School organization -- HELP!

Well, it doesn't have to be that bad ALL the time -- in the spring we had:

EHC tae kwon do M
H ballet Tu
EHC tae kwon do W
EHC swimming Sat.

Now *that* was a handful. But right now it's just:
H ballet Tu
EHC art W

We wound everything else down until I can get my act together on this school
thing -- they did not want to do TKDo any more and can all now swim with
confidence (still hooraying about that) so I think a few months out of the
pool won't hurt before we start working on their stroke style again.

Right now I'm looking at a Sat. gym class for E and C to balance H's ballet,
but no decision yet on that. Have to weigh it against the town soccer and
basketball opportunities -- and everything else that came home in those
THICK packets from school last week. Plus still very worried how we are
going to get homework done with Holly *into* everything and seemingly no
time after school before suddenly it's bedtime ... homework starts in about
two weeks per the teachers.

Shirley: what do you do if one finishes homework before the other (like if
one teacher gives a lot more every day?). A grown twin I know said her Mom
made the other kid stay at the table and read, write or whatever academic
stuff they wanted so that it would be "fair", and I'm thinking of trying
that -- thoughts?

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

"thefackrells" wrote in message
news:ZA%6b.394078$uu5.71850@sccrnsc04...
ok, y'all are scaring me!!!!



...., Chris has Tai Kuan on Wednesdays,
Kathleen dance on Saturday, Drama on Mondays after school and Chris
Basketball on Thursday, so you don't need that much room. The twins are
being separated into two different schools so I may be eating my words
and
having to come up with another system but we'll see. It gets easier.

Good luck
Shirley

multimom4 wrote:
snip
Shirley: what do you do if one finishes homework before the other (like if
one teacher gives a lot more every day?). A grown twin I know said her Mom
made the other kid stay at the table and read, write or whatever academic
stuff they wanted so that it would be "fair", and I'm thinking of trying
that -- thoughts?


I'd see that as a way to have the kids think that doing homework fast
led to being punished - particularly for a child who doesn't like
reading or sitting still. Quiet playtime (coloring) might be a better
choice (no tv or chores).

For my sister and I, homework had to be finished before we could play
but we left the table on completion (and having things looked over). We
couldn't go to a friend's house until both of us were done (we walked
there). Since we prefered the kitchen table as a homework area, leaving
the table on finishing the homework helped mom since it cleared the
table too.

By third or fourth grade, one of my teachers gave all the assignments
for the week on Mondays (due on Friday). My sister's assignments were
day to day. Since I wasn't yet very good at scheduling my workload, I
had some late Thursdays (and a few weekend catchups) and my sister
got to play while I worked. (It wouldn't have been fair for her to sit
around simply because I procrastinated when given the choice!)

My brother preferred to work in his room so he'd just come down or go
outside when he was done.

Cindy Wells
(mom's sister hated sitting still and wasn't into reading when they were
young)

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

multimom4 wrote:
snip
Shirley: what do you do if one finishes homework before the other (like if
one teacher gives a lot more every day?). A grown twin I know said her Mom
made the other kid stay at the table and read, write or whatever academic
stuff they wanted so that it would be "fair", and I'm thinking of trying
that -- thoughts?


I'd see that as a way to have the kids think that doing homework fast
led to being punished - particularly for a child who doesn't like
reading or sitting still. Quiet playtime (coloring) might be a better
choice (no tv or chores).

For my sister and I, homework had to be finished before we could play
but we left the table on completion (and having things looked over). We
couldn't go to a friend's house until both of us were done (we walked
there). Since we prefered the kitchen table as a homework area, leaving
the table on finishing the homework helped mom since it cleared the
table too.

By third or fourth grade, one of my teachers gave all the assignments
for the week on Mondays (due on Friday). My sister's assignments were
day to day. Since I wasn't yet very good at scheduling my workload, I
had some late Thursdays (and a few weekend catchups) and my sister
got to play while I worked. (It wouldn't have been fair for her to sit
around simply because I procrastinated when given the choice!)

My brother preferred to work in his room so he'd just come down or go
outside when he was done.

