Does your child waste time each evening rummaging through loose papers, lunch bags, and old gym clothes to find their math assignment, or has your student complained of aches and pains from carrying numerous textbooks home each night?
If so, then developing backpack routines and other essential organizational habits can have a significant impact or your child’s stress levels, physical well-being, and academic performance. That is why this month’s study tips are:
→ Pick one night each week where you clean and organize your backpack.
→ Create a backpack checklist to track what you need to bring to and from school.
Our recommendation for students to remember what they need to bring to and from school each day is to create a checklist of essential items. Examples of checklists that can be attached to students’ backpacks are linked below:
- Download backpack checklist for middle school students.
- Download backpack checklist for high school students.
3 ways developing Organizational Skills make students more college-ready:
- Being able to establish and maintain organizational routines during adolescence is an important pre-requisite for functional independence as an adult.
- Students who are lack organizational routines often find themselves “two steps behind the rest of the class” when it comes to their college courses.
- Using organizational strategies such as developing a “backpack map” helps students save time and frees up mental space that can be used for other tasks.
Take it to the next level!
- Instead of putting all of the books you need into your backpack, carry at least one text to reduce the weight on your spine.
- Keeping all of your pens, pencils, and erasers in a pencil case will reduce backpack clutter and help you be ready to go quickly when it is time to start schoolwork.
- When you do your weekly backpack cleaning, don’t just remove and organize loose items, but also shake out all of the crumbs and other smaller objects which can accumulate over time.
