Parenting help needed! 7th grade homework woes!

[ElizK]

DD12 is extremely bright, and extremely unorganized. We are having big time problems with her not turning in homework... homework that she has done!! She leaves it in her locker, or loses it, or just flat out forgets to turn it in. We have grounded her, we have tried bribing her (sort of), but nothing ever changes. We are so frustrated!

One friend suggested I go through the entire day of school with her, going class to class with her, making sure she gets her stuff turned in. I told DD this, and of course she's mortified.

Any ideas? Her grades are suffering!

 

[sweet angel]

My son was exactly the same way last year. We tried an assignment pad, but he wouldn't use it or would "forget" it or wouldn't "have time to fill it out".

The we tried weekly progress reports from the teachers. "I didn't have time to get it filled out" "Ms. So&So was absent", etc.

He came really close to staying back, but managed to pull it together at the last minute and squeak by.

He seems to be better so far this year. He knows if he screws up the 1st marking period, life will not be fun.

No advice though...nothing we tried worked either.

 

[VALDAN]

If you have a guidance counselor in your school try talking to her. Did you try taking away some her favorites things, EX. cell phone, playstation,movies with friends. When my DD was in the 6th grade she was very unorganized. Fortunely she had an English teacher that STRESSED being organized. He use to have binder checks in which he would grade the condition of the binder.She didn't want to get a 30 , so that pushed her. She's in the 8th now, everything seems to be okay so far. But it's only been 3 weeks of school so far!!!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I went thru that last year...

Well, what I did was have her get an assignment book signed everyday by every teacher (they have assignment books already at the school and it is an option)
AND
I drove her to school and picked her up from school everyday until the next report card.
AND
Right after school we sat down and went thru her stuff with a fine tooth comb.
AND
I did locker checks occasionally & would pop my head into the teachers if they were their afterschool.
(I also did threaten to eat lunch with her too)

Result...her report card was good & I taught her how to organize.
When report cards came out she told me she would do better if I got off her back and trusted her. She did well the rest of the year.

Now here it is 8th grade and we will see.....she said she is doing very well...hmmmmm....

 

[MerryPoppins]

DD used to have the same problem. We got her an accordian type homework folder. Unfinished work was stored in it and finished work was put in a different section of the same folder. I explained to all the teachers that we were experimenting with a way to keep her on track. They were all very interested and helpful. They seemed happy that I was trying to help.

Then I gave her a progress sheet. It had all her subjects listed down the side and all five school days across the top. She wrote NA in the box if she didn't have homework in a class and initialled the box when she put actually turned homework in. If she didn't initial it as she turned it in, then it didn't count. We agreed at the beginning of the week on a set number of squares that she had to fill in to get a reward. The rewards were small things like go out for a limeade with me after school or go for an ice cream cone, etc. We did this totally on the honor system, because I knew she was doing the work. She just needed a little help getting organized. The first few days she would forget and want to fill in all the spaces after school, but I stuck to my guns. I explained it wouldn't help unless she made herself more aware of actually handing in the paper. I guess it helped. She's not losing things like she used to and we don't do the progress sheet anymore.

 

[Jillpie]

I feel your pain! My 7th grade son went through the exact same thing last year. We did two things....

1. Have each teacher sign the agenda, at their appropriate subject. This shows that the student wrote down the right assignment and we can then check whether he brought home the right materials to do the homework. After he has completed each subject, we initial too.

2. The BEST thing they ever invented were binders that have file folders inside, which have tabs for each file for the subjects. I found his at Walmart and his little brother, who is in 6th grade has one too. MAJOR help for organizing!!!!

He started reverting back to old habits this year, and we started the signing thing again. Its working. The file folders are absolutely wonderful and really helps.

Good luck. I truly understand what you are going through.