Five Ways To Get Kids Organized & Motivated For Back To School

This is a sponsored post by Avery and these opinions are 100% my own.

Moms with a ton of kids like me know all too well the stress associated with buying school supplies. Because I have five boys, I get a pretty long supply list from their teachers, so I try to stay ahead of the curve by getting an early start on shopping.

To me, the hardest and most costly school items are clothes and shoes, but I have always found the most fun buying school supplies.  Throughout the years I’ve come up with a few ways to get the boys motivated and prepped for school while maintaining my sanity. Check out some of my life-savers below!

1. Get Organized: My kids LOVE to pick their binders in their favorite colors and style. We try to find ones that are big enough to act as a workspace with folders. These are two very important must-haves in our house because they often like to sneak off to a quiet corner instead of a desk. Binders like UltraLast from Avery make it easy for my kids to be mobile at any time and place while staying organized. 
* Make sure you don’t forget dividers! Dividers are extremely important in keeping paper neat and organized. Avery’s dividers have big tab pockets and durable write-on dividers with pockets (my kid’s love this feature because it allows them to be creative and give dividers an individual style).
2. Set goals with incentives: My boys are competitive so I set up treats like headphones for their bus rides or iTunes cards for new music for those who get their stuff done first. They get such a kick out of setting goals and seeing which one of them hits their mark first.  This can be anything from getting organized, cleaning out their draws or seeing who gets their summer work done first. For this, we use a tracking list of things to do and each kid highlights what they’ve done. It works – trust me!

3. Label everything: I know it may sound a bit neurotic to be labeling everything but when you have a bunch of kids, especially all boys like me, they tend to like to buy the same thing. Labeling helps to find things so much easier for them. I’d say labeling has become my boys’ favorite thing to do. They also label their lunch boxes, school supplies and backpacks. My favorite is the clothing labels by Avery. I can’t tell you how many times a son of mine has left his jacket on the bus (and if it wasn’t for labeling we’d never find it).
4. Have school friends get together: The one thing I’ve always heard from my older kids before they went back to school was, “I wonder if my friends will be in my class?” It didn’t always work out that their friends would be in the same class each year but I tried to alleviate the anxiety by having them invite their friends over before Back to School orientation to help them stay in contact with friends. It’s something that I still do now with my son Robert and he looks forward to it ever year. He calls a few close friends and invites them over for ice cream and sleepovers.

5. Get yourself organized too: Back to school prep and organization isn’t just for kids. After all how can you help them if you’re a disorganized mess? Whenever I head to Walmart (which normally has Avery supplies up to 50% off) to pick up some school supplies, I buy myself some fun supplies like these cute glitter binders and dividers from Avery. They can be used to organized recipes, school functions, to do lists and if you’re like me and work from home then buy yourself a few in different patterns or designs and set up a schedule. I plan on using mine for a blogging schedule and ideas.

I’m all about function, variety and more importantly products that last. That’s the best thing about all of Avery’s products – they offer an enormous variety of school supplies and solutions that help support the immediate need of the student.

And best of all – they offer a “hassle free” product replacement guarantee to ensure every Avery product lasts the duration of the school year.
Find your favorite Avery school supplies at Target, Wal-Mart, and other major retailers.

Ready to get your kids organized for back to school this year? 
Avery will be having a weekly sweepstakes on Avery.com giving away school supplies! Simply click this link to enter. Good luck!

How do you get your kids organized and motivated for back to school?