Filling out school forms

School is back in session in our area, and that means our kids are hauling home form-after-form-after-form to fill out.

One of the reason these forms are such a headache is because there are so many of them, with such redundant information.  But another reason they are a pain is that they ask for information that comes from wildly different aspects of our lives (our insurance policy number, and an address of other people allowed to pick up the child, and their father's employer's phone number, and . . . )   If you're not hyper-organized, it's a nuisance to go look all those things up.

So be hyper-organized.  I make my own computer version of the information the largest of these forms ask for.  If I don't have the kids filling out forms,  instead of filling that form out by hand, I write "see the attached sheet".  Then I can staple on the form that I've printed off my computer.  Much, much easier. 

Another way I deal with forms is that, by the time my kids are old enough to write legibly, I consider these forms part of THEIR homework.  They fill out most of the forms themselves.  Here are some of the things that make this work:

• I provide the "master form" with much of the information my kids need (more on this below).  The kids are allowed to copy from that form.
• I make my kids use pencil.  If they mess up too badly, I erase and make them do it over.  So far the school has never objected that the forms are done in pencil instead of pen.
• I proofread carefully once the kids are done, to make sure there are no mistakes.  
• If the form requires signatures (such as for a field trip), I do the signatures myself, in pen.

The kids object pretty strenuously to having to do this (they think it's MY homework), but my older daughter who suffered through this system admits that this helped her learn to fill out other forms on her own.  Looking back, she says it was a valuable lesson.  

Here's the information I needed to gather into one place for the "master form".

• Child’s Name 
• Birth date 
• Address

• Mother’s Name 
• Home Telephone 
• Address 
• Work
• Work Address 
• Work Telephone 

• Father’s Name 
• Home Telephone 
• Address 
• Work 
• Work Address 
• Work Telephone 

• Emergency Contact/Person to whom child may be released (some forms need 3 names)
• Name,  Address, Telephone 
• Name,  Address, Telephone 
• Name,  Address, Telephone 

• Medical Provider 
• address & Telephone 

• Dentist 
• address & Telephone 

• Special Disabilities 
• allergies

• Insurance company 
• policy number
• telephone

To make the form look more official, I do it with boxes around the information.  (In Microsoft word, look under "borders").  I put the words above in 8 point font, but the information in 12 point font.  So it looks sort of like this:

Mother's Name    Miser Mom     Telephone 123-4567

As with most informational tasks, we can save time and energy by finding a way to organize once, to automate tasks, and to delegate when possible.