Back to School After the Holidays: 5 Tips

Do It and Do It Now!

After nearly three weeks of parties and events and services and travel and all our other activities, it’s time to take a few minutes and plan our re-entry to reality. The second half of the school year is coming!

Get organized today so you are prepared for another hectic round of classes, homework, lunches, driving and appointments

Use our Top 5 Tips to prepare your home and family for the busy days ahead:

Tip #1. Early to Bed, Early to Rise

With only a few days left, it’s time to pull the plug on late nights and sleep-ins. Start today to re-introduce your school year bedtime. Wake your late sleepers closer to the time they will need to rise next week. Your back-to-school schedule will go much easier if the kids are not in shock or sleep deprived.

Tip #2. Stock Up

After the holidays, you probably wouldn’t care if you never saw another Costco or Safeway, but in fact it’s time to re-provision with school supplies and food for lunches and after school snacks. Do it now and avoid the early Tuesday morning scramble to the 7-11 for a quart of milk. Do a wardrobe check and discard or donate clothes that have been outgrown or worn out, and replace lost jackets and boots. There’s a lot of winter left.

Tip #3. Do an Attitude Check

During the break, it’s possible that your kids didn’t spend much time contemplating the return to school. Ease their shock by pointing out some of the benefits of returning to school. Remind them of what they enjoyed most last semester: the pride of completing a project, mastering long division, the team success at basketball. They will see old friends and meet new ones. It will be fun!

Tip #4. Create a Calendar

Class schedules. Play dates. Music lessons. Lunch menus. School events. Volunteer work. Avoid the chaos by putting every function on one large calendar, and put it where everyone can see it. Use color coding by child or event. Keep it near the telephone, and when you get a call, you can tell your availability at a glance.

Tip #5. Set Some Goals

Take some one-on-one time with each child to discuss what they want to achieve the second half of the school year. Math grades need to be bumped up? Develop a plan, keep it realistic and attainable, make sure it works for both of you, and help your child break it down into specific daily tasks. Write it down. Let her know that you are committed to helping her try hard and do her personal best. Don’t forget social and athletic goals. Does she want to make new friends? What kind of clothes, shoes, backpacks, hairstyles are in? Within reason, let her choose, as long as they fit your moral and financial boundaries.

Count on ParentsDigest.com for the latest summaries of parenting and family health books. And try to remember, we only go this way once. Every day is precious. Hold your kids close and tell them how much you love them!