Organising the school gear
Both my husband and I
love things being in their place. When it comes to our kids, we’ve
worked out that if we want them to put their things away, they need to
know exactly where each item has to go.
Over the past couple
of years my husband has placed many hooks around our house and we’ve
created designated areas for school gear. The kids know where they have
to place their school gear and can easily access their hooks.
School bags
Before we hung bag
hooks in the laundry, we used to find the kids’ school bags in their
bedrooms, at the back door, in the lounge room — or wherever they
dropped them when they came home from school. It would drive me crazy
walking around the house and almost tripping over a school bag that had
been left in the middle of the hallway. The kids now know to hang them
on their hooks as soon as they come in from school. Not only does this
save me from tripping over them, it also means it’s less likely that
things will be misplaced if they fall out of their open bags.
I wish I could say that this system means the kids hang their bags up 100 per cent of the time without being asked to.
Unfortunately,
that’s not the case. The hooks have, however, significantly reduced the
number of times I’ve had to remind them to hang up their bags.
Lunchboxes
Once
the kids have hung up their school bags, they know they have to place
their lunchboxes on the kitchen bench along with any school notices. Of
course, knowing and doing are two separate things. On the days when the
kids don’t place their lunchboxes on the bench, I leave their school
lunches on the bench. It’s up to them to find their lunchboxes and pack
them.
School shoes
Just
like me, our kids love not wearing shoes. Before entering the house
after school most of them take off their shoes. This used to lead to the
frustrating situation of having six or more pairs of shoes scattered at
our back door. My husband’s creativity and resourcefulness once again
came to the rescue. He altered a bookshelf to fit flat against a wall
near the back door. This became our shoe shelf. When the kids take off
their school shoes, they now have a place to put them, keeping the back
door free from school-shoe debris.
Library books
Our
house contains countless books. We have a great stash of our own and we
visit the local library regularly to borrow books. While I love having
so many books around me, we sometimes found it difficult to track down
the school library books. After an hour-long search one evening trying
to locate my daughter’s missing library book, we developed a better way
of looking after the books.
The kids bring school library books home in their library bags, so we decided to place some hooks at the end of the kids’
bunk beds. The kids hang their library bags there and when they’ve read
their school library books they place them back in their library bags.
Making schoolchildren independent
To cope with the
school environment, kids need to further develop their independence
skills. Our kids have shown an increase in self-esteem from being able
to successfully complete age-appropriate life skills. I still remember
the look of pride on my eldest son’s face when he made his first solo
train trip into the city. There are other skills he’s not so keen to
have, such as that of changing his own bed linen. However, as the parent
I like to make sure he does whatever he’s capable of. Table 1
(overleaf) lists some common tasks appropriate for each age group in the
primary-school years.
Letting go
Letting
go and being prepared for your kids to experience the consequences of
their behaviour are important steps in building their independence
skills. I often find this concept difficult to apply, and it’s something
I continue to work on. For example, I now expect all our kinder and
school kids to pack their own bags. It’s their responsibility to ensure
they have their lunchbox, hat and everything else they need for their
school day. However, it did take me some time to fully hand over this
responsibility to the kids. In my early years as a school mum I could be
seen driving forgotten hats to school for the kids.
Keeping track of things
Once you venture into
the world of school, you very quickly work out that to stay on top of
things you need (1) a way of managing all the incoming dates and (2) a
way of tracking all the outgoing items!
Table 1: independence skills for school children
A family calendar
We’ve
been using a family calendar for about five years and I’ve found it the
best way of managing all the kids’ activities. When kids get
birthday-party invitations or special-event notices from school, I ask
them to write the details under the correct date on the calendar. I’ve
also taught them to adopt the habit of checking the calendar regularly
themselves. It’s helpful to have little alerts from the kids about
upcoming events. If our preschooler has a big event coming up that he’s
excited about, we even write a countdown for the last few days for him. I
love showing him the calendar and asking him to work out ‘how many
sleeps until …’ by himself!
A
diary is a great self-management tool for kids in middle- to
upper-primary school. They can use it to track their reading, homework
and sporting commitments.
Label everything!
I
think every family has one child who always comes home with less gear
than they went to school with. Growing up in my family, believe it or
not, I was that child. Being organised is something I’ve grown into.
We
have one of these children in our family and he’s been that way ever
since he started school. Having all his items clearly labelled doesn’t
magically bring them home, but it does make it so much easier to find
things again. More specifically, it makes it easier for him to find his
things again. When we realise something’s missing, I try hard to make it
his responsibility to locate the item. I’ve found youngsters tend to
hunt distractedly through the lost property bins, so if they have a
familiar label on all of their school gear they can find what they’re
looking for more easily.
