It’s that time of year again where you start collecting the best deals on school supplies, scour the internet and scroll through Pinterest to find ways to get your family organized for the new school year. There is no doubt there are plenty out there. These are just a few back to school hacks that help my family.
3+ Back to School Hacks
Here are some Back to School Hacks that will make the transition a bit simpler.
1. Before/After School Schedule
Are schedules really necessary before and after school. I say yes, yes they are. I have three kids of my own and this past year I had the privileged of taking another child to school as well. We have about an hour before I round them up to get in the car to head to school. Morning time it is great to have some free time, that way when they get to school they are more attentive, they already had play time. So there isn’t a set schedule for morning with the exception of my kids. They have to do the usual before games/play time can begin: Shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, and chore. Each child has a chore that works for them. One empties the dishwasher and puts the dishes away, another collects all the clothes for laundry, while the other is still working on keeping walk path in their room (she has so much! I need to de-clutter!!!). Those need to done before our friend comes over and before any electronics are turned on.
Having an After school schedule really helps eliminate the whining in our house. Let me be honest here, it doesn’t always help but over all it helps more than enough that no one kid of mine feels another is being treated differently. Each of kids are in different grades and their homework requirements are different. Our rule in our house. Everyone must be done with their homework before the TV or any electronic gets turned on. So if one child finishes 10 minutes before the others they have the option to go to their room and play quietly, they can read, they can finish their chore, etc.
Our After School Schedule is as follows:
- Use the Bathroom
- Grab a Snack
- Homework
- Free Time if Day/Time if permits
- Dinner
- Free Time
Some days we are quickly eating dinner as soon as we get home and then out the door so our after school schedule gets pushed to the side but that is only typically one day a week and every so often a second day during a school night. We don’t follow this schedule typically on Friday since there is not any homework. Sunday night we do have the kids make sure everything is packed in their bags for Monday.
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2. Car Ride Schedule
Yes I’m sure you are aware of the endless arguments that happen between siblings when it comes to who gets to sit in shot gun and who has to sit in the middle of the back seat. I’ve learned, everyone wants to sit in the front and no one really wants to sit in the middle of the back. I had four children to work with and we came up with a car ride schedule. At the time I had two who could sit in the front seat and two who were still in boosters so it was tricky but we were able to figure out a way to rotate the two who could sit in the front as well as rotating each child who would sit in the middle back.
Here is our template you can download
FREE Car Ride Schedule Printable
3. After School/School Snack Organization
Yes I let my kids have a snack after school. I don’t have very much cabinets in my kitchen, so I have a buffet cabinet that we use for snacks. I’m rather short. My oldest is now taller than me by an inch or so! Anyway because of my height we have everything at a lower level so our snacks are low! In my buffet cabinet we have the cabinet door when open has three tray/drawers. The top is for our extra silverware and the bottom two are for snacks and drinks.
So here is the deal with me. My family we didn’t really have snacks at all in our house and I went to friends houses and saw a cabinet or basket of just snack items, I thought to myself how do my friends have self control and not eat all the snacks at once. I really never understood nor did I know if they had a rule like I created in our house. My kids know our rule is 1 snack per day after school. It took awhile but they don’t question it anymore. The answer is no if they ask for a second.
This also is our school snack hub! This makes it easier on me in the morning when we pack school lunches and snack bags. A few years ago my sister made each of my kids bags with their interest and their names embroidered on them. They were originally made for Halloween candy but we converted them to school snack bags. It’s great if they loose them at school and they end up in the lost in found. These bags are one of a kind so they easily get returned! I typically place one drink, one fruit snack and one cracker type snack (this includes pretzels, peanuts, cheese crackers, ritz crackers, club crackers).
4. Shower Schedule
Much like the car ride schedule, yes we had to create a
shower schedule as well! No one likes going first and everyone wants to go last. We shower and maybe once in awhile take baths for my kids! My kids sweat regardless of the temperature! Showers just work better for our family. We typically shower first thing in the morning. Having this schedule helps decrease the meltdowns and angry attitudes in the morning. No one person goes first than another and everyone gets a turn at being last at least once a week. Its a revolving schedule so we continue it during the entire year. We do have hiccups with my children having the privileged of being close to grand parents that they can spend the night, or when we are taking a trip away from home or the kids are at summer camps. It makes it easy to come back to the schedule. We have it posted in our command area.
5. Command Area
Please take some time and create your command area. Ours is in the kitchen since that is where my keys get hanged. I’m typically in the kitchen last before leaving so having our weekly menu there and all our schedules just makes sense for our family.
Topic: 3+ Back to School Hacks