Tips on Organizing Incoming School Papers for Busy Moms

Schools send home dozens of papers every week. Teachers send home newsletters, permission slips and notes about future activities. Your children bring home book order forms, flyers for sports teams and coupons for local merchants. Then there is your child̵7;s work: worksheets and pictures and tests. All of that paper can pile up quickly, and it̵7;s easy to lose the important ones. The good news is that, with a little effort and the help of technology, you can keep everything you need at your fingertips.

  1. Organizing Paperwork

    • Teachers send home papers with your child̵7;s schedule for the semester or a list of upcoming assignments and permission slips. It is important to keep these papers handy, but organized. Sign permission slips immediately and place them back in your child̵7;s folder or backpack. Create a binder for the rest of your child̵7;s papers. If you have more than one child, create more than one binder. Keep a hole punch nearby to punch holes in important papers as soon as they come in. Place the papers in the binder to keep them all in one location. If the papers come in with specific dates for assignments, activities or lists of items to purchase, take a picture with your phone. You can keep the picture handy so that you can access the list even when you are away from the binder.

    Organizing Schoolwork

    • Encourage your children to do their homework right after school and place the papers back in their folders or backpack. For returned work, purchase a large bin at the beginning of the school year. As your child brings home completed work, place it in the bin. This keeps the work handy if you need to refer back to a specific piece of work for a teacher conference. At the end of the school year you can keep any special work and toss the rest.

    Organizing Artwork

    • It can be hard to part with your child̵7;s carefully crafted artwork. Unfortunately, young students create dozens of pictures every month. There simply isn̵7;t enough room on the refrigerator to display them all. As the artwork comes in, write the date on the back. Like the school work, keep your child̵7;s artwork in a bin and go through it at the end of the school year. Before you toss any masterpieces, take digital pictures of each one. You can create a slideshow that shows your child̵7;s progress throughout the year. You can even convert the digital images into a photo album book for a permanent record of your child̵7;s work.

    Organizing Community Flyers

    • Schools send home all kinds of things that may or may not benefit your family. Go through the flyers as they come home. Those items that you know you won̵7;t use, discard immediately so they don̵7;t become clutter. Paperclip coupons to the family calendar near their expiration date so that you don̵7;t forget to use them. Add any dated items such as book order forms or sports signup sheets to the binder.

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