Get Your Kids Ready for Back to School

Heading back to school doesn’t have to be a struggle for your kiddos — or for you. Follow these tips to get your kids back in the school mindset and ready for an exciting new year!

Get back into a routine. With the summer days coming to an end, it’s time to get the kids back into their normal routine. Start by slowly reintroducing their bedtime, and start waking them up earlier so they can get used to those early morning wake-up calls for school. You and the kids will be happier for it come the first day!

Get a jump start on the year and check out these tips for safe after-school routines.

Create a calendar. Usually towards the end of the summer, your school will have posted a calendar of important dates and holidays for the upcoming school year. Stay organized by consolidating the dates with your personal calendar — you don’t want to forget it’s pajama day, right?

Require reading. Hopefully your kiddos have been little book worms throughout the summer, but if not, make sure you start devoting a certain amount of time each day for reading. This will help prepare the kids for all the required reading throughout the school year.

Creative count down. Get your kids excited for the first day of school by creating a countdown calendar. Have them include a different goal that they can accomplish each day leading up to the first day of school. Things like “clean my room”, “pick out an outfit for the first day of school” or “read an extra twenty minutes” are fun goals that will get the kids to complete tasks they might have to do anyway. On one of the last few days before school, think of a special “goal” you can add for the whole family to do together — like go to a waterpark or out for pizza and ice cream.

Clean out the closet. It might not be fun, but tackling the kids’ closet is a must before school starts. Donate everything that no longer fits and start making a list of clothes they need. This way, when it comes time for back-to-school shopping, you’ll be ready to go with a plan in hand.

Impose screen-time limits. Maybe you already have set times for the kids to be on their screens, but once the school year starts creeping up, enforce a no-screen rule after dinner, and only let them have screen time for a set amount of time throughout the day. You can even have them earn their screen time by only allowing them to play if they’ve completed a chore or twenty minutes of reading — a rule that you can carry into the school year.

Dedicated homework station. Find a space to build a dedicated homework station with your kids. Let them decorate and pick fun supplies to fill the area — having a fun, dedicated space will give them something to look forward to when they have homework to do.

Lunch plan. Make a consistent lunch plan that you can use each week — this will make it easier to grocery shop! Also, take a look at the upcoming lunch menu and let your kids pick two days each month to get hot lunch as a fun treat.

These simple and fun tips will get your kids excited for heading back to school — and it’ll help make the transition less stressful for you, too. Now that you know how to get your kids back in the school mindset, check out our tips for organizing your kids’ bedroom for back to school and here’s some more A+ back-to-school tips to prepare your kids for the long year ahead.