OCTOBER 2017
Hill Country
Backpack Connection
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Content for the Elementary School pages contributed by each school. Backpack Connection magazines are published every six weeks during the school year by BP Publishing LLC. The advertisements in this magazine are paid for by the advertisers, which allows this magazine to be distributed free to the families of the HOHPHQWDU\ VWXGHQWV 8QOHVV VSHFL¿FDOO\ QRWHG QR DGYHUWLVHUV products or services are endorsed by the publisher, BISD, or NISD, or any districts employees. The publishers (BP PUBLISHING LLC) are not responsible for omissions, errors or misinformation within this publication. All real estate advertised within this publication are subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act, which make it illegally to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin or intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination. We will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings adverting are available on an equal opportunity basis. Reproductions of this magazine in whole or part without written permission is prohibited.
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16 Encouraging, Supporting and Loving the Children We Share...
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LAST ISSUE’S WINNERS Congratulations to Teagan Sage Abrego (age 6) of Cibolo Creek Elementary. She is in Mrs. Bruns’ kindergarten class. Jacoby Roe is a third grader attending Aue Elementary. Both are excited to win $20 Which Wich gift cards!
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By Adrianne Carnes magine a school year where your kid’s schedule, backpack, homework, and take-home paperwork are organized. Imagine a home where your kids participate in the organization of their own lives. I am Adrianne Carnes. I am a personal organizer because I believe that organizing is an empowered lifestyle that produces clarity and order, which brings feelings of calm and peace. My company is “The Organized Me,” and I want to help people live an empowered life through organization. Before you think to yourself, “My kid doesn’t have the attention span to organize?” Or, “I have too many kids to be
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organized.” Or “I am too busy to manage a to-do list,” think this instead. “Everything is a possibility. Life is full of possibility. Possibility becomes reality through opportunities.” The Organized Me offers you the opportunity to de-clutter your life so that you can feel calmer and more peaceful. In this series “Back to School Organization,” I will describe, stepby-step, how you can free yourself from the stress that comes with piles of paperwork, lost homework and the sticky airhead at the bottom of your kid’s backpack.
Time Management Because time management is such an integral part of being organized and productive, I want to start the series with this topic. Maximizing your time is not only about being prompt, it is about prioritizing the things on your to-do list, thinking about the route for your errands and showing up on time to your appointments.
Daily Planning for the Adults A well-planned schedule begins with considering more than just your appointments. Of course, your time is managed on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. Yet the time in each day deserves thoughtful consideration. In this article, I will address daily planning. In order to plan your schedule thoroughly each day, you’ll need to consider: • Your tasks / to-do list • Errands • Appointments • Self-Care • Time with family and friends I like to look ahead at tomorrow’s calendar each night before I go to sleep. I look for scheduled appointments or deadlines. I think about when I need to wake up and what I
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will wear the next day. I leave the rest of the planning until first thing in the morning. In the morning, after a shower and a latte, I sit down at my kitchen table with my planner. 1) I write down the tasks I want to accomplish each day. I combine my personal tasks and work tasks on the same day plan. This is easy for me to do because I own a small business, but you might consider writing down only your personal tasks and saving your work tasks until you get to your office. 2) I write down the errands I need to run. For example, I will write down “pick up dry cleaning” or “go to the grocery store.” I often write my errands on a sticky note so that I can pull it out of my planner and stick it to my dash board. This way, when I’m singing along with my daughter and Taylor Swift, I have a reminder about where I am headed and don’t miss the turn. 3) I write down when and how I will care for myself. For example, you might write down “go to the gym,” but I ever never done that. I usually write down something like “Meditate at lunch or read a book for 30 minutes today”. 4) I also consider what my family will need from me. For example, driving to a lesson or helping with homework or cooking dinner. 5) I also like to keep a space in my daily plan to write down ideas or future projects. For example, when I’m driving to the grocery store and I have a brilliant idea about offering an organizational class for kids, I write this down in my “Ideas / Future Projects” section of my daily plan. 6) Finally, I write individual shopping lists on a 4x6 sticky pad (one for each store) so that I can move it from day to day if I don’t make it to the store on the original day I had planned. Writing my shopping list on a 4x6 sticky note also makes it easy for me to grab off
• A clipboard with their daily todo list. While we adults don’t always need to write down reminders about brushing our teeth and When I have all of these things cleaning up the kitchen, it is helpwritten down, I have a plan for my day. ful for the kids to have these daily I realize that each plan requires flexroutines written down. ibility and something might change, • A file folder for time sensitive but I have a strategy for navigating my paperwork that time. comes up from You and I c school. For exknow how overs ...teach our kids to ample, when the whelming it can a paper comes be to have a long p manage their time home for picture list of things to do h and help them not day, the date will and obligations d with deadlines. I g feel so overwhelmed. get written on the calendar and the want to teach our c order form will go kids to manage o their time and iinto the file folder until the d day it needs to return to help them not feel so overwhelmed. h l d til th school. Or when your child receives a birthday party invitation, Day Planning for the Kids the date goes on the calendar I recommend that each child has and the invitation goes into this an individual Command Center at file folder until the day of the celhome in a location that makes sense. ebration. Ours is in our kitchen, because we my planner and carry throughout the store.
spend a lot of time in there at the beginning and end of the day. It needs to be accessible, attractive and personal. I created ours from a multi-purpose bin that I bought at The Container Store. My daughter painted her name on it, added horse stickers and made it her own. The Command Center needs to include the following: • A calendar. I clipped the calendar to the front of the bin so that it is visible all of the time. I suggest a monthly view because it’s fairly simple to understand and not too over whelming. I created a 12-page, monthly view, calendar based on the BISD calendar with holidays and early release days. (You can purchase and download this calendar from my website). It’s simple and personal. My daughter doesn’t have to share with her brother, and she has complete ownership of her time. This also allows her the opportunity to count down the days until the next holiday, without needed my involvement.
Each day before bed, I recommend your children look at their calendar for any upcoming events. This will help them determine what to wear the next day, if they need to pack anything special in their backpack and if there are any after school activities planned. I still write down my children’s activities on my own calendar so that I know where I need to be, when I need to be there and how much it will cost me. The Organized Me will host first Learning Labs this fall where I will demonstrate these organizational tools and others at the Boerne Public Library. Kids and adults are welcome, and the cost is $20/person. The Learning Lab is designed to have fun and to learn about keeping organized during the school year. Next issue we will continue our Back to School Organization series.
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