Back to school must haves to help kids stay organized

Please note that this article was originally published in Sept of 2017, and its content reflects that date, though it has now been updated to add new content as of Nov 2017.

Peter Pauper Press is one of America’s leading publishers of fine gift books, unique journals, quality stationery, and innovative children’s activity books. They publish approximately 100 books and ancillary products per year. With kids headed back to school we felt  that we needed  to share some back to school must haves to help kids stay organized.

Student Planner 2017-2018

While a planner is beneficial for students from elementary school through college, we find the Student Planner 2017-2018 from Peter Pauper Press, Inc. to be very beneficial to to high school students as well as college students, when organization skills are vital to success.

I love the weekly spread, which includes spaces for scheduling notes and to-do lists. The monthly spreads give students a bigger-picture view of their academic year — perfect for planning long-term assignments and far-off events!

The planner also includes study tips and charts for assignment mapping. The assignment schedule is a really nice addition to the book, which I have not seen in other planners.

Be sure to pick up some weekly planner stickers to go along with your student planner.

INTERNET ADDRESS & PASSWORD LOG BOOK

Are you tired of losing track of those login/usernames and passwords you create every time you visit a new website? Now you can keep important website addresses, usernames, and passwords in one convenient place with a personal internet address and password logbook. There is plenty of room in the book for website addresses, username and passwords. In the back of the book there is space to record additional useful information, such as your home network configuration, software license numbers, and other notes.

THIS WEEK’S MENU NOTE PAD

For students headed off to college or university is a handy tool. The pad allows you to plan your menus for the week on the left side of this handy pad. You then write down the ingredients you need on the right side — it’s a separate, perforated shopping list to take to the store.  This would also be handy for busy parents and could be used for school lunches. There are 60 sheets to last the school year and beyond.

Importance of reading

September 8 is National Literacy Day. Reading is a fundamental tool in every aspect of the word. It is one of the skills children must master to succeed, just not in school, but in life. Sadly, Statistics Canada reports that 48 percent of adults do not have the literacy skills to cope with everyday life.  Starting in junior kindergarten, if a student reads 20 minutes a day at home, they will hear 1.8 million words per year. According to a reading report done by Scholastic Canada, the country’s largest distributor of children’s books and educational materials, children, particularly those who are frequent readers, gain inspiration (76%) and a sense of accomplishment (90%) from reading. 

My reading logbook Journal for kids

How do you motivate a child though that doesn’t like reading? Many teachers use reading logs and rewards to encourage kids to read. This school year help your child keep track of their books and reading progress with this helpful reading logbook by Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

This handy booklet will help your children to monitor which books they have read and which ones they are currently reading. Each page in the book features a enough space to record the date, the title of the book, the name of the author, start and end page numbers, and the number of minutes read. There is also a place for parents’ initials in the book. In the back of the book there is a section to add titles of books completed.

Motivate Kids to Read

Motivate your child to read by purchasing them children books that they will enjoy. Make sure the reading material isn’t beyond your child’s reading abilities.

As parents we are key players in our child’s academic and personal well-being One of the most important things you can do to help your child succeed at school is to read to them at home. Spend 20 mins a night reading together. Not only does reading together stimulate brain development and increase language and communication skill for early readers, but it is a time for child and parent bonding. If your child is older and already reading, take turns reading to one another.

My now adult son can be quoted for saying “Growing up as a kid I use to write “reading” in my agenda. It wasn’t always homework, but I put it there anyway. It was my favourite part of the evening because for 30 minutes I would get to spend time with the man who taught me to love books.”

Helping our kids to stay on top of schoolwork and to become good readers will have such a massive, positive impact on their future! And to get behind at any point makes it many times more difficult to catch up.  Simple things like reading together or finding a tutor to help from sites like PrivateTutoringAtHome.com can make the all the difference in reading and school success, especially for children who have difficulty with comprehension, like my oldest daughter did in school.

How do you encourage your kids to read? We’d love to hear some of your tricks. Do you have any other tips for staying organized as kids head back to school? We would love to hear about them in the comments.

Visit peterpauper.com for back to school must haves designed to help students distress and stay organized.