With summer break nearing an end for most Valley children, here are just a few ideas to relieve some of the back to school stress!
Back on schedule
The night before the first day of school is not the time to try to re-introduce back to school bedtime! You should start now getting the kids to bed earlier and up earlier. It will make their life and your life much easier in the weeks and months to come!
Buy a family calendar
Life during the school year can get very hectic and stressful. A family calendar can help ease the stress. We all have our electronic calendars but a print-version hung in a central location is the way to go when trying to organize the entire family. Buy one of the large desktop calendars with big boxes for dates. Assign a different color marker or pen for each family members activities. When someone wants to schedule a sporting event, after school activity or family outing, everyone will be on the same page!
Make a checklist before shopping
August is the second busiest shopping month of the year. Make yours a little less stressful by taking a day to go through the kid’s drawers and closets and making a checklist of the clothing items that they really need to start the school year.
School supply lists can be found in several of the big box stores. Get the supply shopping done as early as possible because these items move quickly off the shelves as the first day of school approaches! Stock up for the entire school year while the prices are low!
Make sure your paperwork is in order
Call your child’s school now to ask what immunizations they need to start the school year. You may also need school records from previous schools to start at a different one. Make sure that your documentation is in order to prevent last minute running around.
No more morning madness!
Plan ahead to prevent the chaos of a getting ready for school by starting the night before. Make sure clothes are picked out, lunches are made, permission slips signed and homework is checked in the evenings. Showering or bathing the night before is also a time saver.
Homework first!
Many times kids will come home from school, turn on the TV and they are trapped in TV Land. Good luck getting them to shut off their favorite show right in the middle to get homework done! Start the school year with a new rule: No TV until homework is completed and checked. Many children have trouble working in silence so turn the radio on low to a smooth, calming station or put in a CD with “white noise”. Children retain more information without the interference of loud background noise.
Dinners in snap
Take some time to plan out your family dinners for the week. If time permits, take a day to put together enough make-and-freeze dinners for 2 weeks. You can make double batches of meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, pork chops, etc. And then mix and match as you need them. Label with the name of the dinner and the date you made them so that they don’t go to waste. These types of dinner should last for up to 30 days in the freezer.
Crock pot cooking is also a great time saver for parents. Pick up a crock pot cook book, sit down with the family and choose a few recipes that everyone will enjoy.
Incorporating even a few of these ideas should not only relieve back to school stress but should also allow for some healthy, quality family time throughout the entire school year!!
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