1) Label everything before sending it to school with your child.
The kids will be traveling to many different rooms throughout the day. With over 800 kids in the school, an unlabeled jacket, lunch box, notebook, etc. will be left at the lost and found for days, months, or even the entire year! Then, when they realize that they lost or dropped their stuff in the hallways, the first thing you will hear is that item was stolen from them. Labeling will hopefully save you a little bit of that hassle.
2) Try NOT to drop things off at school because your kids forgot them.
Your kids will not fail Science the entire year if they did not bring their goggles for one day. If you drive over to the school just to give them their goggles, they will be calling you all year! The same goes for assignments. Let them deal with the consequences and learn from their mistakes. This is the time for them to start taking responsibility.
3) Check their agendas and homework for at least a few weeks if not a month or two!
Start your kids off on the right foot. Help them establish a routine starting in September so that they know what they need to do once they get home. After a few weeks, they should no longer need you to guide them.
4) Have your child seek out a homework buddy or two.
Your child will forget their homework at school at least once this year. They will be frantic and not know what to do at 8 PM when the school is closed. At this moment, they should know exactly who they can call to see what the homework was. With technology, they can now use Google Docs, take a picture, video chat, or even just talk on the phone and discuss the homework! In some cases, there may be an online textbook where you can download and print the homework pages.
5) Set up a homework schedule and a homework station with a fresh set of supplies.
Children thrive when things are structured. At school, they have a schedule and do math and LA at the same time every day. Homework should be treated similarly. Figure out a schedule for homework and set up a nice homework station for them. Include pencils, erasers, a sharpener, scissors, and any supplies that they may need to do their work. This will eliminate the excuses of not having what they need.
6) Make a big chart of all of your child's logins.
In 5th grade, your child will be given usernames and passwords for at least 4 sites that they will need to log in to daily, weekly, or periodically. Having a place to find them will help save lots of fights, gray hair, and emails to your teacher in the middle of the night.
7) Next to that big chart, put up a monthly calendar.
Thought you had a lot of dates to remember in elementary school? Middle school is a whole new world. There will be quizzes, tests, projects, clubs, basketball games, science fairs, etc. to keep track of every month. Sorry to overwhelm you with that list! Now, if you were already feeling dizzy reading it, imagine how your child will feel. We cannot assume that our kids will magically be able to manage a schedule. This is the age to train them to use tools like a monthly calendar to anticipate upcoming deadlines and events. I kept a dry erase calendar in my room from middle school to the end of college to keep myself organized.
8) You may need to do locker checks every few weeks.
Your child had a locker at Orchard Hill but that was in the classroom. Now, it is in the middle of a hallway where there are hundreds of kids passing by them, they see their friends everywhere, and they need to get from class A to class B in a few minutes. Many children are not ready right away with their organizational skills to handle all of that. You may need to check in every so often to make sure their lockers are neat.
9) Find out if there are clubs your child wants to join after school.
Middle school is an exciting and scary time for all children. They switch classes so they get to see many friendly faces each day. However, this can also be one of the loneliest times for some of them. Finding a club that they enjoy can be the opportunity that they need to find a friend in the school with a similar interest!
10) Check Parent Resources from time to time.
Teachers input grades into Parent Resources so that you can see them. If you keep up with your child’s grades, they will know that you care about how they are doing in school. Also, it would not be a surprise on report card day if you see a grade that you did not expect from your child.
11) Remind your child of the pickup plan.
In middle school, students are responsible to know their own pick up plan. Students switch classes almost every period so they will not have their homeroom teachers at the end of the day. They may also stay after school for activities which will typically end around 4:10PM. Students have to be picked up by an adult at that time. If a last minute change needs to happen, please contact the Main Office and they will direct the message to the appropriate teacher.