Schooling might be very essential for your kid, but you should not only prepare him for academic assignments. There are loads of assignments in life, and your kid may face problems in managing them at every juncture. Most kids happen to be disorganized by nature, and they happen to flit from one thing to another – from forgetting homework to leaving their wardrobe cluttered to leaving behind toys and playthings on the floor.
Even though you might not be a much-organized person yourself, you are the best person to introduce discipline in them and make your kids organized. You can take “Tips to relax your child after hectic schooling schedule?†to make him/her ready for next load.
- Establish some basic routines
You should set up some basic routines at home to improve your kids’ efficiency. For instance, you should teach your children to put all their books and study materials back to the original place. Teach him to pick up newspaper, letter, or notes before he opens the door. You should also teach him to wake up, go to study, finish studies and go to sleep at specific times of the day.
Once he does this repeatedly, the routine will develop into a habit and become a part of his system.
- Teach him time management
Regularly talk to your children about proper planning and time management. Talk to them about how to use time for specific activities such as chores, homework etc. The more your kids grow up, the more they will be able to manage time.
You can use a family organizer, which is a calendar having a column for every family member to write about their plans for the day. The family organizer, which is sold along with standard calendars, can be a great way to organize, plan and communicate.
- Create a study
Creating a study area for the home is the best way to organize the academic life of your kids. They will not waste any time to look for important stuffs to complete their assignments. When they have to finish a craft project for school, even being unable to find a pot of glue can mean a lot of time wasted in the process.
You can store the following things in their drawer or desk:
- Pencils and pen
- Dictionary
- Ruler
- Rubber/eraser
- Batteries
- Staplers
- Glue
- Sharpener
- Plenty of recycled and blank paper
If you have a small home and just a single study area with a number of kids jostling for space, you can allocate time to each of them. It is a good idea to set desktop timers to allocate computer usage, and smartphone timers to sound off alarms to indicate how much TV or games they can enjoy. You can maintain harmony and discipline at home, as everyone will be able to have the same amount of time for their assignments.
- Use color-coding
With color-coding books, you can help your kids to find schoolbooks quickly. They can easily be able to take and bring the most suitable books to school. It would be particularly beneficial for your kids when they begin high school and have many subjects to deal with.
- You can prompt your kid to choose a specific color for every subject. For example, you can ask them to use paper of the same color to cover their books – blue for English, green for Mathematics and so on.
- All the information required by your kid for a subject can be stored in a box of the same color at home.
- He can write down the name of every subject in his timetable by using the pen of the same color that is also used for covering the books of every subject.
There are endless options with color-coding.
- Set a specific time for homework assignments
By setting a specific time everyday to finish homework will help you kid to complete all the necessary assignments. A proper schedule of course depends partially on the age of your kid, and his individual needs. You have to sit down with your kid and create a proper schedule with him. Once your kid grows up a little, you can hand him over the responsibility to create a schedule on his own.
However, you have to ensure that it is a practical one. It will be good for him to write the schedule and stick it on a refrigerator or somewhere he can see it frequently.
- Get rid of all the distractions
Unless you do away with all the distractions, you will not prepare the ground for your child to handle plenty of assignments. Turn the television off, and shut down the computer to prevent your child from spending time on social networking websites. Prevent him from making or getting calls while he is handling homework.
However, if he wants to call up a classmate to know something about an assignment, you should not object. If you happen to live in a noisy or small home, request all your family members to participate in a quiet activity while your kid is carrying out homework. If distractions are unavoidable, get your kid to finish his homework in the local library.
- Teach him to surf the internet
Teach your kid how to surf the World Wide Web, and use it for his assignments. Show him how to spot suitable websites on the internet. You should also teach him which websites are appropriate for him to visit like several profession websites and which ones he should avoid. You need to point him to those websites that can assist him with homework or relate with the things he is interested in.
- Introduce him to the local library
Take him to the local library and get him a library card issued in his name. Help him go through his own books, collection of DVD, CDs and tapes that can be assistive in his study preparations. Show him around the library or ask the librarian to do the job. Other than assistive reference or study materials, you can also find programs and guidebooks for kids to help them improve their reading and writing skills in English and other languages.