Stationery Items To Get You Organised For School + Super Cute Give Away

The give away has now closed. Thank you to all those who entered. The lucky winner of the Mooo give away was Caroline E! Congratulations. I will be in touch shortly.

This post is part of a series on Preparing For School. The aim of this series is to provide tips on how you can get organised and support a smooth transition into school for your kids.

***

Once you venture into the world of kinder and school, you very quickly work out, to stay on top of things you need (1) a way to manage all the incoming dates and (2) a way to track all the outgoing items! Now is a great time to start organising how you will do this in 2011, especially if you have kids just starting at kinder, primary school or like me secondary school (can’t believe it really, it makes me feel old!!!!)

To interlink my Preparing For School series with my Christmas Planning 2010 series, these items would also make great Christmas gifts for friends and family who have young kids. I really like giving gifts that have a practical element to them. Having 5 kids, you can get lots of lovely presents, but finding space to store them all can be a challenge and there really is a limit to how much “stuff” kids need as well.

Name Labels


I think every family has one child, who always comes home with less than what they went to school with. Growing up in my family, believe it or not I was that child (being organised has been something that I have very much grown into). We have one in our family and he has been that way ever since he started school. Having all his items clearly labelled, doesn’t magically bring them home, but it does make it so much easier to find things again.

More specifically, it makes it easier for him to his find things again. When we realise something is missing, I really try to make it his responsibility to locate the item. I have found youngsters tend to hunt distractedly through the lost property bins, so if they have a familiar label to look for, they can find them much more easily.

Family Calendar


We have been using a family calendar for about the last 5 years and I have found it the best way to manage all the kids activities. When kids get birthday party invitations or special event notices from school, I get them to write the details on the correct date of the calendar. I also like to get them into the habit of checking the calendar regularly themselves. It is helpful to have little alerts from the kids about up coming events. For big events that the preschooler is excited about, we will even write a countdown for the last few days for him. I love this as I can then send him to the calendar so he can work out “how many sleeps to……..” himself!

For 2011 we have this gorgeous personalised one from Mooo. When you order you state the name you want for the front cover and then names that you wish to have across the top of the columns for each month. It fits 6 people, so mum and dad share a column in our house. Sadly we have placed our 2011 calendar underneath our 2010 calendar, because we are already getting school commitments and dates for January.

Children’s Diary

personalised diary 1

A diary is a great self management tool for kids in upper middle to upper primary school. They can use it to track their reading each night, homework requirements and sporting commitments. The diary shown above is also personalised from Mooo, which my daughter is completely wowed by. Her name isn’t one that you generally see on standard personalised stationery.

Mooo Give Away

The items photographed above were received courtesy of Mooo, who have certainly aided my school organisation for 2011. Mooo can help you get organised too! They are giving away a $50 voucher to one lucky reader of Planning With Kids. To enter simply visit Mooo and check out their Personalised Stationery and Name Labels range, then come back and leave a comment to let me know how you would spend your $50.

Entry is open to Australian residents only and limited to one entry per person. Entries close at 5pm 4th Nov 2010. The winner will be drawn randomly and announced at the top of this post later that day. The winner will also be notified via email. If no response is received within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn. Good luck!

EDIT: Just to clarify the voucher does not include postage, cannot be redeemed for cash and no change can be given for any unused amount.