First off I am not here to fool anyone, I am no expert in being a school mum! In fact I am far from it and have basically written this blog post as a little pep talk for myself! I figured I am not the only one who could benefit from the research I have done.
Ari started prep this year and I have struggled to get into this whole new life of being a school Mum. The school hours are ridiculous, like seriously how does one get anything done? The amount of things you need to remember is intense and moving all of your child’s activities to run out of school leaves you feeling next level busy.
Over the past six months I have learnt a few tips and tricks which I am passing onto you. I have also been researching more ways to help myself over the second half of the school year.
So here we go… you are welcome! 12 Really Brilliant and Really Useful Back to School tips! I will personally be implementing them immediately.
- Avoid being late for the school by by setting an alarm in your phone that tells you when you need to leave the house. This is basically a drop everything and go alarm. Some my benefit from a series of staggered alarms to give you more warning.
- Never forget a library book again by printing off a packing list and pinning it to the back of your garage door. Include on there a list of what you need to put in the car each day from Monday to Friday. For example library books of Wednesday and swimming bag on Friday. Back them in your car the night before.
- Always be ready to go by having the school bag packed and placed in your car boot the night before. In the morning you should only need to add lunch boxes and water bottles.
- Take the pressure off by creating a spot in your garage where after school activity gear lives. I just have a washing basket on our garage bench which includes pre packed bags for ballet, swimming and soccer etc. I make sure these are always replenished once used so I am always ready to go.
- Make sure your children are ready to leave in the morning by not allowing playtime or tv time until they are ready for school. Mine have to be dressed, bed made, teeth brushed and ready to walk out the door before they can have free time.
- Let children take some of the pressure off of you by investing in a visual to do list. Just google ‘visual to do list for children’ and they will come up. I used to have to repetitively remind Ari to do things like brush his teeth, but now he knows he has to complete his visual to do list in the morning (which I keep on the fridge,) then he gets time of the ipad.
- Stay on top of school communication by allocating time each night to check your emails. Then file them in a specific ‘school’ folder in your inbox.
- Enter important dates in your calender immediately once you hear about them.
- Most communication will come to both parents. So that we either don’t double up on time or presume the other has done something, Ryan and I have worked out that I handle the all of the school things.
- Go to school events and get involved in the community. We have personally found having Ari on the soccer team to be the best way we have met school parents.
- Be lunch box prepared by having regularly bake days and storing food in the freezer. I also do an online grocery shop which arrives every Sunday morning. Generally I make the lunch boxes the morning before school but preparing as much as you can the night before has huge benefits. You can even have two or three lunch boxes and prepare some of the items for them on the same day, and save time down the track.
- Don’t be afraid to talk to the teacher or ask them for help.
I hope these tips help you and your little people to get back into the school routine.
Enjoy!
