Organizing the deluge of papers that come home from school

[HouseofWool]

I do have alarms set for stuff, but mostly there is a section of the home screen on my phone that shows the current date as well as the next item that is scheduled on my calendar.

I would play with the sync between google and ical to see what you can make work. I didn't feel the google calendar love until I figured out this widget. It has completely changed how organized (or not) I am.

[Deebs]

I am a calendar person. While I do use a calendar on my phone, I also use "Amy Knapp's Big Grid Family Organizer." Everything goes in there - color coded. It's more to teach my kids about organization, days of the week, months, etc, but it also serves to help keep us all on the same page. I post it inside one of my kitchen cabinets.

I'm big into binders also - and I have a colored folder inside my main binder for each child's school.

I was very excited to learn that the preschool I am sending DS to is working on reducing paper use. Yay - less paper for us!

You can put reminders in the google calender and set them as pop ups.

I do have google calendar synced w/my iphone, and access it there, on my PC and on my iPad. I don't CHECK it, though, and pop-ups are never timely (yes, of course I realize you can set specific time periods). Kris - I get what you're talking about -- my iGoogle homepage does something similar -- just kind of what's coming up next ...

I'll see what's out there in app world.

[DCJenn]

I enter important dates into my Outlook calendar at work and I have a dry erase calendar in the kitchen. The school sends important stuff home in a plastic file (presumably so nothing gets wet.) One section is stuff to keep/read and the other side is stuff to sign and return. Makes things much easier.

Homework assignments come home on Monday for the whole week and the piano teacher emails her assignments.

Jenn

[mommax3]

I put EVERYTHING in my iphone calendar as soon as I hear about it and put alarms on things that aren't part of my routine, even sometimes double alarms to make sure! If I need to provide snacks for something, I put that in my iphone and put in an alarm the day before to remind me to buy something. It takes me awhile to get everything into my iphone (DH's call schedule, all sports stuff for the boys, my stuff) but it is SO worth it b/c my phone is always with me. Btw, the papers get less as the kids get older.....

Btw, the papers get less as the kids get older.....

God, I hope so. Our school is supposed to have an "oldest and only" policy for school-wide stuff, but I get a LOT of duplicates. In-freaking-sane.

[PrincessFiona]

It is nuts, isn't it! A lot of our teachers have moved to email, but that has created inbox clutter that drives me nuts! Last year, Alex had a teacher who emailed a good 3 times/day some days. I got to a point where I wouldn't even read her emails and then I did miss important things. In elementary school, the papers literally burst out of their bags on some days...and it's crap....nutritional information about something, notes about fundraisers and blah, blah, blah. At one point, I contemplated sending off a similar number of papers for the teachers to sort of match the paper garbage but I decided that it wasn't really their fault. Our school doesn't use workbooks either and so every single worksheet, coloring page, you name it comes home with the kids every day.

There is less paper stuff once they hit high school and the things that come home are more important, but we are still supposed to be signing Friday Freaking folders here through 8th grade. This means a level of oversight that I find inappropriate for kids that age. At some point, I think they have to be able to show responsibility for their assignments. Once you graduate from all of the papers though, you hit the stuff for sports, band, etc that you have to help your kids remember to bring.

meh. school starts Monday. Now I'm bummed! LOL

[Phoebe]

I'm with Kris- too much information coming at you. I stand over the recycle bin with their folders and purge anything that isn't necessary to keep. I hang calendars, lunch menus and important info on bulletin boards above a station in our mud room so they are visually accessible. I put art/important school work to keep in a basket. I also have a set of 3 upright bins to place school papers they will use like spelling lists, studying guides etc at the same station. Every year I buy a big desk calendar in the dollar section at Target. That is our family calendar since DH has different schedule every week, also. Everything is in the same place and easy access. One more thing is that I picked up a plastic binder with pockets in the dollar section and use it for things I can't lose like immunization records, etc.

[Ladybug]

Am I the only parent that doesn't keep artwork? I throw it away when they're not looking.

Am I the only parent that doesn't keep artwork? I throw it away when they're not looking.

Me too, baby. I'm ruthless. They get to keep a few favorites (and I'll cull those as time wares on).

[lovelight]

I was staying out of this because I'm on the teacher end of this where it is very time consuming for me to keep up with 18 children and the parents who never return their paperwork. (No hard feelings though!) However, when you talked about not keeping their artwork...one of my "parents" told me they have the child hold the artwork and take a picture of them. Then they recycle the art and keep the picture. That was you can see the art and the child's age at the time without having a hoard of art in a box. I thought it was a good idea for those that like to save it.

[BonBon]

Here are the wall pockets I mentioned. http://www.ballarddesigns.com/wood-wall-pockets/42111

Cheri, what do you put in the binder? I'm intrigued with this idea. I keep all our immunization records, birth certificates, etc in a fire safe box.

I agree that the level of paper is insane. My kids get offended but I only save the best artwork. And virtually everything goes straight into recycling.

[houseelf]

If in doubt, throw it out. I rarely, rarely ever regret tossing something.

[PrincessFiona]

ChristinaMarie,

I actually do feel badly for the teachers. I don't think it is their fault that so many papers come home every day. At some point though it is system overload, especially if you have more than one child in elementary school. If only the important things came home, I'd pay close attention. The problem is that when I open up bags there is a handful of papers every single day. We get advertisements for Kung Fu classes, newsletters about childhood nutrition, and on and on ... that on top of the kids school pages that they completed that day. At the beginning of the school year, I'm always fairly diligent. By the end of the year, I don't even glance at things. I have so much on my plate and the papers drive me crazy.

I am sorry though!

Kris

[diggitydot]

Our district isn't awful about paperwork. The ones in middle and elementary schools bring home papers (including their work) about once a week. The high school magnet program just mails a packet of newsletters and important info once a semester. It's not overwhelming.