Organize Your Kid's School Papers

If you have kids in school than you know all about the mountains of papers they can bring home each week.

I happen to have 3 in school and they bring home lots of papers each week. Some are important like field trip permission slips, fundraisers, graded tests, but some are just classwork, already checked homework assignments and flyers.

First: Sort
Each weekday as soon as my kids come home I sort through their take home folders while they are working on their homework.

Second: Trash
I immediately throw away any papers that we don't need to save. This includes: already checked homework, classwork, doodles, etc. I also throw away graded tests that don't need to be saved. The only exception is the middle school asks the kids keep all paperwork in their binder until the semester exams.

Third: Add to Calendar
Next I add any important information to my calendar and file the paper in my planner. I make a note of any special dress days (school spirit days, etc.), days when the kids are supposed to send in special items (cereal boxes for art, completed reports, and projects) and field trip days.

Fourth: File
The other type of paperwork we routinely get is papers asking for money. Either field trip permission slips, school photo order forms, donations or money for project supplies. Unfortunately we get a fair amount of these forms. We make a note of them on our monthly budget worksheet and then file them with our bills to be paid. On one income we've learned to budget everything!

We also receive items we want to file away for future reference. These items include: school directories, parent/student handbooks, course syllabus and other similar items.

These simple steps save us time dealing with their paperwork and we can find what we need quickly. Please feel free to share how your family organizes school paperwork.