The daily hassle of reminding your children to get all of their books before school can make your morning schedule more stressful than it needs to be. The growing need to bring school books home for homework as your child gets older doesn't help either. FamilyEducation.com suggests creating a way to help your children remember their school books by making an checklist chart that can help them clearly see which books are in their backpacks, and which ones are still scattered under their beds.
Step 1
Purchase a framed magnet board from a craft store. Place a length of electrical tape vertically down the center of the magnet board so that it is split in half. Cut out two strips of poster board and print "In" on one and "Out" on the other. Affix the placards with tape or magnets to either side of the magnet board.
Step 2
Create a label or a logo onto small pieces of posterboard for each book that your child brings home on a regular basis. For younger children, they likely only have a few, but MSNBC.com notes that older children, like those in middle school will have up to six teachers and subjects, with coordinating books. Cut out the logos or labels, and affix a self-adhesive magnet strip to the back of each one by peeling off the paper from the magnetic strips and pressing the sticky side to the back of the logo.
Step 3
Move all of the book logos to the bottom of the magnet board. When your child gets home from school, go through his backpack and find the books that he has. Locate the accompanying logo for that book, and move the magnet to the "In" side of the magnet board. This helps you to remember which books came in the house. Start this as a daily habit before your child opens his backpack to start homework.
Step 4
Help your child put the books back into her bag as she's leaving for school in the morning. In order to make sure that she has all of the books, move the book logos or labels to the "Out" side as she puts them into her backpack. That way she can clearly see which books she has, and which one are still somewhere in the home.
Step 5
Check to make sure that all of the logo magnets have been moved to the "Out" side of the magnet board, and when your child has left for school for the day, move the magnets back down to the bottom of the board in preparation for later in the day.
Things You'll Need
- Magnet board
- Logos
- Scissors
- Poster board
- Magnets
- Electrical tape
