Getting Ready for Back to School
Oh goodness, August is here already and ’tis the season for back to school.
We have some serious prepping to do. I, myself, have had a hard time getting up in the morning… and before I know it, it’s 9 o’ clock and we’re just finishing breakfast. This is not normal routine for us!
To say we’re in summer mode is an understatement.
We have to get cracking on our routines or the first week of school is going to be a disaster!
If you have a child heading back to school, or starting preschool, this fall, this month we’re going to walk through what we do to get back into the swing of things.
Prepare what your morning routine will be like.
A few weeks before school starts, when you start thinking about school registration and getting school supplies, it’s time to start thinking about your mornings.
Jot down the time your child needs to be at school, what time you need to be leaving the house in order to make it to school at the time you need to.
My kids have to be to school at 8:15, but they can be there as early as 8:00 and they like to be there early, so that’s what we aim for. We walk to school (it’s 3 blocks) and it takes about 5 minutes. We have to be heading out the door by 7:55.
And keep going through your morning backwards.
To be out the door at 7:55, I set an alarm on my phone for 7:45 for them to start putting on shoes, get their bags ready and so on. Note: This time changes depending on the time of year (winter requires snow pants and boots that take a lot more time to get ready).
I give the kids about 15 minutes to get dressed, brush their teeth and comb their hair (if they desire to…. haha). So, now we’re back to 7:30.
I allow another 15-20 minutes to eat breakfast. Which puts us at a wake-up time of 7:10 at the latest. (This is usually no problem at all for my kids…).
Here’s a handy sheet to fill out to help plan your back to school mornings.
Since my kids do wake up earlier on their own, I do put in mandatory alarms on my phone.
I have alarms for:
- Time to eat breakfast (at 7:00)
- Time to get ready to leave the house (7:45)
This puts the control in the alarm and not “mom”. When that alarm goes off, they know it’s time to hop right to it.
This also gives them the leniency that when they get up, they can watch one of their shows or play iPad until that first alarm goes off. The rule then is they need to eat and get ready for school before they can go back to their shows.
But once that 7:45 alarm goes off to get ready to leave, they know again, it’s time to get moving.
Take a moment and fill out the back to school mornings sheet and jot down everything your kids need to do in the morning (Do you have pets? Do you have chores they need to do before school? Be sure to include those).
Also remember that getting ready for school is a great time for little kids to practice things, like putting on their shoes, zipping up a coat. Be sure to allow a good extra 10 minutes for this so you’re not rushing them.
Start getting into routines.
A good week or two before your school starts it’s time to put this all into practice!
Start with just getting up early and going to bed at a decent time.
Then start adding in some errands that you normally do, but put a time to it (the time your kids need to be at school) and be sure you can get out the door by then.
Organize your home to be ready for the papers….
Something I wasn’t ready for the first couple years of school was the papers.
Every day, your child will be bringing home papers. Lots of them.
- You will want to create a space (folder, box, etc) for the papers you want to keep.
- You will also need a space for handy information (we get logins to online apps for reading and math programs they use at school)
- You will also need a spot for calendars and schedules that may be coming home. We get reading calendars that need to be returned, schedules for sports, and so on.
I have created a little command center this year for this.
- I used a 2 pocket wall hanger (affiliate link).
- 1 pocket is for items that need to be returned. Like permission slips, the reading calendars, or sight word lists, etc.
- 1 pocket is for schedules and things that I just need to keep handy
- I also bought magazine holders (affiliate link), one for each child. These are for the papers they bring home that I want to keep. These, at the end of the year, take photos of them and some get transferred over to a scrapbook. (Those linked aren’t the ones I have, mine are old and I’d probably get some to match my wall hanger now.)
What do you keep that your child brings home from school?
This is a hard, hard thing to decide on. I once had a teacher tell me to never keep a worksheet (which I admittedly was at the time).
I generally only keep artwork and writing assignments. I like to see how my child’s writing (handwriting and sentence structure and all that good stuff) changes. Plus, the stories are adorable.
Get into a system for after school. Have a place for everything.
Create your system for what you want your after-school time to look like. It’s going to look different to everyone.
I’ve noticed that we often have shoes and backpacks strewn about, so having a place for everything is super important.
Do you have a place for…?
- Backpacks
- Shoes
- Coats
- Books from the school library
- All the papers we spoke about above
Get the important stuff done before running off to play!
Since we walk to and from school, we usually talk about their day at school on the walk home. You can also do this in the car though.
But when we get home, we dive into it more.
We try to make it a habit of going through their backpacks immediately when we get home. This helps me see if there are any important papers that I need to address (sign, return, put something on the calendar, etc). This is done before they can head outside to play or anything else.
During this time we usually talk about what they brought home which leads to more conversation.
A great tip I heard to talk about papers and artwork especially is to say “Tell me about this…” instead of trying to label it or guess what it is or how they’re doing something. This opens up the conversation for you to understand it from your child.
This can lead into homework if there is any (our elementary put a stop to homework, so I’m thankful for that).
And then do chores at this time too before running off to play until dinner time.
Start the conversations! Get your kids talking…
Whether you start the conversations on the way home from school, or when they walk through the door, or when you sit down for dinner. Sometimes, it is extremely difficult to pull anything out of your child about their day other than… “it was good…”
I’ve pulled together a collection of conversation starters to have handy. Print these off and stick it to your fridge, or cut them apart and pull one out of a jar to get the conversation flowing.
And find many, many more conversations starters online — just search for them, there’s a ton of ideas out there. I’ve pulled together a big massive list of conversation starters here.
Your Homework this Month:
- Download and print out this month’s calendar and put it somewhere you’ll see every day
- Download this month’s supply list and check your stock to see what you need. Add to your supply as needed.
- Download and print out this month’s weekly activity plans. Let your child(ren) look through them to see the fun they’ll be having soon! Have fun doing these with your kids!
- Figure out your wake up time be calculating the time it takes to do everything in your morning routines using the morning routine sheet.
- Start getting into your routine a couple weeks before school starts!
- Organize your home to be ready for all the papers and stuff that comes with school.
- Get the conversations started with our conversation starters.
- Report how this goes in the The Activity Room: Member’s Only Facebook group (this is a private group).
