| As the school year end approaches, many students | | | | putting on snazzy new covers that express personal |
| and parents begin to lose some of that energy and | | | | creativity. Get rid of the clutter by putting pens, |
| enthusiasm that powered them through the first six | | | | pencils, paper, and the works, into brightly colored |
| months of school. Disorganization and procrastination | | | | trays or baskets. |
| begin to chip away at once healthy study habits and | | | | Once that old work space is clean and organized take |
| result in late or missing assignments. Work quality | | | | a look at material needs. How about some new |
| may also suffer because of waning commitment to | | | | writing tablets, note paper with cartoons or funning |
| excellence. All of those wonderful new resolutions | | | | sayings, clean folders, and divider tabs? Why not go |
| about homework and study sounded sincere in | | | | for broke and buy a whole new notebook? Live a |
| January but are now forgotten in computer games, | | | | little and get that new pricey pen or mechanical pencil. |
| text messaging, and afternoon television. It seems | | | | Maybe this is the time to get that new calculator or |
| that everything takes precedence over school. | | | | dictionary. How about a backpack or personal |
| This can be a problem for families because waning | | | | organizer? |
| interest and poor organization are often the | | | | Now that the space is done, time to set a fresh |
| underlying causes of poor grades in school. Students | | | | pace. Take a long, impartial look at the daily study |
| and families can take heart, though, in knowing that | | | | schedule. Determine the number of hours available |
| there are many ways to re-energize the process and | | | | between the end of the school day and regular |
| revitalize work habits so that student stay on track | | | | bedtime. Write in all scheduled activities like sports, |
| through the end of the school year. Revamp work | | | | Scouts, and music lesions. Then determine how much |
| spaces, renew materials, and fine tune that | | | | time is needed to complete homework each day and |
| homework schedule to regain enthusiasm. | | | | include it in the schedule. What's left over is used for |
| Start by taking everything out of those drawers, | | | | leisure, personal chores, and household responsibilities. |
| backpacks, and cupboards. Throw out the used scrap | | | | Voila! Sound too good to be true? Not so. Very |
| paper, food wrappers and rough drafts of papers | | | | simple changes can make the same old tasks look |
| and projects! Paint or polish those desks, chairs, and | | | | new. Changing an old pattern brings new enthusiasm |
| bookcases. Organize books by subject area and get | | | | to old goals. |
| rid of torn, dirty covers. Jazz up those textbooks by | | | | |