Cindy Wells
(mom's sister hated sitting still and wasn't into reading when they were
young)

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

I try not to compare the two in any way (if possible), if one has less
homework or gets done first, they can read or go to the play room. As for
being fair, I don't try to let them do their homework together, that does
bring out the competition, so each has their own desks and the work either
gets checked by either my DH or myself and or the reading gets done and
listened to by any one of the adults here, (3 here). I personally want them
as separate as possible. Now that Chris is in a different school that works
fine.

Shirley

"multimom4" wrote in message
news:JP37b.393661$o%2.175942@sccrnsc02...
Well, it doesn't have to be that bad ALL the time -- in the spring we had:

EHC tae kwon do M
H ballet Tu
EHC tae kwon do W
EHC swimming Sat.

Now *that* was a handful. But right now it's just:
H ballet Tu
EHC art W

We wound everything else down until I can get my act together on this
school
thing -- they did not want to do TKDo any more and can all now swim with
confidence (still hooraying about that) so I think a few months out of the
pool won't hurt before we start working on their stroke style again.

Right now I'm looking at a Sat. gym class for E and C to balance H's
ballet,
but no decision yet on that. Have to weigh it against the town soccer and
basketball opportunities -- and everything else that came home in those
THICK packets from school last week. Plus still very worried how we are
going to get homework done with Holly *into* everything and seemingly no
time after school before suddenly it's bedtime ... homework starts in
about
two weeks per the teachers.

Shirley: what do you do if one finishes homework before the other (like
if
one teacher gives a lot more every day?). A grown twin I know said her
Mom
made the other kid stay at the table and read, write or whatever academic
stuff they wanted so that it would be "fair", and I'm thinking of trying
that -- thoughts?

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

"thefackrells" wrote in message
news:ZA%6b.394078$uu5.71850@sccrnsc04...
ok, y'all are scaring me!!!!



...., Chris has Tai Kuan on Wednesdays,
Kathleen dance on Saturday, Drama on Mondays after school and Chris
Basketball on Thursday, so you don't need that much room. The twins
are
being separated into two different schools so I may be eating my words
and
having to come up with another system but we'll see. It gets easier.

Good luck
Shirley

I try not to compare the two in any way (if possible), if one has less
homework or gets done first, they can read or go to the play room. As for
being fair, I don't try to let them do their homework together, that does
bring out the competition, so each has their own desks and the work either
gets checked by either my DH or myself and or the reading gets done and
listened to by any one of the adults here, (3 here). I personally want them
as separate as possible. Now that Chris is in a different school that works
fine.

Shirley

"multimom4" wrote in message
news:JP37b.393661$o%2.175942@sccrnsc02...
Well, it doesn't have to be that bad ALL the time -- in the spring we had:

EHC tae kwon do M
H ballet Tu
EHC tae kwon do W
EHC swimming Sat.

Now *that* was a handful. But right now it's just:
H ballet Tu
EHC art W

We wound everything else down until I can get my act together on this
school
thing -- they did not want to do TKDo any more and can all now swim with
confidence (still hooraying about that) so I think a few months out of the
pool won't hurt before we start working on their stroke style again.

Right now I'm looking at a Sat. gym class for E and C to balance H's
ballet,
but no decision yet on that. Have to weigh it against the town soccer and
basketball opportunities -- and everything else that came home in those
THICK packets from school last week. Plus still very worried how we are
going to get homework done with Holly *into* everything and seemingly no
time after school before suddenly it's bedtime ... homework starts in
about
two weeks per the teachers.

Shirley: what do you do if one finishes homework before the other (like
if
one teacher gives a lot more every day?). A grown twin I know said her
Mom
made the other kid stay at the table and read, write or whatever academic
stuff they wanted so that it would be "fair", and I'm thinking of trying
that -- thoughts?

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

"thefackrells" wrote in message
news:ZA%6b.394078$uu5.71850@sccrnsc04...
ok, y'all are scaring me!!!!



...., Chris has Tai Kuan on Wednesdays,
Kathleen dance on Saturday, Drama on Mondays after school and Chris
Basketball on Thursday, so you don't need that much room. The twins
are
being separated into two different schools so I may be eating my words
and
having to come up with another system but we'll see. It gets easier.

