So here’s the truth: Staying organized when it comes to school paper work is not easy. Or my office paper work. It’s just all piles. I’m working on getting the ‘office’ in order, but this year I was actually a lot better about the school stuff.
I put some systems in place with ht ekids, mostly out of necessity. I created the homework/school nook for the family and that has really been helpful. It holds book bags and school to-dos and I have access to the upcoming calendars that I need.
I also created file folders for the kids documents. Where I went wrong was not separating ‘keep’ items and ‘I don’t care about this math test’ items along the way, but the good news is that it’s all in one spot. We had a white board to mark down important dates and use magnets to hold stuff we wanted to see and action.
Now that the summer is here, I have more stuff than ever from the school to deal with. Some filing (recycling) I’ve been doing all year long. But here’s how I am going to stay on top of it now that the kids are home for the summer.
How to get organized as the school year ends
1- Paperwork gets sorted the last day of school.
Start right away when the kids come home with their papers, or with the pile you’ve been keeping in the school folders. Ditch basically everything BUT I like to keep creative writing stories, or art that represents their year and age well.
2- Sort through the pencil cases
Old school markers and pencil crayons get sorted right away here. I’ve been doing this for a couple years and I find it really helps. If they are dry or dead, they get ditched. If they work well, they go into the family marker container – we have multiple ones. Each kid gets colouring items for their bedroom desks, I keep some in my travelling craft bag for when we visit cousins, and the main floor always has some handy.
3- Book bags and lunch containers get cleaned, and stored away
After we clean out the book bags and lunch containers they immediately go in a closet. We don’t use the book bags over the summer (we have other bags to travel with) and the lunch bags can be stored in the kitchen for travelling, but otherwise, get them away and ignore them until September! If you are going to need a new one for the Fall, keep an eye out to purchase.
That’s it. The school year is done so now I get to organize all this paper and hopefully keep on top of it next year. Hopefully 😉
Happy Summer!
Hi Rebecca! I can always use an organization tip or two 🙂 This year my 4.5 year old was in a primary montessori classroom. She brought home a lot of paperwork, and I recycled as much as I could part with. I did save 5 different versions of the world map that she brought home. It was awesome to see how much progress she made over the year. As she gets older I’m sure I’ll have to be more discriminating about what to save. -zainab@domamahood