Getting Organized for School: Part 3

In Part 1, I covered some lessons I've learned that will hopefully help anyone who has kids in school to some degree.

In Part 2, I shared the calendar methods that have been working out best for our family.

Today I'm sharing a few miscellaneous tricks we've implemented around the house to keep me on top of school things.

Posted Notes

I used to use Post Its on the front door for little reminders to myself.  The idea had merit, but there were just a couple of things that limited it:  they fell off the door every once in a while,  I was going through a lot of Post Its, and the kids could easily remove them.

I had this really cute Roommates Dry Erase Calendar for another project, and had yet to use it.

I still have the calendar waiting for me to get to that other project, but the little word bubbles and circles have taken the place of my Post It notes.  

I purposely put them up higher than what the kids can reach.  Since I'm tall, it's no problem for me to write on them.  (For those of you vertically challenged, arrange yours accordingly.)  

Since there are five kids in our family, one circle is used for each kid/grade with one circle devoted to school wide events.  

This is such a small thing, but it's saved my bacon more than a few times.  The quick reminder that a permission slip needs to be turned in or a lunch made in a paper bag for a field trip or that it's pajama day keeps me looking like a rockstar mom and keeps the tears off my kids' faces (and mine).  There have been lots of tears in the past, too, people!

Email

This has been a HUGE game changer for me!  Not about just getting emails from the teachers and school - we all probably have this happening.  It's the fact that I devoted a single email account to school stuff and nothing but school stuff.  

It takes only minutes to set a new account up.  I decided to use Gmail, since that's what I'm used to, it's easy to use, and I can receive the mail on my phone app.  

Now, if you decide to do this, which I highly recommend, don't use it for anything other than school.  That would completely defeat the purpose of this email account.  Keep it for school, and only school communications: teachers, school district news, and other parents.  That way the important stuff doesn't get buried under junk emails.  Also, make sure to clean out the older emails periodically to avoid clutter.

All of these organizing tips that I've shared are easy to implement at any stage in the game.  My oldest is in middle school and I just started most of these things in the past two years.  I'm hoping that my stumbling along all these years will help all of you be able to get a handle on school organization long before your oldest gets to middle school or beyond!

Share any ideas you have with the rest of us at My Life by Jess on Facebook!  

Have a great weekend!!