When I was growing up, I spent a lot of my time in school socializing and getting distracted by anything that seemed more interesting than what was on the chalk board. I got okayish grades because I tested very well, but I was very bad at getting my homework done, mainly because I would forget that I even had it. Had I been able to remember it, perhaps I would have been a straight A student.

When I was in college, I thought things would get better. I knew I was smart and a hard worker, but if someone were to observe me, they'd probably think I was lazy and a procrastinator. I would come to class, eager to learn more about a subject at hand, only to be disappointed because my other classmates would be turning in an assignment that I had completely forgot about.

I would know a subject well, but my GPA wouldn't reflect that because my grades were lower because of the forgotten homework.

I wasn't stupid or lazy, I just had ADHD- something I wasn't diagnosed with until I was an adult. What I needed was a little help with organizing and planning.

Like Mother Like Son

Did you know that ADHD is hereditary? I found that out when my son was diagnosed with it three years ago.

It's been very difficult to see him struggle like I did in school. Thankfully, we've had a great team that has worked with us from day one at his school. However, even with all the great resources and extra help, one thing has still alluded us when it comes to his studies and that is getting him to bring his homework home.

For a while, his resource teacher would come in and place all of his homework for the day in his book bag, but there were still plenty of days where she would be gone for extra training or she was needed elsewhere in the school, which meant that my son was solely responsible for bringing his homework home. On those days, it just wouldn't happen.

We tried many different methods to get him to bring it home: talking to him about the importance of doing homework and how it would impact his grades, taking away his video games and tv privileges, communicating with his teacher, but all of these things either rolled off his shoulder or was just more work for me and his teacher.

Exasperatedly, I would ask him why he couldn't just bring it home. His answer was always, "Mom, I just don't remember it." or "I forgot."

I used that excuse a lot, too.

A Great Planner for Kids with ADHD

Thankfully, there is a solution to forgetting. For me, it's sending myself a scheduled text message. However, since we don't allow my son to have a cell phone, yet, a simple solution is having a planner.

Order Out of Chaos has made it their mission to help students with ADHD get their life back in order. While, I'm promoting their Order Out of Chaos Planner, you'll see on their website that they offer so many other products like books, webinars and videos for studying, and so much more.

My son and I were given the opportunity to use one of their planners in exchange for honest review, and honestly, my son was very excited and has used it all most everyday, first thing in the morning.

He was more than happy to see that he could choose his favorite color- green.

The first thing that I noticed and liked about this planner is that it is the same size as a regular notebook and that it is simple enough that the school will allow him to have it.

Our Order Out of Chaos Planner came with a ruler that clasps onto the spiral ring of the planner, which is great for saving the page so you can easily find the day you're working on. We also got sticky tabs so we could easily find the months. The last, and perhaps most fun, thing we also received were stickers to help him label his days and activities, whether they be chores, homework, to do list, and so on and so forth.

Oops! It didn't occur to me to take a full view picture of the the stickers until some of them were already used.

Oops! It didn't occur to me to take a full view picture of the the stickers until some of them were already used.

This planner is pretty easy to use, which is great! (To much embellishment can be distracting.) Each day is divided into slots with enough room to write out each task. As he does each one, he can check it off.

On one of the very first pages, the planner has a class schedule.

This would have helped ME so much in high school and college. I can't tell you how many times I had to pull out a crinkled old piece of paper with my class schedule printed on it the first few weeks of school. I'd have to keep reprinting them or writing them down, just to make sure I remembered correctly and didn't lose them.

Every month has a page with full calendar and a place for notes at the beginning.

This is especially great when our student wants to get a glance at what might lay ahead like birthdays, practices, games, special events, tests or whatever else they might want to write ahead of time.

Another thing that is very handy and smart is the margins of the planner. Someone thought to add a permanent spot for students to write their classes so they can have specific slots for them to write homework down for each class.

Then below, there are time slots for things you do after school.- I was late for or missed so many things like practices, study groups, and even work shifts because if something was out different from my ordinary schedule, I would definitely forget until someone reminded me.

Conclusion

Overall, my son did a pretty good job at writing in his planner. I was actually surprised because there were days when I'd try to remind him to write in it to be told that he already had.

I know that this is the summer time and there isn't any school, however, my husband and I have been trying to give our kids more responsibility so there was still plenty for him to schedule.

My son knows that before he can do anything during the week day, he still has to read and do any practice homework I give him. Before I could ask him to write any tasks down, that was the very first thing he wrote down.

I thought that he would pencil in his video games or tablet time in before anything else, and yet, he surprised me by writing chores before that too.

Overall, I was happy to see how invested he was in scheduling his days and then following through on them. It was also interesting to observe that the days he wrote out his schedule, he did everything on that list without being asked too. He even asked me on those days, "Mom, is there anything else you need me to do before I..." Could you imagine what it's like to not have to repeat myself and to be asked if there was something that someone else could do for me?!?!?! I was very surprised.

There were days where he did forget to write down what he needed to do and those were days I had to constantly remind him that he had things to do.

I would highly recommend this planner to anyone who has a difficult time getting organized and remembering to do things. Now, I just need him to write more specific things, so we know exactly what is being asked of his homework when the time comes.

You can get your student their own planner at a 20% discount with this code-

MBC20 which can be be used for EVERYTHING on their site except their bootcamps at https://products.orderoochaos.com/.

One time use and expires Dec. 31 2020

More About Order Out of Chaos:

Leslie Josel, who founded Order Out of Chaos, has made it her area of expertise to provide parents and students with resources on time management and speaks about topics that parents and students face each day.

There will be a Free Back-To-School Webinar August 17, for anyone who wants to attend. More info will be available on their sites:

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