS:
Currently none of our kids are playing sports but when that happens all those practice & game times are on our family master calendar. I use a lot of color coding for quick reference.