It’s Almost Time to Head Back to School
So long, summer! It’s hard to believe that kids will return to the classroom early next month. Enjoy the end of the season and get your child ready to learn with these ideas for celebrating a new year, returning to a routine and staying organized.
Travel in time. Make an annual time capsule with photos, handwriting samples and drawings to open at the beginning of every school year. Do a back-to-school interview each year, and record height, friends, favorite movies and career aspirations in a notebook you can revisit.
Make it a time of gratitude. While you’re back-to-school shopping, pick up extra school supplies to donate to children in need.
Go back-to-school shopping. Shop for school supplies and clothes early. Before shopping, go through your kids’ wardrobes and last year’s supplies, and toss or donate the items they’ve outgrown or no longer want. Make it a special outing by going out for lunch or ice cream after.
Create a countdown calendar. Mark the days leading up to the first week of school with different activities. Each day, do something different to spend quality time together — set up a waterpark in the backyard, ask about their best summer memory, make dinner together.
Involve the family. Invite the grandparents to a favorite restaurant for a back-to-school meal. Ask extended family members to write notes, whether that’s memories of their own school years or messages of luck. Collect the notes and give them as a present before the first day.
Be “present.” Make a small back-to-school gift your kids can open on the first day of school. Fill a pencil pouch with cute little trinkets, a letter of encouragement, fun erasers, hand sanitizer and other small and useful items.
Decorate the night before school starts. Use balloons, streamers or signs — “Fifth Grade or Bust!” or “On my way to fourth grade!” Get poppers or noisemakers, and in the morning, throw a dance party to a lively playlist to start the day off right.
Have a glam session. Help your kids feel refreshed with a haircut, manicure or pedicure.
Remember the teacher. Start off the new year in a thoughtful way by gifting the teacher with school supplies, disinfecting wipes or hand sanitizer.
Prepare a dessert. After the first day of school, plan to bake a fun treat to celebrate the start of school, like a “You’re a smart cookie” cookie cake.
How to Get Organized for the New School Year
- Prioritize your family’s activities. Take time to evaluate the hobbies and activities your child enjoys, rather than overscheduling. Work together to create an outline of school and activity schedules in a cute planner. Create a family calendar with everyone’s activities and commitments, and keep it somewhere everyone can view.
- Monitor your child’s consumption of news and social media. Consider having family meetings to discuss the news, safety in schools or other current events. Refresh rules for screentime — when and how long can they use electronics? Have a “bedtime” for electronics that is well before your child’s actual bedtime.
- Increase the independence of younger kids by practicing tasks before school starts: refilling a water bottle; opening a lunch box, snacks and containers; sitting, eating and cleaning up a meal at a table within 20-25 minutes; memorizing family or guardians’ names, phone numbers and addresses; and focusing on an independent task for 10-20 minutes.
- Have a backup transportation plan in case your kids miss the bus — make sure they know who to call if this happens.
- Create a quiet workspace for homework and projects. Keep school supplies in a nearby bin, and designate an “inbox” for sheets that need your attention, like permission slips.
- Know how to ask about their day — “how was school?” may not be the best conversation starter. Ask open-ended questions, or share something about your own day before asking what the best part of their day was. If they come to you with a problem, discuss solutions together rather than immediately trying to fix it.
- Establish a routine. Reimplement bedtime and wake your kids up on time so they can start getting ready. Brainstorm ideas — what can you do to make getting ready for your day easier? Work through packing book bags the night before or setting out tomorrow’s outfit to make the morning smoother.
- Give your kids more responsibility. If you’ll have already left for the day when your kids are still getting ready for school, walk through what they should eat for breakfast. Let them pack their own lunchbox and show them where you keep items in the fridge and pantry.
- Talk through any worries your child has about school. Acknowledging their concerns can be helpful and can let them know that they can talk to you. For older kids, set up a box where they can drop in their concerns, so you know what they’re worried about and can set aside private time for each other.