It’s back to school time, are you excited or stressed or maybe a bit of both? I am a bit of both myself. I am so ready for the routine and schedule again but stressed about helping the kids make the transition smoothly. This year our kids are starting 7th and 9th grade, yup you read that right, high school! So it’s a big year around here and as I was sitting down thinking of all the ways to make this as easy of a transition better I realized I should share this with you all too.
3 tips to make back to school easier
- First and probably most important, calendars are key! We have 3 kids at two different schools, one plays soccer, one is in the band, I am self employed and run a business on my own and my husband works 9 to 5 but travels quite a bit for his job – so calendars are key for us! Now before you say you already have a calendar, duh! Let me explain, I am sure you do have a calendar but it’s how you use it that really matters, at least to me anyway.
At the beginning of school, as in that lovely first day when the endless sign and return forms come home, you know what I mean. I take the school calendar, the sports schedule and the band schedule and start plugging it all in my phone right away. (I have tried paper calendars and white board versions but the phone app works best for our family.) Now as I am plugging in all those drop offs and pickups etc… I have a unique color code for each person in our family. So when I glance at my crazy busy calendar app, I can tell just by looking who in the family has stuff going on on a particular day. Once it’s all input, then I sync everyone’s phones so we all have the same info. That way when my hubby needs to add a business trip or I am gonna be off to a session we all stay in the loop. I know this may seem simple but trust me it was a game changer for us and really once the initial dates are in adding stuff on the fly only takes a minute.
- The Sunday night plan. Alright this one kind of goes along with number one but really needs it’s own mention. On Sunday night, I pull out the calendar app on my phone and go over the week’s schedule. See who needs to be where and when and then figure out how that is going to happen. ( i.e. call Grammy or Auntie to help etc…) Once I have all the plans in place, I go over everything with the whole family and make sure no one has any questions or conflicts.
- Weekly meal planning. Now don’t hate me, I am NOT as organized as this sounds and by no means am I making crazy beautiful Pinterest worthy dinners very night. I promise. What I do do is try to keep a loose plan of 5 meals everyone “mostly” likes and feels like having this week. I have a large chalkboard on the wall in the kitchen and we sort of plan what we will eat for the week. But most days, we switch them around, meaning what I originally planned for Monday I don’t feel like or don’t have time to cook due to crazy schedule so we have Wednesday’s planned dinner instead. The key to this working and making it easy is that because we planned ahead I have all the groceries I need on hand to make any of the days meals work on any day. If that makes sense, LOL!
So that’s it, a basic run down of what helps keep us sane during the school year. Again please keep in mind no one is perfect, and stuff happens even with all the planning, the key is to go with the flow do the best you can and try to enjoy the chaos, cause some day we will miss this. LOL!
