Organizing everyday school work, report cards and other achievements
by Lorraine Brock
This post is Part 2 of a series on organizing and storing your kids’ school papers. Read Part 1: The Art of Organizing Kids Artwork.
School has officially ended and since we covered the organization of a year’s worth of your child’s artwork last month, this post will offer tips for organizing all the rest of those school papers. You probably have boxes of report cards, awards, certificates, poems, family stories, papers with awesome grades and excellent comments, and for your older kids (8th grade and above), letters of recommendation and college information.
Everyday School Papers You Plan to Keep for Each Year
First let’s focus on those everyday school papers: math, spelling tests, journal writing, and poems. Purchase a manila envelope for each child in one of a variety of sizes (13 x 10, 10 x15, etc.). This envelope will hold only the school work that you plan to keep, with one envelope per child, per year. The key is to keep only what will fit in the envelope per year or grade of school. Remember from last month’s post that we have already created a storage space for artwork, so no artwork should be stored in this envelope.
Once you have decided on what to keep based on what fits in each envelope, you must write the year, grade, and name of your child on the front of the envelope. Don’t just write the year, because years later you may not remember what grade your child was in that year.
To store the envelopes for each of your children, purchase a large, plastic tote with handles that snap on each end. Have one tote per child to hold the envelopes for their school career. By the end of their senior year, you should have a tote full of manila envelopes spanning your child’s academic career.
Achievements and Accomplishments
Now let’s discuss how to store the rest of your child’s school papers: report cards, letters of recommendations, awards, TAKS or STARRS testing scores, etc. These items should go in a binder with clear sheet protectors to create an academic portfolio of achievements and accomplishments. This binder will be an asset when your child is ready to create their first resume, apply for scholarships, or even their first job.
Be sure to include volunteer hours in the portfolio. This information will be helpful for job hunting, scholarships, and college applications also. Track hours volunteered with all the groups and organizations they are involved in including church with Vacation Bible School, bus ministry, or even playing in the church band, orchestra, or choir.
We have now covered the three important categories for organizing school papers: artwork, everyday school papers, and portfolio papers. If you missed my post last month, go back and read about kid’s artwork storage and then take time this summer to start or catch up your school paper organizing system.
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Lorraine Brock is a professional organizer, family coach, speaker, and founder and owner of Get Organized! Get Organized! is a professional organizing company in the Dallas, Texas area. Get Organized! specializes in organizing and de-cluttering homes as well as implementing systems in the home for better family management. A popular media guest, Lorraine has appeared on Dallas’ two top morning television shows: Good Morning Texas and Good Day Fox, and has been featured on various radio outlets. She has been hallmarked in many local, regional, and national print and online magazines, such as the Dallas Morning News, The North Texas Kids Magazine, SheKnows.com, and Daily Candy Kids. To get more information about Lorraine, visit www.GetOrganized.ws.
