Getting Ready for High School

Being a mother of a future Freshman, the summer months are a combination of excitement and anxiety...for both of us! Starting high school is:

• An exciting new part of life
• Heavier homework load
• The start of a VERY active social life
• Finding new friends
• Parting ways with old ones
• BOYS! (AHHHHHHH!!!!!)
• Learning to handle LIFE

High school is definitely where you start to learn who you are, what you like to do, make some of the hardest decisions of your little life so far, and the place where you learn good and bad habits. As a parent, I have already had the whole "sex" talk, no drugs, no smoking, no boys in your bedroom, you can't stay out late, don't even think about turning your phone off when you leave this house, and the "if you honestly think I don't know what you're thinking you are sadly mistaken little lady" lecture. (Being a mom is great, isn't it?!)

Although the above are all of the things that have been passed down from generation to generation, there is one other little tidbit of motherly know all that I am passing down to my little 14-year old...getting in the habit of an organizer!

One of the little fun goodies that I got from uCreate is a Student Planner for the new school year. Talk about appropriate! Now, I could just hand it over to Jordyn and tell her to have at it, but I am sure it would find it's way to the very bowels of her closet and never be seen again. Instead, I am getting her ready for it NOW!

She has a pretty busy summer planned so we are going to start with writing down all of her Orthodontist appointments, spending the night with friends, going to the movies, times and dates of her trip to Alaska and to Washington, and any other piddly poop fun stuff she has going on.

Not only will this get her into the habit of planning and organizing her time, but when she comes to me in the middle of July and says that she didn't do ANYTHING this summer I can tell her to grab out her planner and give her the old mom, "Oh really?" look. (That's really the reason behind getting her into the habit of doing this now!)

Bottomline, if your child, your spouse, yourself, whoever needs a little extra encouragement of getting some new positive habits start it out small, simple, and fun! It will amaze you what results you will end up seeing!

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne Babb