As a mum and a business owner, life is busy. But let’s face it everyone’s life is busy now-days. We all have something we are working on, somewhere to be or someone who needs us.
But during the Summer holidays it’s nice to slow down a little. There is little routine (well for us any way) and if I am being honest I quite enjoy having some down time with my children in the morning before heading into the office.
That is until the angst starts to kick in around the middle of January, we start to see the back to school supplies in the supermarkets and the reality of Back to School starts to hit home.
I have popped together 5 simple and easy tips, to help you prepare for the start of the new school year.
1) Make a Plan
There is nothing worse than running around the shops with 2 days to go, grabbing things from the list.
Plan out how and when your going to grab all your school supplies. There are many ways you can do this, for example you can order through the school directly, lodging the form with your local newsagency or stationary store. Or if your really , buying the items individually at the supermarket. What ever your choice make sure you spend some time and plan so it’s all ready for the start of the school year.
2) Label Everything
This goes with out saying, labelling can be one of our arch nemesis. Writing full names onto countless files, scrap books, notebooks. It is a tiring job and one that doesn’t bring a lot of happiness to us as a parent. But we all know that if we don’t label everything (yep even the socks) that we end up spending a fortune on replacing items during the year.
Find a system that works for you and your family. We personally like to use personalised labels for all books, clothing, stationary etc. It makes the process a lot quicker and easier as its just a matter of sticking them on. It also makes the items easily recognisable for the children, which means less chance of it being lost. If you’re interested in some labels for your child/ren school items then you can jump on here and have a look at our selection.
3) Routine
Start preparing your family for the start of the school year by easing back into the routine a week or two before. This may mean earlier bedtimes, having them do mock mornings routines, where they get themselves dressed and ready to head out the door. Any routine you can start to put into place will only help with creating a smoother transition to school, when it’s time to start. I have also found packing a lunch box for the last few days to be a great tool for back to school preparation. Especially if you have a little one going to Kindy or Prep. This way they can practice opening and shutting their lunch box and you can guide them to ensure they understand what needs to be done once they have finished. It also might stop the 100 “Mum I’m hungry we hear during the holidays”.
4) Set Expectations
This one might be more for the older children, but I find its great to have a conversation with the family about what the expectations are regarding school mornings and afternoons. For us it’s about having the children understand that when they wake up, they need to have breakfast and get themselves dressed etc. Having these discussions will allow the children/family to be aware of what needs to happen and then hopefully there will be less tension on those first few days back at school. For younger children having visual prompts can be helpful, so they can refer to as they move through the morning or afternoon routine.
5) Quality over Quantity
This one goes with out saying, if you buy a quality product. One that might set you back a little but in the beginning , you will end up saving yourself a lot during the year as you won’t be replacing Water bottles, lunchboxes etc. We like to make sure our children have suitable water bottles that are easy to drink from and keep their water cold during the warmer months. Stainless Steel water bottles are the one that seem to last the test of time in our house. We have a range of Stainless Steel bottles that can be purchased and personalised.
I hope these 5 quick tips have been helpful in your back to school preparation. If you have any other tips or tricks that you have found successful, I would love for you to share them with us by tagging @morethantrophies on Instagram or commenting on our Facebook posts.