Good luck
Shirley

Ack, deleted Cindy's post by accident ... I suppose if making them stay til
all 3 are done is "punishing" the ones that finish first, one could also
argue that letting them leave the homework table when they are done is just
encouraging them to compete with each other and rush the work !!!! (and
later, choose easier classes so they get less work sigh). Theoretically,
Shirley's non-comparison idea is great but mine are not at a stage where
they can "go off" and do homework in private yet. What we did yesterday was
I listened to the boys read their school library books because Hanna brought
to be done overnight homework and they didn't have any. This is all such a
challenge. Will have to muddle blindly on in the hope that light will
emerge, I think. Would welcome any other thoughts?????

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

"shirley" wrote in message
news:%b97b.399125$uu5.73667@sccrnsc04...
I try not to compare the two in any way (if possible), if one has less
homework or gets done first, they can read or go to the play room. As for
being fair, I don't try to let them do their homework together, that does
bring out the competition, so each has their own desks and the work either
gets checked by either my DH or myself and or the reading gets done and
listened to by any one of the adults here, (3 here). I personally want
them
as separate as possible. Now that Chris is in a different school that
works
fine.

Shirley

"multimom4" wrote in message
news:JP37b.393661$o%2.175942@sccrnsc02...
Well, it doesn't have to be that bad ALL the time -- in the spring we
had:

EHC tae kwon do M
H ballet Tu
EHC tae kwon do W
EHC swimming Sat.

Now *that* was a handful. But right now it's just:
H ballet Tu
EHC art W

We wound everything else down until I can get my act together on this
school
thing -- they did not want to do TKDo any more and can all now swim with
confidence (still hooraying about that) so I think a few months out of
the
pool won't hurt before we start working on their stroke style again.

Right now I'm looking at a Sat. gym class for E and C to balance H's
ballet,
but no decision yet on that. Have to weigh it against the town soccer
and
basketball opportunities -- and everything else that came home in those
THICK packets from school last week. Plus still very worried how we are
going to get homework done with Holly *into* everything and seemingly no
time after school before suddenly it's bedtime ... homework starts in
about
two weeks per the teachers.

Shirley: what do you do if one finishes homework before the other (like
if
one teacher gives a lot more every day?). A grown twin I know said her
Mom
made the other kid stay at the table and read, write or whatever
academic
stuff they wanted so that it would be "fair", and I'm thinking of trying
that -- thoughts?

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

"thefackrells" wrote in message
news:ZA%6b.394078$uu5.71850@sccrnsc04...
ok, y'all are scaring me!!!!



...., Chris has Tai Kuan on Wednesdays,
Kathleen dance on Saturday, Drama on Mondays after school and Chris
Basketball on Thursday, so you don't need that much room. The twins
are
being separated into two different schools so I may be eating my
words
and
having to come up with another system but we'll see. It gets
easier.

Good luck
Shirley

Ack, deleted Cindy's post by accident ... I suppose if making them stay til
all 3 are done is "punishing" the ones that finish first, one could also
argue that letting them leave the homework table when they are done is just
encouraging them to compete with each other and rush the work !!!! (and
later, choose easier classes so they get less work sigh). Theoretically,
Shirley's non-comparison idea is great but mine are not at a stage where
they can "go off" and do homework in private yet. What we did yesterday was
I listened to the boys read their school library books because Hanna brought
to be done overnight homework and they didn't have any. This is all such a
challenge. Will have to muddle blindly on in the hope that light will
emerge, I think. Would welcome any other thoughts?????

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

"shirley" wrote in message
news:%b97b.399125$uu5.73667@sccrnsc04...
I try not to compare the two in any way (if possible), if one has less
homework or gets done first, they can read or go to the play room. As for
being fair, I don't try to let them do their homework together, that does
bring out the competition, so each has their own desks and the work either
gets checked by either my DH or myself and or the reading gets done and
listened to by any one of the adults here, (3 here). I personally want
them
as separate as possible. Now that Chris is in a different school that
works
fine.

