preparing for high school (bright, disorganized student)

[bettyandbob]

My ds is going to the local public high school next year. Both he and dh want this. He had a chance to go to a nationally known magnet, but the commute alone is 1.5 hours each. ds just said he couldn't ride that bus. And the truth is he can't. People I know who had dc do it said you must be able to use your bus time and all your time wisely. ds can't sleep or read in a moving vehicle. Besides bus time I was worrying about books and assignment left at school.

 

The level of ds's disorganization is truly amazing. It is a skill we've worked on a long time. His Latin tutor this year is a ps Latin teacher. She helped his a lot with his organization for that course--even one on one my ds can be disorganized.

 

Those of you who sent a disorganized student to public or private high school what did you do to prepare? My ds finally seems to have the maturity to realize he needs help in this area. A year ago, six months a go he just moaned "this is the way I am" and refused or did minimal work on improving non academic deficits. Unfortunately, the nonacademic deficits can easily cause issues for grade achievement. Ds is very, very smart. However, he could easily get poor grades due to the organizational stuff and become ostracized socially.

 

Anyway, we are finishing the year reading ADHD and Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table by Blake Taylor. The author is 18 now (finishing his freshman year at UC Berkely). My son does not take medication as the author of the book does. However, most of the suggestions are applicabale. My ds naturally was not excited about reading this book, but now he is rereading parts and telling me he really need to go over chapter " " again.

 

I want to also go through The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens with him. He's needs help with social issues as well as attention related issues.

 

Any ideas you had to send my way would be appreciated.

[MIch elle]

and although I think he's a normal disorganized boy my dh and I plan to meet with the school counselor this summer to ask them for help before he starts school. He's never been to school and I know he's going to need extra help to keep his assignments, test schedule, syllabus, etc. straight.

 

Can you schedule a meeting with the school this summer to help your ds get prepared?

[Mary in GA]

Well, for my very haphazard ds the school of hard knocks was the best teacher of organization skills. Ds did joint enrollment his senior year, and after losing track of due dates and test dates and assorted information, he got his organizational act together. I am happy to say he made good grades, but there were some scary moments.

I think your ds will learn good organizational schools as he goes. Part of it is finding methods that work for him. He still has plenty of time to develop those skills. Good luck to him and you.

Mary

[LisaCA]

Some reassurance:

My DD is the same way and is improving and another mom I know has remarked that her son has too. Of course you would like this change to come before HS but I just wanted to give you hope that with maturity some independance will come.

I have been reading a pretty good book to help my disorganized, study confused DD. It is written by 2 college guys that struggled with school and the "labels" placed on them. It has some great study strategies that I was glad to see that my older DD uses already. This is written for the student to read so it is written in a relaxed hey dude style and has a little language in it. With your son going to public school next year, he will hear and read far worse so I still highly recommend at least thumbing through this book and getting ideas:

Learning Outside the Lines

Two Ivy League students with learning disabilities and ADHD give you the tools for academic success and educational revolution. by Jonathan Mooney and David Cole

 

This has great tips for any student. When I worked in a public school classroom for special needs students I often wondered why the same techniques weren't taught to the higher functioning students to lead them to even higher results. Don't be turned off to looking at all resources for your student.