No one wants summer break to end, especially the kids. After all the sunshine and pool time, it can be hard to get yourself back into the swing of early mornings and study time.
Getting the kids to do it, too, could involve a lot of kicking and screaming. It may be only halfway through the break, but if you start your back-to-school preparations now, you can ease the kids back into it with much less fuss.
Here are six ways you can transition the whole family back into school starting now.
Get Familiar with the School Grounds
On some of your outdoor adventures, visit the school or schools your children will be going to in the Fall. This can be especially helpful if they are starting at a new school and aren’t sure what to expect.
Let them play on the playground. If there are community activities taking place at the school over the summer, plan to attend some of them so your kids are familiar with the building layout.
Prepare for their School Lunches
You may like to make a fun sack lunch every day for your child or you might prefer they eat hot lunches prepared in the cafeteria. Either way, you can begin incorporating the types of foods they’ll be eating into your summer meals.
You can also test out new foods you want to try before finding out that tuna sandwich they’ll take to school will never leave the lunch box.
Make their Doctor Appointments
Kids may love to leave school for an hour for dental and pediatric visits, but if you plan it right, you can knock all of these out the month or so before they return to school.
It can be easier to schedule these early on because your children won’t be missing important lessons and you won’t have to plan extra driving trips across town. Because kids have flexible summertime activities, it will be easier to schedule an appointment time as well.
Spread Out your School Shopping
One of kids’ favorite things about going back to school is the back-to-school shopping, but it can feel like more of a nightmare for you as you scramble to grab the last few notebooks on the shelf. Make it easier on yourself by planning out when to buy specific school supplies.
For instance, it’s easy to buy pencils and erasers early and store them at home.
You’ll be able to avoid most of the back-to-school crowd while still getting the things your kids need. You can even space out school clothes shopping for each child.
Giving your children some much-needed one-on-one bonding time with you before summer ends while cutting down on the stress of shopping for several children at once.
Re-establish a Sleeping Schedule
You don’t want to wait until the week before school starts to reinstitute bedtime. On the other hand, you also don’t want to go from waking up at 10:00 AM to 6:00 AM. You can use your summer activity planning to help make the gradual change.
Reintroduce Study Habits
Study habits don’t sound like much fun. However, you can get your children’s minds ready to think critically and absorb information with a few fun activities.
Take them to the library to pick out books they’re excited about. Require your kids read for at least 30 minutes a day.
You can visit museums, watch documentaries and start discussions on interesting dinnertime topics to get them ready for their new classes.
