Yup… it’s finally happened…
SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION!
In my honest opinion, the summer holidays are way too long. Our boys finished mid-way through the last week of June, and here, the second week of September, they’re finally heading back – one to Primary 5 (4th Grade in the US), and the other to his 2nd year of Middle School (7th Grade in the US).
I really miss the shorter summer vacation that we had in the UK – only about 6 weeks. I know, you’re probably thinking – “HOW UNFAIR!” But, before you get your knickers in a twist, the kids over there still have about the same number of school days and vacation days in a year, only they’re spread out differently, meaning longer Christmas and Easter breaks, plus all the other holidays that break up the school year.
Anyways… I digress…
I’ve always enjoyed Back to School time, shopping for new school supplies, seeing my friends again and so much more (I wish my boys were a little more like me)! However, as a parent, I feel that not only do I need to make sure my kids have all the things they need, I also need to make sure they have the skills, too. And as the parent of a Middle Schooler, one of the biggest skills is Organization.
Okay, my son is probably average when it comes to being organized. He’s definitely better than some – some of my teacher-friends have told me they have kids that NEVER turn in homework. Generally speaking, mine does, but there are the occasions when he gets the work done but forgets to turn it in, forgets that he has something to do until the very last-minute, or, well… thankfully, we don’t get too many situations where it doesn’t get done at all. (But that may be because Mom makes sure to keep an eye out for missing grades in the online grading system!)
My son’s school does give each child a student planner to use – it’s the classic, Week-at-a-Glance style, with lots of space to write things down on each weekday. Unfortunately, my son just doesn’t like it. It doesn’t work for him. He needs to see the whole month at a time.
I guess we’re fortunate. We figured this out when he was still in Primary school (yes, many of our primary schools give them out to their upper grades, too!). During his last year of Primary (2 years ago), Mom got really creative – I designed an 8.5″ x 11″ digital scrapbooking template, and then created a new one for each month during the school year, featuring all his favourite things – sports teams, actors, movies, etc. But last year, he went back to trying to use the school-given planner, and, while he did better than before, he complained.
So, out came Mom’s handy-dandy creative/organizational skills! Again!
This year, I decided to go with a half-size binder page. That means, while the whole month is visible on a single sheet of Letter, it is designed so that you can cut the page in half for a mini binder (each page when cut is 5.5″ x 8.5″). And, guess what?!?! You can download it too!
A preview of a monthly page and the Project Planner page!
In the pack is the whole year, from September 2014 to August 2015, plus I designed a cool, “Project Planner” page, to help them break down those big projects and get them done in a timely manner, instead of leaving it all to the last-minute and panicking! They’ve been done using tables in MS Word, so you can easily customize them for yourself, plus they’re in bright, rainbow colours – very trendy!
To download, click HERE. If you do decide to download it, let me know. And let me know who you’re planning on using it for – one of the kids, or yourself! I’d also love to hear your feedback – how you liked it, how you personalised, any problems…
I can’t wait to hear from you all!
BermudaBookgirl 