Please note -- this blog has been updated with new test information since the original publication Friday afternoon.
I hope you have had a great week!
Beginning today I will be using this weekly blog post to discuss timely matters for middle school students and families. I will still include important announcements and the tests for next week, but the idea of partnering with you in your child's education has prompted me to expand things a bit.
Today's entry:
Helping Your Child Get and Stay Organized
Believe it or not, getting organized is one of the most important steps one can take toward reducing stress. Think about it. How much of the stress that you deal with each day comes from wondering whether you've forgotten to do something important? How many times have you been awakened in the middle of the night with the terrifying thought that something has slipped through the cracks? How often have you found yourself searching for that little slip of paper with the important phone number scribbled on it?
Can you imagine how much better your child would perform in school if we could dramatically reduce the stress in his or her life? Let me show you some ways we can make that happen!
Rule number one: Manage your time, not your work.
Most of us would agree that we could probably work 24 hours a day and still find more to do. In short, work will always be there. However, time is the valuable commodity that we can't afford to waste. We all have the same amount of time each day. It is how we choose to use that time that makes the difference.
Start by helping your child structure his time. Let's look at the typical day of a middle school student at Trinity. We could divide the day into the following categories (not including the time they sleep through the night):
- Time before school
- The time school is actually in session each weekday
- Time immediately after school
- Dinner time
- Time before bedtime
- Bedtime
It is important that you and your child decide together how the above time slots should be best used. Here is a sample day:
- Time before school: Eat a good breakfast, make final preparations for the day, and check that your child has everything needed for the day before leaving the house.
- School day: Structured by the school.
- Time immediately after school: This time slot could include sports or some other type of practice, play/free time, or homework time, depending upon the situation.
Note: When you begin homework, it is very important that you empty the backpack and decide what needs your attention, what needs to be thrown away, and what needs to be done in the way of homework. Help get your child into this routine as early as possible and you'll never have that "bottomless pit" backpack that we've all seen! It is also important to do homework in a place free from distractions. Homework time should be sacred time.
- Dinner time: This should be a time to forget about school work for awhile, cut off the TV and iPod, and focus on family. Fellowship together. Share interesting stories from your day. But most of all, enjoy time with your kids without any other distractions.
Time before bedtime: This time could be used for free time, reading or watching TV if homework is already done. Some may choose to do homework during this time slot. When you do homework really doesn't matter. The important thing is to schedule a time for homework and devote that time to homework each day.
Before heading for bed, help your middle-schooler check over everything that is due on the following day. Are there important forms requiring your signature that need to be turned in? Is there a paper that needs to be printed and bound? Are all of the next day's books and folders in place? It is much easier to handle these details the night before than it is when making the mad dash out the door the next morning.
Bedtime: This really should be etched in stone. Research is constantly telling us that "tweens" need lots of sleep. The more good, stress-free sleep they get, the better they will perform in school. The time just before bed is also good for family devotions. This has become a special tradition in our house, and I encourage you to consider it as well.
Bottom line: We need to use these years to teach our kids how to structure their time. Develop a system and stick to it. This will take a good bit of direction on your part, especially on the front end. But the result of consistency in this area will be a healthy, confident, organized young freshman who makes the 8:00 class fully prepared. That day is coming faster than we would care to think about. Let's make sure we're ready for it!
Next week we'll talk some about managing your physical resources for school: notes, notebooks, binders, pencil pouches and lockers. Stay tuned!
Tests - Week of April 20:
6th Grade:
Tuesday - Science
Friday - Math
7th Grade:
Tuesday - Math/Pre-Algebra
Friday - Geography
8th Grade:
Tuesday - Science, Pre-Algebra
Wednesday - Algebra I
Friday - History (McLemore)
Have a great weekend!
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