Quick & Easy Back-to-School Tips {Guest Blogger The Speech Bubble SLP}

For the entire month of August, I have a fun little series starting on the blog. A few of your favorite bloggers are coming together to provide us with some “Quick and Easy Back-to-School Tips.” We all need these don’t we? I just love being part of a community that is so generous and giving! Today, Maureen from The Speech Bubble SLP is sharing a few of her tips.

With school ready to start again, Nicole invited me to share some tips with you. My tips for you today are about organization. This seems to be an eternal struggle for me, but using these tips have definitely helped me get this area under control. First off, staying organized at your table. You all know the table I mean. Call it horseshoe or kidney, it is basically where we spend 90% of our day. Getting a cute little basket for your table can make a big difference. It helps to reduce clutter and distraction for kids and gives you a place for all those little things we tend to need at some point in our day. Here is my basket, I got it at Target. I have pens, pencils, highlighters, post-its, tissues, tape, hall passes, and hand sanitizer. Having these at your finger tips means you or your kids, don’t have to interrupt therapy to grab something.

Next up, a binder. Keeping all my forms and information in once place is huge. I like to keep each section title page and their corresponding forms in the same page protector pouch. I also make several copies of each form and paper clip them together. This way, I can just grab a form instead of waiting in line at the copier.

Finally, a spreadsheet of materials. Not gonna lie, this one takes some time but is soooo worth it in the end. In Excel, I made a spreadsheet using the various areas of therapy I work on ( categorizing, WH-Questions, artic… ). Then, under each area, I entered all the materials I had that could be used to target this area. Yes, it took some time but now I can just update things quickly when I get something new and have an awesome reference tool. It makes it easier to choose materials, avoid repeating the same activity too soon after a session, and allows me to get the most use out of my materials instead of forgetting about some and then finding them months later, covered in dust.

What tips do you have for back to school?

Maureen Wilson M.S., CCC-SLP is the author of The Speech Bubble SLP. Check out her blog for articles, materials, freebies, and more. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.