Summer seems to fly by so fast and before you know it, it is back to school! What do you do to prepare an how early do you begin? Back to school shopping tips incoming, from stationery, supplies, clothing, footwear, all of it.
But first off, let us get you baby steps to get everyone back to routine slowly:
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Reintroduce bedtimes and wake-up times.
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Make sure children are reading and writing a little every day.
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Limit screen time during after-school hours.
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Play board games to challenge the mind.
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Buy a family wall calendar to hang in a visible location.
Before any shopping, get the closets ready. Unclutter and find ballcaps, hats, raincoats, backpacks, lunchboxes, water bottles. Work on getting labels ready, indoor shoes, change of clothes (for kindergartener’s). Check for the need of biners, stationery, notebooks.
Get the planners ready, whether on a board in the kitchen or an online calendar. Look for the after school activity registrations, note the times in the calendar and coordinate pick ups and drop offs. Routine, here we come!
Get the closets organized to make sure sizes are right as children grow very fast unpredictably. If needed, create a list of items to buy. After the labels are created, organize the school backpacks with all that is needed in it and then stock up on school snacks, car snacks, etc. A good suggestion could be to pre-plan daily lunch ideas in advance.
Talk to the family about a list of chores especially if you have been taking it easy all summer. In addition, talk about bedtime routines, and then get going for all the great sales for items you still need to pickup!
Should be fairly simple after that, usually after a few hiccups as the school year begins, everyone settles into the routine they missed so very much. Good luck on another successful school year to all the kiddos, and parents too.
