by: Kerry Flinders

It's that time of year again. The kids are back in school, or are about to be. Parents are writing checks for PE clothes and school supplies. You're finding out that your child has grown 2 or more shoe sizes since summer started. Not to mention that none of their clothes fit anymore.

You have a lot on your mind right now. If you're anything like me you are concerned already about upcoming grades. My children seemed to have a difficult time at the end of last year keeping their grades up. Since my oldest is now in high school I have to be sure that he keeps his grades up as high as he possibly can. Not just for graduation requirements, but also so that he has the best possible chance to get some grant money for college.

What's a parent to do? How can we help our kids keep their grades up throughout the entire year? How do we keep them motivated at the end of the school year, which seems so far off right now?

There are some things you can do as a parent, things that I do myself with my own kids, that will help your children to keep their grades up and their stress levels down. The best thing is to be sure your child is organized throughout the entire school year.

First of all make sure you participate in helping your child, no matter what grade they're in, in picking out school supplies like their backpack and their main binder. Make sure that the binder is adequate for their needs. Be sure that their back pack is large enough to hold everything they are going to be bringing back and forth. Check to be sure there are organizing compartments in the backpack. These will be helpful for your child to stay organized.

Second of all, I know that each classroom of each school hands out this very extensive supply list that they say your child MUST have before school starts. In my experience my children only use a little over half of the items I HAD to buy. What I do now is I send them off to school with the basics; a binder, paper, pencils, pens…that's it.

Over the next few weeks my children will come home and tell me the things they really do HAVE to have. I will go out then and buy them and nothing extra. That way my child isn't responsible for keeping needless items organized. His life is way hectic enough as it is. Not to mention that since my children do not have lockers all these items must be kept in their backpacks, where honestly, there is not enough room for everything.

Third of all, if you want your child to be organized and to keep their grades up you as the parent are going to have to be involved in the process. Nearly every day I go through both of my children's backpacks and binders. I go through their assignments when they tell me they're done with homework to be sure they actually did it right and then filed it properly in their binder.

While I'm going through their backpacks I take out all the things that need to be filed and I have them file them properly in their binders then and there. Any homework that was not done properly is then handled correctly.

Yes, this is a pain for me. It takes up time I would rather not give up to this purpose, considering my children are in middle school and high school. But I know for a fact that when I stop going through their backpacks and their binders that they get unorganized very quickly. Their grades are sure to fall soon after that.

So stay involved. You have to remember that your children are just that…children. They do not want to stay organized. They don't even want to do their homework. If you stay involved with this tedious aspect of their lives they will learn to be organized, which is a wonderful skill to have and they will be able to keep their grades up throughout the entire year.

Copyright 2005 Kerry Flinders