Today I was working with a new student who is quite bright, but struggling in school.  Have you ever heard that before?  We started at the beginning and reviewed all of his systems of organization.  He did not use his planner, but his binders were organized with 65% of the material where it should be.  He and I reviewed his latest reports from his online grading system at school to discover that in most of his classes, he received either A’s or F’s on his work.  Why?

Well, 90% of the F’s were due to not turning in his homework.  He either forgot to do it, or forgot to turn it in.

In this young man’s math class, he received A’s on all of his homework assignments and turned everything in.  It made me stop for just a moment to remember why this student was successful in this class.  He is handed a new sheet that must be completed each day.  The sheet is something tangible that he can locate, complete and return the next day.

The work is consistent and reliable.  This makes organization struggles much easier to manage.

So, how can we do this with the other subjects?  It’s not that easy, because if it were, we would have already instituted the plan.  I do think that today’s session made me think about how consistency is the key to staying organized.  Here’s my advice; if your son or daughter does not get a sheet to be handed in the next day, make sure that you substitute that “sheet” with a specific task for each class.  It may be reading, working on a long-term project, studying for a test, or just reviewing notes.  But, if your child can engage with each subject, even if it is only for ten minutes, he or she will remember to think about all of the subjects each day.