Shirley

"multimom4" wrote in message
news:JP37b.393661$o%2.175942@sccrnsc02...
Well, it doesn't have to be that bad ALL the time -- in the spring we
had:

EHC tae kwon do M
H ballet Tu
EHC tae kwon do W
EHC swimming Sat.

Now *that* was a handful. But right now it's just:
H ballet Tu
EHC art W

We wound everything else down until I can get my act together on this
school
thing -- they did not want to do TKDo any more and can all now swim with
confidence (still hooraying about that) so I think a few months out of
the
pool won't hurt before we start working on their stroke style again.

Right now I'm looking at a Sat. gym class for E and C to balance H's
ballet,
but no decision yet on that. Have to weigh it against the town soccer
and
basketball opportunities -- and everything else that came home in those
THICK packets from school last week. Plus still very worried how we are
going to get homework done with Holly *into* everything and seemingly no
time after school before suddenly it's bedtime ... homework starts in
about
two weeks per the teachers.

Shirley: what do you do if one finishes homework before the other (like
if
one teacher gives a lot more every day?). A grown twin I know said her
Mom
made the other kid stay at the table and read, write or whatever
academic
stuff they wanted so that it would be "fair", and I'm thinking of trying
that -- thoughts?

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)

"thefackrells" wrote in message
news:ZA%6b.394078$uu5.71850@sccrnsc04...
ok, y'all are scaring me!!!!



...., Chris has Tai Kuan on Wednesdays,
Kathleen dance on Saturday, Drama on Mondays after school and Chris
Basketball on Thursday, so you don't need that much room. The twins
are
being separated into two different schools so I may be eating my
words
and
having to come up with another system but we'll see. It gets
easier.

Good luck
Shirley

Marjorie-Your method sounds wonderful! I wish I was half that organized. I'm
saving your message for future reference. Right now my kids are in
preschool, so not much comes or goes, just artwork that gets hung up.


--
Leslie
Alex and Jordan, 06 May 2000

"chiam margalit" wrote in message
om...
"multimom4" wrote in message
. net...
How do you organize the school papers and timetables so you don't lose
stuff, and so you know what goes back to whom and when and what day each
kid
needs to do what?

My kids are in middle school, in different grades. They not only have
a dozen binders to care for (this is the year of the binder, when
every teacher required 1-3 binders per class!), they have textbooks
that stay home, and texts that travel back and forth to school.

In middle school, there are rarely if ever any papers that come home.
Permission slips for field trips are about it. So that leaves out all
the folders for teacher/parent communication. We have a school web
site that has the morning announcements and the daily homework for
each teacher on it. I check that around 4 pm, when most of the
homework is posted, so I know exactly what the kids have to do. They
hate this, btw! :-) In addition, the school newsletter is sent in
email and posted on the web. For parents without computers, they can
get a paper version, but they have to ask for it. Pretty much everyone
in our community has computer access, though.

Lunches are never an issue as they both buy the salad bar the entire
year. I think my kids are the only kids in the world that choose to
eat salads every day for lunch, but it's what they want and who am I
to argue with healthy food? :-)

So, how I deal with all the crud that comes home is having two of
those el-cheapo plastic file cabinets, one in blue, one in black. They
have 3 drawers, two smaller ones and one filing sized one. Each child
owns their filing cabinet. They keep school supplies in the top
drawer. This means pens, pencils, tape, stapler, protractors,
scissors, rulers, etc. Anything they need for school is in those top
drawers. The second drawer is for folders and spiral notebooks and
current homework projects. When they have a homework assignement that
is long term, it is stored in that drawer. That means first drafts of
papers, vocabulary words for latin and spanish, book reports, etc.
Lastly, the bottom drawer is used to hold textbooks, binders, and
whatever else they need. Backpacks are hung up on pegs right next to
the file cabinets.

We have used this system for several years and it works for us. I have
a palm pilot that I used for scheduling, and my kids check it daily. I
write down doctors appointments and the like in both the palm (with
the alarm to warn me and I'm a chronic forgetter of doctor's appts)
and on a calendar tacked to the front of our fridge. We have a
bulletin board on the stairwell wall that has announcements,
invitations, and other mail.

