My Child is Disorganized and it’s Affecting his Grades. What do I do?

What's a mom to do when a capable and smart child's disorganization gets in the way of good grades?
by Jenny Mero on May 30, 2011

My summer plans now include homework I wasn’t counting on. No, I didn’t suddenly decide to enroll in a summer course. This three-month long project came out of a meeting with various administrators and specialists at my son’s school, including the dean and a psychologist.

Turns out my son has  been consistently missing homework and has also fallen behind on his schoolwork. The excuses on his part ranged from “I did my work, but I left it home” to “I forgot my homework at school.” There are also times he’s in a panic, looking through his backpack for an assignment given to him earlier in the week. His findings sometimes yield old candy wrappers, and eventually the crumpled worksheet.

I’d be mortified if I had to turn in a wrinkled sheet of paper or nothing at all. Which is why, for a while I had been running his homework or one of his sports uniforms to school in the middle of the day. Those trips were becoming routine and started affecting my productivity, and I decided it was time for him to own up to his responsibilities.

However, what I heard the development specialist, the psychologist, and the dean last week surprised me. They said he still needed our help remembering to bring his homework to school. His teachers were dutifully checking in at the end of the school day to make sure he had all his assignments, and our job was to do the same at home.  Our response: “He’s 11. Isn’t that a disservice because he’ll use those reminders as a crutch?”  “Not quite”, they insisted. “Think of this process more like a cast, not a crutch.” Eventually, he’d feel great about having his work in order that he’d automatically remember on his own. That’s part of the plan, I guess.

So this summer we will get our son to the point he needs to be to have a successful year. We plan on starting by organizing our household and getting him to tackle his closet after summer camp.

How do you deal with your child’s disorganization? Do you find your child’s disorganization is affecting their grades?

 

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