Moms, need best organizational tips for school year. School starts tomorrow!

Middle school to high school was not a major transition for us - it was basically the same, just a little earlier. My son uses a seperate binder for each subject which helps keep everything organized and under control

The best tip I know applies to kids of any age--get as much ready as possible the night before (or, you can even plan ahead and get a week's worth of stuff ready on the weekend). You can make lunches the night before (or parts of them can be assembled on the weekend), choose outfits, get the backpack ready, select what will be for breakfast, and anything else that is necessary. The more you get done ahead of time, the less of a rush the morning will be--you want the morning to be as relaxed as possible so that your child goes to school in a calm mood, not all frantic because he had to spend the last five minutes looking for a shoe.

Remember, this is a high schooler now. Two things begin to apply. They want to become more independent and they should become more independent. Making them more independent requires what I call practically perfect parenting, which applies my P10 Principle to the parenting aspect of life.

The P10 Principle is that perception, planning, preparation, practice, promptness, and persistence promotes practically perfect performance. You use the six power tools of perception, planning, preparation, practice, promptness, and persistence to promote the practically perfect performance of parents and children working together to get from point A, birth, to point B, adulthood as efficiently and effectively as possible.

First, think about the perfect performance you want to obtain. E.g., getting you son up and going on time, with absolutely everything done in his room, lunches ready, homework done, in the car at 6:00 or whatever. Realize that nothing is perfect, however, (leaving G-d's salvation and a child's love out of the discussion for now) because variability and randomness exist and entropy is a law of physics. Therefore, now that you have the absolutely perfect performance you want, think about the practically perfect performance that you will accept and tolerate. E.g. just getting whatever he needs to have for school with him on the bus before it leaves.

Now, think about how you can achieve what practically perfect performance you want to achieve and what issues that may arise to increase the variability. Plan ways to address both the affirmative action and possible negative issues, prepare your resources to do so, practice doing so, and then promptly (as soon as the opportunity to excel and issues arise) and persistently (every time each arises) promote the practically perfect performance.

I teach this in an hour-long seminar. Invite me to a class of fifty parents for twenty bucks each and I can give you a lot more.

Thanks, everyone, so far. Kenneth, I really like the way you've laid out a strategy for success! My son really takes to the Fly principles and he is naturally happier with organization. But, like any teen, he has his moments when something distracts him or sets him off course.
It would have been helpful if the school had practiced your suggestions before orientation. It was not a happy experience to wait in line for a long time, get his locker combination and discover that NONE of the lockers would open! Not one. Someone should have practiced on a sample locker, at least one, before the official orientation night.

School starts August 15? Wow! That is so early. My son's first day of kindergarten is September 10. Yup, I'll be the mom sipping a mimosa at 8:10 when the bus pulls up!

Our schools start day after Labor Day. The transition to high school wasn't so bad for us. I beleive in putting the responsibilty onto the kids at this stage. We seem to go thru the locker issue every year, too. The first year added to the anxiety, but now we expect it. We are lcuky, no orientation at our school.

No matter what you do or what you plan something will go wrong. My advice is to run out and get the makings for martinis now. High school years can drive anyone to drink.

Erin - I like your attitude. Going to start celebrating as soon as that school bus gets there,huh?
LOL

Madame Donna - Yes, I've been through those years twice before. We've survived a lot during those high school years and I have the grey hairs to prove it. The tales I could tell!

Well then, Jane, I raise my glass to you. The olive is mine though.

Madame Donna - Keep the olive with my best wishes but I just want some more sleep. Getting up at 5;30 to see him off on the first day was...exhausting!
(yawning)

I'm not a parent myself, but can remember back to my own high school years (which, admittedly, weren't as recent as I'd like to believe). The transition to high school was a big one for me, socially and from a maturation perspective. I remember wanting to be far more independent, but not really having the skills to be. Looking back, I'm more and more impressed with my parents who made an effort to stop telling me what to do at that point and start showing me how to do things more.

As an example, when I started high school I began playing sports and joining lots of clubs. For the first time in my life, I needed to really learn how to organize my life and manage my own schedule, working with my parents and friends for rides to and from each activity as well as making time to keep up on school work. My mom bought me a planner and showed me her own where she wrote down all of the things she had scheduled each day. Its so easy to lose track, you need to have a central place to lay it all out. I still use a planner to this day, and would be completely lost without it.

I just noticed this article was posted YESTERDAY. I hope his first day went well!

He first day was bit rocky but the transition from middle to high school can be major. He is a special needs child, so he has some issues, in terms of keeping up with the usual work and auditory issues. But we are positive and excited as we move forward this year!

Hope his first day wasn't too terrible for him--I'm sure he was pretty anxious and nervous...or were you the anxious and nervous one? :) I hope he does well with the new school!