Nov 10 2008
Organizing Children’s Papers Part 1
This certainly falls under the head of Getting Kids Organized but at the same time, it is typically the parent’s who are unorganized enough to keep their child’s papers straight. I know, because I used to be one of them. Period. I’ve definitely made some headway, and we are constantly trying out new scenarios. We have to, with five kids we are inundated with daily piles of papers from school, from art class, from outside activities, etc. Here’s how I tackle the artwork and school papers issue. (this does not include papers with dates I need to remember, etc. - only worksheets, essays, tests, artwork and otherwise).
The first thing we do is make a pile of it. Sometimes I am only working with one child, and other times I have multiple kids. If I have more than one kid, I try to keep the piles separate until the end.
We go through each piece, discuss what it is - a pre test, an exam, an essay, a paper, etc. I keep anything that catches my own eye (I love keeping their writing papers), and I scan them to be sure they included their name. If I keep the paper, we have a large box that holds that paper temporarily. It goes in there. Anything they want to keep has to be something that either has a purpose, has somewhere it can go immediately, or isn’t too bulky to be stored. No food items (no cheerios or beans glued to construction paper), and nothing that has the chance to break when moved.
Be sure and check out part 2 tomorrow, and in the meantime - go sort through those papers.
