ARGH! My kid is SO disorganized!

[misty]

First of all, school started yesterday & Shannon LOVES Jr high! But she cannot manage the locker combination & despite my continued urgings that she keep trying she insists that she won't. (Shes gonna HAVE to by winter time. She can't carry her coat around all darn day) Instead she wants a bigger trapper keeper because they aren't allowed to carry bookbags to class. Of course we didn't have this conversation until 6 PM & I had no cash on me but she has 20.00 so she offered to pay for it herself. Thats great except we turned her room upside down & the money is nowhere to be found. She called Gramma, who offered to lend her the 20 until she finds hers & DH took her to Walmart. She had the money in her pocket & she gathered up what she wanted & lo & behold, she can't find the money! They retraced their steps but of course the money was no where. She came home all sad & afraid I'd yell, but truthfully, I more sad for her than anything. I talked to her & we pulled out the binder she bought before school started & I helped her get everything she needs into it until we can get to the store again. I told her she needs to find her 20 before we can go.

Ok, so fast forward to bedtime. She wants to listen to music on her ipod & guess what? Its nowhere to be found. We looked in all the usual places but no ipod. we found the headphones which are normally attached to it. So she walked around fuming that she can never find anything & then grumped herself up to bed. I told her tomorrow after school her room & playroom are getting cleaned! I'll help, but I'm not doing it myself.

This is gonna be a LONG school year!

[katiekat]

Can she get a lock with a key for her locker? Many of the kids at the middle school I worked at did this-I believe it was in their IEP. It made things a lot easier for them.

[misty]

I suggested that & she said "Oh NO, NO, NO, I'd be the only one!!"

[katiekat]

I can understand her not wanting to be the only one-where I worked there had to be at least 30 kids with one so they didn't feel like they stood out much.

[jj]

Misty, Can you borrow a lock with a combination and have her practice at home. I think that is what she needs to do even though it will have a different number.

Have fun helping her organize.

[lostmyshoe]

Misty,

I went through kind of the same thing with Becca. She did eventually learn the combination though. The trouble with her I have now is that she refuses to use the combination on her gym lockers and doesn't lock up her stuff when she changes for gym. She said she can't deal with learning two combinations. So far nothing has been stolen but I tell her one of these days she is going to come back to the locker and have nothing to wear for the rest of the day but her gym clothes. I'm hoping this year she'll try to use the combination and lock them up. I sure hope Shannon finds the money she lost. Becca doesn't start school until next week and I'm hoping she remembers to hand in all her forms and bring home what she needs to bring home. We still have two library books from last year that she never handed in. Hoping this year will be better then the last. Hope the rest of the year is good for you guys too. You don't think they ever will but they do eventually adjust to the changes.

[misty]

Well, I couldn't take it anymore & I went through ALL the debris in her 2 rooms. I found the IPOD! It was in her laundry basket, but the money is no where to be found. Also missing is another mp3 player she has. Its a cheaper version she uses when she goes places & wants to take her music. I found the charger & headphones, but no mp3 player.

[puzzled]

OMG!! You are describing Chase almost to a 'T'. He lost somewhere a $90 Nintendo game system....it has been gone at least a year, and I am sure it is somewhere in his room, but I have not geared myself up enough to look for it. I really need to get psyched up to even begin to clean in that room, it is a minefield.

Fortunately, he has been able to learn his locker combination, though it took him a few days, and he says he is still having issues with his band locker....6th graders do not change for gym at Chase's school, so we dodged that bullet this year. He loses his mp3 player on a weekly basis, and usually gets all accusatory toward me saying, "Mom, what did you do with my mp3?" As if I should know, and if he can't find it, it must mean that I put it somewhere....luckily I bought one that only cost about $40 on sale last Christmas...so if he does permanently lose it, he at least got my money's worth out of it using it this long.

I think the idea of practising on a different lock may help, but she may just stress about having to learn a new combination...our locks are built into the locker,so a key lock is not an option for Chase....

We are still working on the remember to bring home everything idea....

I feel your pain!

[notellin]

I used to write the combination number on a piece of masking tape and put it on the back of the lock until it was memorized.

[misty]

I got a lock today so we can practice this weekend. We still never found the money or MP3 player!