One of my favorite parts of back-to-school as a kid was shopping for school supplies.
Something about vibrant colors and clean pages made me feel like a fresh start was on the horizon. But for me—and unfortunately most students—the honeymoon period was short. One blink into the school year, and I was a hot mess again. If this sounds familiar, I have a few tips and product recommendations that might help keep your kids on track for longer. Perhaps even all year.
Side Note #1: If you haven’t read my earlier blog post about the very best student planner ever created, please start here and come back to this post for the next steps.
Side Note #2: Some teachers, especially in lower years, have their classroom systems set up for their students. Please use whatever they have set up; it’s often really thoughtful and purposeful. What I’m laying out below is for situations where well-meaning teachers let you buy your supplies and set them up how you’d like. This is a more common approach in middle and high school. Nonetheless, the following information can also help parents of elementary school students if built-in classroom systems aren’t working or you’re looking for another layer of organization to bring to the table.
Parents have the best of intentions when we set kids up at the beginning of the school year, but the main reason systems fail is that they don’t match the day-to-day reality of school. Even opening and closing a binder is too much when the bell has rung, and students are rushing to the next class. Teachers sometimes give out assignments and handouts when kids are halfway out the door, and they often don’t punch holes in papers. Suddenly the new, beautiful three-ring binder is pretty useless. Students have no option but to rip their own holes or stuff the papers in their backpack or textbook. We all know how that story ends. If we expect our kids to do more than one step with any piece of paper, we are setting them up for failure.
I’ve seen families get around this by purchasing colored folders and coordinating notebooks for each subject. While this seems like a great idea in the store (and it’s pretty), it ends up giving students multiple things to keep track of for each class in addition to textbooks. What often happens with this setup is that kids bring the wrong thing to the wrong class or end up bringing every notebook and folder everywhere for fear of forgetting something. This is how they end up with a 40-pound backpack and a “walking locker” situation. This system is also totally inflexible. For example, what happens when one class’s notes end up in another class’s notebook? Nothing good.
Here’s a system that I’ve found that works best for most kids, regardless of school setting or level of dis/organization. It’s not a magic bullet, but it IS a good starting place for many students. The most important thing to remember is that this is a starting point. When something doesn’t work, that’s an indication that part of the system needs to be adjusted. (A personal aside- I was formerly under the impression that a system should always work, but it turns out that humans change over time, and our systems need to change too. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t capable of keeping up or that the system is broken; it just means that something needs an adjustment. Thanks, therapy.)
My number one school supply recommendation is the Five Star Hybrid Notebinder (the ideal one is 1.5” and does NOT have a zipper closure, around $13.00). This gem functions as both a notebook and a binder, which is crucial for keeping things simple. The Notebinders are lightweight and take up almost no room on their own. They have three rings and can function as a regular 3-ring binder, but they also act like a spiral notebook. The goal is to set the binder up initially so the rings get opened as infrequently as possible (like at the end of each unit or semester).
Side Note #3: The Notebinders also have a full-school-year guarantee, so if a notebook catastrophe unfolds, you can get a free replacement (take a quick snapshot of your receipt for your records). Five Star also sells grid paper for math class and paper with plastic reinforcement built-in if your child tends to rip the three-holed paper out accidentally.
Side Note #4: Notebinders are a little plain and boring looking. You can solve this major problem by purchasing some decorative vinyl stickers or personalizing with a silver Sharpie.
Your child’s schedule will determine how they should set up their binders. If they have a schedule that stays the same over all five days of the week, they will need two binders- a morning and an afternoon binder. If they have an A/B schedule, I recommend having one binder for A days, and one for B days. If they have a super-complex rotating schedule, I still recommend two Notebinders, though they might have to keep both with them at all times to accommodate their schedule.
The Notebinder comes with plastic dividers, but I don’t recommend using these. This system works best with standard plastic pocket dividers like the Avery Big Tab Two-Pocket Insertable Plastic Dividers ($5-7 at Staples or Target).
Setup looks like this: Each class gets a section of the Notebinder. Put the plastic divider in the three rings and label it with the class name. This is where all the class’s handouts go. Even if the handout has three holes, it gets put in the back of the section’s pocket (everything new goes in the back so handouts stay in order). Then, behind the plastic divider, put a good chunk of notebook paper. This paper will act like the class notebook for all handwritten notes.
Repeat this pattern for each class—divider for handouts, notebook pages for notes—and each notebook (morning/afternoon or A/B days). Then watch, and wait, and see how the first few weeks go.
At the end of every unit, remind or help your child gather the unit’s handouts and notes, pop a big binder clip on them with any quizzes, tests, or study guides on top, and store the whole packet somewhere safe for future reference, like when studying for finals.
If some part of the binder system isn’t working, ask WHY it’s not working and brainstorm solutions to that specific issue. For example, if your child take notes on their computer, they might need to print out the notes each night and put them in the binder. If one class has a ton of notes and another has none, then space might need to be redistributed. Or if they need a place for homework or sub-sections, then they might need to add more pocket dividers. Sometimes all you need to solve a problem is a sticker label that says, “Put new papers in back!”
If you want to run something by me, feel free to PM me through my blog or social media. I promise I’ve seen it before and I’m happy to offer some suggestions.
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