How to Create a Back-to-School Family Bulletin Board
Getting organized can be an overwhelming task as kids head back to school. Here’s an easy-to-make family bulletin board you can create that will not only help get everyone organized in the fall, but also keep that organization going throughout the school year. The trick is to combine a calendar, a message center and a bulletin board all in one. Each family member is assigned separate sections, and a center section provides information that everyone needs.
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Things You'll Need
- Yardstick
- Pencil
- 2-by-2-foot white board
- Colored white board markers (one for each family member)
- White-board eraser
- Thin line markers (one for each family member plus black)
- Black permanent marker
- 4-foot-square cork squares (one for each family member)
- 12 Push pins (one set for each family member)
- White card stock
- Printer
- 18-by-24-inch desk or wall calendar
Instructions
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Decide where to locate your back-to-school family bulletin board. Find a central location where it will be easily viewed by everyone. You will need a space approximately 2-by-6 feet wide if you have more than four members in your family. Measure this space with a yardstick, and mark it with a pencil.
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Place the self-adhesive cork squares two deep at the top of your measured area. Each square will be assigned to one family member. Print out the individual’s name on card stock. Hang on cork section with push pins in the color assigned to that family member. Add the rest of the push pins. On this section of the bulletin board, hang such items as school-supply lists, permission slips, a copy of the school daily schedule, lunch menus and other school paper work.
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Hang the white board directly under the cork squares. Using the permanent marker, divide the white board into sections for each family member. Write each individual’s name using the assigned color. Explain to everyone that this space can be used to write notes to themselves, notes to other family members (“Dad, don’t forget to pick me up after soccer practice), lists (such as school clothes still needed), reminders about items to bring to school and more.
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Use nails to hang the wall calendar under the white board. Go through the school calendar, and mark activities, meetings, days off school and other reminders using each family member’s pen color. Also use the colored-pen system to write in other regularly recurring items, such as piano lessons and football practice. Use the black pen for events that involve everyone in the family. Circle all holidays in black pen. Write in family members' birthdays in their individual colors. Encourage kids to use their pens to add to the calendar dates when big projects are due or dates when important tests will be given.
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Tips & Warnings
Turn pages over in the calendar rather than tearing them off; it may be useful to check back for information from the previous week (or month).
Set a rule that no one may erase any information on any white-board square except their own (warning applies to parents, as well as kids).
