Disorganized Mind

Check this site www.addinschool.com. You might find some tricks that help.

Good luck

Be patient

Gary,
Thanks

Marcia—I have copied below an email I sent to another poster on what has worked for us for organization. Perhaps you’ll find it helpful. My son has used this system successfully since fifth grade. He is now in seventh.

In his binder we put for each subject a plastic divider (writing the subject name on the tab), followed by a binder pocket. (We bought our supplies at Staples—below are the item numbers that you can use to look at the items on the Staples.com website.) The first divider and pocket in the binder are for homework for the day. I am planning to put in a pocket behind that for blank looseleaf so ds doesn’t have to keep opening and closing the rings on the binder and getting them all off track. After that comes a divider and pocket for each subject. You could perhaps get a little fancier than we have and use two pockets for each subject—one for returned homework and one for teacher handouts. My son doesn’t get too many of the latter, so he just uses one binder pocket.

(Note: The separate pocket for homework is really key—all homework that needs to be turned in the next day goes into that pocket. By the end of the school day it must be empty. It took a while of me checking it everyday to make sure he understood this. Also, the binder pockets are important—you can put papers in them and take them out easily without having to open the binder rings.)

He likes a binder with a zipper around it—I think the zipper does help keep the whole thing together when it’s thrown in his backpack, etc. I have an item number below for a binder much like the one he uses. (Before school starts, Staples and the other office supply stores stock a lot of binders for school—many of them are cooler looking than the one shown here.) The binder shown (like some of the cooler ones they stock) comes with a smaller three whole punched nylon zipper bag in which you can keep pens and pencils, protractor, etc. His binder also has a couple of pockets on the inside cover—he puts a a composition book or two in there, because a couple of his teachers want work put in them. (He also stuffs notes to parents in there, which mostly I see no earlier than ten days later.)

I think a PDA could fit in the zipper bag—the size is probably 6 x 91/2 like the one I’ve listed below for comparison purposes. A PDA would relieve her of the big space eater my son has in his binder—his school assignment book.

For notes, he uses a spiral bound five subject notebook. I think the one he is using I actually I had left over from college. The dividers are simply colored sheets of paper. Staples has one I’ve listed below that has tabs on the subject separators. I don’t think I’d go below 200 pages here, depending on how many subjects she need to take notes in. The fewer the pages, the more likely she is to run out of space and have to start a new notebook. Some of these notebooks come with pocket dividers—I don’t think I would risk extra pockets that papers could sneak into and not be kept track of. I’d rather just have all the papers in their appointed place in the binder pocket.

Item numbers on Staples.com:

Avery Plastic Dividers with Tab Labels No. 182006

Avery Poly Binder Pockets No. 923641

Mead 1st Gear Zipper Binder No. 357600

Zipper Ring Binder Pockets (look at 6 x 9 1/2) No. ME168599

Staples Notebooks, 5-subject with tabs, 200 sheets No. 280321.

This system reduces the items he needs to carry around (besides books) to 2—the binder and the notebook.

Marcia bless you!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read about another son just like mine. It definitely is an uphill battle, especially when the teachers just stare in dumb belief that these children will do their homework and then not turn it in. Somewhere between “it’s in my notebook” and “school’s over!” it never crosses their mind again!….even when they’re asked for it. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone in to teachers (after notes have come home saying he’s getting an F because of, among other things, no homework) and pulled out 2 months of completed homework papers. I, too, am looking for ways to instill responsibility in my son, so far I’m batting 0.

Marie’s method is excellent.

I would add that creating reliable routines is also key. You need to help the child find a system that works for them.

Talk about the systems that use to stay organized. I have a place for my keys and I always conciously return my keys to same place, I hang up important calenders behind my pantry door and jot down dates as soon as I get them etc.

Talk to them about their day and help them come up with similar methods that they can rely on rather than their current system which is really just an absence of a system.
For instance, handing in homework is the first thing you do when you get into the class when you take out your books you also take out your homework. Tie the handing of the homework into something they already do like removing the books from the knapsack. Taking out the books will be the reminder to turn in the homework.

After a while they will just do it and hopefully come up with other systems that they create for themselves.

