Happy Monday to you! Did
you have a great fourth of July weekend? I hope so.
We had a most excellent
weekend, taking a less-is-more approach to it all. We didn’t plan a thing, except to be together,
cook good food and have fun.
This approach worked so
well, that we all agreed that our 4 day weekend was like a much needed vacation. Our souls needed this break in the action and
we aren’t even a fast track family.
It’s a good thing that
we had this respite, because now there are only 32 days left of summer
vacation. Oh my. The powers that be (the school board here in
middle TN) have decided that a start date in the middle of some of the hottest
days of summer would be A-Okay.
Pitching a fit is a waste of time. Planning now for a smooth back to school transition in our home is a much safer bet.
Here is my plan of
action:
1. Start the bedtime
routine change now.
If you are like us and take a more lenient
summer bedtime routine, it’s time to nip it in the bud. Don’t wait until there is a week or two before
school starts or everybody will be tired and crabby all day. Parents: this
means we have to go to bed earlier too. No more late night TV.
2. Set a dinnertime.
Make sure dinner time is early enough that food
is digested before bedtime, but not so early that your family has powered
through what they ate and need a snack right when they should be brushing their
teeth. This is especially tricky for me with a growing teen and tween. They are
always hungry! (Yes, girls are always hungry too at this stage.) I aim for 6:30pm
to 6:45pm.
3. Clean out their closets.
Do this early, if you haven’t
already AND make them try on every piece they want to keep. With my girls, I
go one step further and ask them to see how many outfits they can make. This is a true sanity saver when you
are back to school clothes shopping and they are looking at all the cute jeans when you
know they really need tops.
4. Clean out or prep our
drop zones.
Every family is
different, with a different system in place, but I have found that having the
kids place their backpacks, incoming papers, permission slips etc. in specified
places daily works for us.
For instance, backpacks
must be cleaned out, repacked for the next day and be sitting by the front door
for the morning. Period.
5. Listen now.
School can be stressful
with some years more stressful than others. Both my daughters happen to be
entering a grade that is particularly stressful: 9th and 5th
respectively. You can probably relate to the freshman nerves, but may be
wondering about little 5th graders. Trust me: this is the
year the cattiness and cliques start. I
have set aside private time and chatted with both my girls about going back to
school.
They were very
illuminating conversations that helped me map out this first plan of action,
but I know it won’t be the last this year. I still need to plan my back to school supply
shopping strategy and then there is this biggie to think about:
there is only 169 days
until Christmas.
When do your kids go
back to school?
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