In addition to all this, both kids have a large plastic container with
a top in their rooms. All returned homework and papers that they want
to keep go into these boxes. At the end of the year we weed through
this stuff and keep only what is important to them, and that goes into
yet another filing cabinet in my office that is an official history of
my kids schooling from preschool to the current time. :-)

I don't know if this can help you in any way, but it does work for us.
My kids are really disorganized (both are ADD) and I have to
constantly remind them, but it does become rote eventually. Every
year, at the beginning of the year I have to have a few hissy fits
before they get with the program, but it's clockwork by December. :-)


Marjorie

Marjorie-Your method sounds wonderful! I wish I was half that organized. I'm
saving your message for future reference. Right now my kids are in
preschool, so not much comes or goes, just artwork that gets hung up.


--
Leslie
Alex and Jordan, 06 May 2000

"chiam margalit" wrote in message
om...
"multimom4" wrote in message
. net...
How do you organize the school papers and timetables so you don't lose
stuff, and so you know what goes back to whom and when and what day each
kid
needs to do what?

My kids are in middle school, in different grades. They not only have
a dozen binders to care for (this is the year of the binder, when
every teacher required 1-3 binders per class!), they have textbooks
that stay home, and texts that travel back and forth to school.

In middle school, there are rarely if ever any papers that come home.
Permission slips for field trips are about it. So that leaves out all
the folders for teacher/parent communication. We have a school web
site that has the morning announcements and the daily homework for
each teacher on it. I check that around 4 pm, when most of the
homework is posted, so I know exactly what the kids have to do. They
hate this, btw! :-) In addition, the school newsletter is sent in
email and posted on the web. For parents without computers, they can
get a paper version, but they have to ask for it. Pretty much everyone
in our community has computer access, though.

Lunches are never an issue as they both buy the salad bar the entire
year. I think my kids are the only kids in the world that choose to
eat salads every day for lunch, but it's what they want and who am I
to argue with healthy food? :-)

So, how I deal with all the crud that comes home is having two of
those el-cheapo plastic file cabinets, one in blue, one in black. They
have 3 drawers, two smaller ones and one filing sized one. Each child
owns their filing cabinet. They keep school supplies in the top
drawer. This means pens, pencils, tape, stapler, protractors,
scissors, rulers, etc. Anything they need for school is in those top
drawers. The second drawer is for folders and spiral notebooks and
current homework projects. When they have a homework assignement that
is long term, it is stored in that drawer. That means first drafts of
papers, vocabulary words for latin and spanish, book reports, etc.
Lastly, the bottom drawer is used to hold textbooks, binders, and
whatever else they need. Backpacks are hung up on pegs right next to
the file cabinets.

We have used this system for several years and it works for us. I have
a palm pilot that I used for scheduling, and my kids check it daily. I
write down doctors appointments and the like in both the palm (with
the alarm to warn me and I'm a chronic forgetter of doctor's appts)
and on a calendar tacked to the front of our fridge. We have a
bulletin board on the stairwell wall that has announcements,
invitations, and other mail.

In addition to all this, both kids have a large plastic container with
a top in their rooms. All returned homework and papers that they want
to keep go into these boxes. At the end of the year we weed through
this stuff and keep only what is important to them, and that goes into
yet another filing cabinet in my office that is an official history of
my kids schooling from preschool to the current time. :-)

I don't know if this can help you in any way, but it does work for us.
My kids are really disorganized (both are ADD) and I have to
constantly remind them, but it does become rote eventually. Every
year, at the beginning of the year I have to have a few hissy fits
before they get with the program, but it's clockwork by December. :-)


Marjorie

I have triplet grandchildren and my daughter-in-law has three full size
lockers in their back hall. She thinks way ahead as the babies aren't
even 2 yet. For now she keeps their coats, shoes, etc. but when school
time comes she's ready. They are metal and she's painted each name on
one locker. The have hooks for coats and a shelf on top. Plenty of room
in bottom for backpacks and notes or schedules can be put on the outside
with a magnet. Just a bit of information from a grammy who reads your
messages often and has learned a lot. You'll forget, you know!!!!