Courtney,
How old is your son? I know that mine soes not mean to do this. It is as if he can’t “see” to complete. Do you feel this way too? I don’t think it is a matter of getting him “organized”. I think it is more a matter of how do I get him help to traqin his brain to become organized??? It is so comforting to know that I am not the only mother out there with this problem. Please tell me more about your son.

Thank you so much for your input!!! I really apreciated all of your suggestions…staples …here I come!!!

Hi:

I have a disorganized guy as well. He does brilliant work…then forgets about it before it is handed in.

In your system,what role do the teachers play? This year’s teacher is the only person more disorganized than my son..changing deadlines, changing project critera..that definitely makes things worse.Her point is that the student has to be organized..it is not her job. All I know is that he succeeds where there is a logical structure and does not when there isn’t.

He goes to special ed for organization skills, but all that has happened is more checklists that he promptly ignores. Wouldn’t it be more useful if the teacher went through the binder? (We have a similar system).

We worked on this this past school year with some success. My son is in the 3rd grade, so its not like he had a tremedous of amount of homework or long term projects to keep track of. But I knew he would need to repeat the action of turning in his homework for months before it became internalized.

We started a system where he would earn points if he remembered to turn in his homework for a week. When he earned enough points he earned a new game for his game boy. Bribery works for this kid. ! By the time he had the new game the routine was somewhat learned. BUT key to this was me reminding him each morning when I dropped him off at school to turn his work in. I also asked the teacher to remind him on his end as well.

(BTW, the teacher totally didn’t get it and seemed to think if Ds just tried harder he ‘d remember… but that’s another story)

Now its May and he seems to remember on his own!

Karis,
This system has brought physical organization to my son’s work. For assignments, he is good about writing them down in his assingment book BUT every year before school starts, I meet with the homeroom teacher to emphasize how he will simply not hear many oral directions and needs all assignments written on the board for him to copy. The principal actually encourages this; she has been working hard on getting the teachers to recognize the importance of giving all assignments both orally and in written form so as many children as possible can get the message in the way that is most accessible to them.

Checklists aren’t a very good system for these kinds of kids—just seems like more stuff to lose to me. Your son’s teacher sounds like a nightmare—sounds like she’s blaming the inevitable results of her own disorganization on the kids. Surely he isn’t the only one with problems with her. Can you possibly request the most structured teacher for him for next year?

Yeah but if you think her mind is disorganized, you should see her room!

We, too, have a binder system of transparent pocket dividers. The book bag is emptied frequently - nightly when necessary.
What has helped the most is a time and place to do the homework. She sets up on the end of the dining room table while we make dinner, etc. We can monitor her and assist as necessary. All of her suplies are in the top drawer of the buffet near the table. No disappearing for a pencil or a sharpener.
We have some days when homework doesn’t make it into the planner but not as many as before. She sometimes has to phone a classmate to get the assignment straight. She has a lot of projects and we struggle with breaking up the porject into steps and deadlines. 1st week read the book, 2nd week do rough draft, etc.

Setting the tone and routine has helped us the most in the homework battles. Its much, much better than before.
Good luck

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My question is whether or not there’s motivation for being more organized. If he is, he’ll be more likely to use the systems that you put in place. If not, he’ll be less likely to do the work required.

Also, long range rewards may not work. I notice with a child I’m trying to help that he’s so much in “now” that something in the future doesn’t really serve as a motivator. It’s hard for him to make the effort for a later reward.

Using an external reward with points seems an excellent plan in that the child gets the points as an immediate reward. For the child I know, however, points or even money to put into a toy bank wouldn’t work because what he wants is to have the game “now.” For him something more immediate (e.g., earning video game time) might work better. For each action that he takes (e.g., handing in homework, completing a full page of homework with nothing left out) could earn him a certain number of minutes. Perhaps you could make a list of what he needs to do and the reward that he gets for doing it. In the beginning, he could get extra help in doing what is needed (e.g., a reminder to check the page to make sure all problems are completed), but he needs to gradually take more responsibility himself. Also, a reminder watch (available from ADD Warehouse) might help.