Back To School – The Paper Stacks

This week has been crazy! The Little Guy has now finished his first week of real school. He did very well and really enjoys it. Yay! ! This has been a BIG transition for both of us. Honestly, I think he has taken it in stride better than I have.

There were a lot of things I had forgotten since the last time I had one meeting this milestone. Like the utter load of paperwork and how exhausted they are at the end of the school day.  And just how heart wrenching it is for me to watch him go up the sidewalk every morning.  From here it is a quick sprint to graduation. I can not tell you how many mornings I caught myself watching his TV shows out of habit.  We are both starting to adjust and settling into our new, separate routines.

About That Paperwork

This picture is not one I found. That huge bundle of paper is what was collected during one week of kindergarten. So for a little while, LPO will be all about projects that can be used to deal with the mountain of paper that will be coming through the door over the school year.

I’ll just send the articles to you as I do the projects.  Just wanted to let you know that you may be seeing one hit your in box every couple of days or several in a single day. Hopefully you will see enough alternatives to get some inspiration for a system that will work for you.

If one of the projects takes a little longer to actually put together, I will probably drop in a quicker school related article. I just wanted you to know what to expect.

First Things First

The first thing I need to do before setting up any system for the paper mound is to sort this stack into categories.  That will give me a good indication of what to expect in the months to come. Once I know what to expect, I will have an idea of what systems I need to set up to deal with it each day as it comes in. I sure don’t want to sort through a pile like this every week.

After sorting it out, here are the categories I came up with:

• To return to school. Most were things I needed to fill out, sign, or otherwise take action on.
• To reinforce. All of the FYI items. School rules, class rules, the teacher’s syllabus, etc.. If kids learn early that they have different sets of rules and expectations depending on who they are with or where they are, it can back fire big time during the teenage years. We are going to start with home/school continuity from the start, then build from there. If you have an older child, you can treat the beginning of each school year as a fresh start. A time to re-establish and set new guidelines. Do take a minute early on to go over the school’s rules and any additional expectations with them. If you try to make it all up as you go along, they may not take it as seriously. Set the foundation properly and build from there.
• Calendars and Events.
• Newsletters and Correspondence.
• Classwork. All of the things that do not need to be returned. In the early years, this pile will be added to daily. Older kids will often toss it out on their own or carry it around all year long. Set up a place for them to put the pages now. It will lighten the load of their backpacks while keeping it as a temporary reference. Remember when you were surprised to find out the final exam was comprehensive? Get them in the habit of archiving their work so they can be prepared for the day they get the news that one of theirs will be, too.
• Keepsakes.  A small sampling of exceptional work, things that particularly express their personalities, the ‘for Mommy’ mementos, and their report cards.

I will probably need to add a few more categories as the school year strolls by. I just need to keep that in mind. For each system we set up, we need to make sure to keep a little room for flexibility.

Sort out your paper into categories that make sense to you. They do not need to be the same as mine. Knowing what you are working with will make it much easier to find systems/products that are a good fit for you.