If you and your child are stressing over how to juggle student homework, chores, clubs, and friends, you need to teach some simple organizational and time management tips. Experts who study time management and organization recommend these steps:

Schedule your child’s life. Put a day planner at the top of the school supply list, and then show your child how to use it. First, write down essential tasks, such as classes and soccer practice. Then add in the other activities for each day.

Set realistic timelines for assignments. Talk your child through the process of scheduling time for getting work done. Here’s an example of what you might say: “Suppose you have a science lab report due in a week. You figure you’ll need about three hours to complete the assignment. How many nights will you have to work on it? Remember, you'll probably have other homework and assignments, too. If you can give the assignment a full two hours of attention one night, you'll have it done in two nights. But if you're also working on an essay for English, the timeline for your lab report might have to change.” After a few weeks of going through the process together, begin to let your child take control of setting timelines for homework assignments.

Set priorities. Life is all about making choices. Your child might want to watch TV, but a science lab report is due tomorrow. What takes priority: watching TV or writing the lab report? A good student recognizes that homework comes first and prioritizes time to complete multiple assignments.
 
Teach your child to prioritize by asking the following questions:
  1. Which assignment will take the most time?
  2. Which assignment will take the least time?
  3. Should I finish one assignment before I start the next, or should I do parts of each assignment every day until I finish all of them?

Break big tasks into smaller subtasks and schedule each subtask. Break down big projects into smaller pieces. It's easier to schedule smaller activities, especially when there are only two hours a day to work on several assignments. For example, your child might break down the steps in completing a science lab report like this. Help your child talk through this process for a few assignments until he or she is comfortable doing it independently.
  1. Review assignment expectations, evaluation rubric, my observations, and data from the lab (ten minutes)
  2. Draft conclusions based on data (one hour)
  3. Write the purpose, hypothesis statement, materials following proper scientific format (forty minutes)
  4. Create data tables and graphs (thirty minutes)
  5. Put it all together (thirty minutes)
  6. Read over the report to catch errors, review conclusions, etc. (ten minutes).

Give your child the tools to succeed. Get a desk for your middle schooler’s room. A desk represents a tangible family commitment to schoolwork and provides an excellent place for storage, too. Stock your home library with a dictionary, thesaurus, and possibly an atlas. A good dictionary is worth the substantial price tag for hard cover, and thesauruses are available in paperback. Finally, buy a file box or accordion folders so your child will have a place to store papers. A simple, accessible filing system will help him or her find previous notes, tests, and reports quickly and easily.

Reward your child. If you see that your middle schooler is succeeding at sticking to the study schedule, give him or her a treat. It could be shooting hoops for an hour, eating popcorn, surfing the Internet for fun, or playing a video game.