It is hard to believe that summer is coming to a close, but the
fall and school season is fast approaching. Our son will be
beginning his first year of preschool this year and we are both
excited and nervous. How nice it has been to not be on a
schedule and to be able to lounge around in our pajamas, yet at
the same time I am looking forward to having some time on my
hands to tackle those projects that have been looming before me
all summer long.
I remember the hectic mornings of my youth with three children
in our parent’s house. I remember the constant fight over the
bathroom, the rushed breakfast, our poor mom driving us to
school every single day, and the frantic sense of urgency that
we all had to get to where we need to be. I hope that with a few
of these organizational tips that you can avoid those hectic
mornings and be able to really sit down and enjoy that cup of
coffee before your hurried day begins. Here are a few of my
ideas for staying organized during a more stressful part of your
day.
Plan
Ahead Much
of the stress in our lives can be avoided if we can plan ahead
and this is the case with returning to school. Usually the
teachers send home with your children a list for what will be
needed for the next school year and it is important to get all
of the required items as well as several back-ups for later
during the year. Take advantage of all of those back to school
sales with the huge bins of notebooks, loose leaf paper, and
pencils and stock up. Designate a spot in your home, which is
accessible to the children, for storing all of your back up
supplies. Be sure to check your local dollar store as well for
the pricier items that your child will need in order to get
started for the year. You will be very grateful when the spring
rolls around and you do not have to make another trip to the
store and pay higher prices for the same items later in the
year.
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Next, label,
label, label. Everything will need to have your child’s name on
it and you will be glad that you labeled your child’s items when
another child accidentally brings them home with them. You can
write your child’s name in permanent marker on belongings such
as backpacks, lunch boxes, gym shoes, and other fabric items.
For notebooks, pencil totes, and books it might be a good
investment to purchase a self-stamping rubber stamp with their
information on it or purchase address labels. A good place that
I have found to get these is
www.checksunlimited.com and they offer a wide selection in
different styles and fonts.
Be sure not to miss the child’s Back to School night and
introduce yourself to their teacher. Be involved in any
capacity that you can whether it is room mother, volunteer
teacher, or just to help on those field trips. Not only will
your child be grateful, but you can establish a relationship
with the teacher and open the doors of communication. Remember
that if you do not have a wonderful first impression of the
teacher to reserve this information when you are around your
child. Your negativity can rub off on them and immediately start
the year off on the wrong foot.
Clothes Wars & Other Battles
Around the age of two or three you will start to see your child
developing their own opinions on what looks good and what does
not. Maybe looking like a “fashion don’t” isn’t of any concern
to them, but it might be a concern to you on your child’s
picture day. It can be a true battle of wills, but there are
ways to help your child choose their own clothing with your
help.
Invest in a five compartment sweater organizer and use the top
one for Monday, the second one for Tuesday, and so on. On Sunday
evening have your child help you plan the clothing for the week.
Preset everything down to underwear, socks, barrettes, whatever
you can do to help make their morning easier.
For younger kids, preset their combs, brushes, toothbrush,
towel, and toothpaste so that they can quickly get ready in the
morning without you getting everything out for them.
Be sure to have purses, briefcases, coats, and backpacks waiting
at the door ready to go for you so that you don’t have to rush
around getting everything together in the morning. You will be
grateful when you don’t have to spend twenty minutes looking for
that one paper or your keys when you are already rushed to get
to where you need to go.
Meals Much
can be said about meal planning not only for your hectic
morning, but also lunch preparation can be particularly
cumbersome when you are trying to get your children to school on
time. The supermarkets offer a variety of food that is both
unhealthy and pricey, catering to the harried parent who doesn’t
think that they have time to be creative. You will waste a lot
of your money by buying these convenience and individually sized
items. Instead of buying these, look for foods that are
nutritious and which will offer your child the nutrients they
need for energy to get through their school day. Buy large
packages of crackers, cheese, milk or juice, carrots, celery,
and other healthy foods and start by dividing these large
packages into small lunch-size portions in baggies. Keep these
baggies in a Rubbermaid container and then just grab them and
drop them in the lunch boxes in the morning. Save your used
yogurt containers and refill these with the boxed pudding or
Jello that you can make large batches of for a fraction of the
cost or refill them with yogurt from larger and less expensive
containers. Instead of purchasing juice boxes or individual
milks, fill a thermos with the drink of your choice. For younger
children you can dilute the juice so that they are not getting
too many empty calories. Be fun and creative with lunches and a
little note to your child (or your husband for that matter) will
really make their day and remind them of how special they are to
you. By preparing these meals the night before, you will save
yourself some time in the morning.
With that being said, don’t forget to offer your child a healthy
breakfast in the morning. It is proven that children perform
better on tests and have less health problems later in their
life if their day is started with a healthy breakfast. Have a
variety of foods on hand such as fruits, whole grain cereals,
whole grain bagels, and other healthy foods on hand that your
child can prepare for themselves. For the more motivated mother,
you could even prepare large batches of French toast, waffles,
or pancakes and then freeze them in individual portions for your
child to zap in the microwave in the morning. I like to do this
on Saturday mornings when I have more time on my hands to really
prepare a nice morning brunch and just make tons of extras for
those days during the week when I have less time.
Preset your table with silverware, bowls, and plates the night
before. Place cereal and other breakfast items on the table
where they are accessible to your child to help prepare their
breakfast in the morning. Also make sure that your dishwasher is
empty the night before so that you can immediately move
breakfast dishes to the dishwasher avoiding a sink full of
dishes to come home to after your busy morning.
Papers, Papers, and More Papers The
beauty of your children’s craft projects from school will wear
off if you are saving every single picture and drawing that they
have done. Save yourself the loads of clutter by allowing your
child to help you pick their most favorite projects for saving.
Invest in a couple of inexpensive frames for their bedroom and
reframe these periodically with their beautiful artwork or
choose one picture for the refrigerator or front of one of your
cupboards for saving. By allowing your child to help you choose,
they learn the importance of weeding out paperwork.
It is also smart to create an area in your file cabinet or a
plastic file crate for your child’s papers and report cards.
Have them help you with labeling the folders or decorating them
with stickers that they have chosen. This will give them a sense
of ownership of their work and also teach them the importance of
filing their own papers.
As a parent, your child will be bringing home lots of papers
that require your reading or signature. Designate a spot in your
home for an inbox and outbox for these papers. Label them
clearly for your child and instruct them to unload their papers
into the inbox. It also helps if you can create a box for them
for their own room where they can put their own homework in that
they need to do for the evening.
For papers such as emergency contact sheets, permission slips,
and immunization records which come up frequently during the
school year for field trips and sports, it is a good idea to
invest in photocopying these documents and keeping them in a
file for yourself so that you don’t have to constantly be
signing and writing the same things over and over again.
When you get papers on bake sales, field trips, and other school
events, be sure to immediately transfer these dates onto a
calendar. If you have more than one child’s events to attend,
assign each child and family member a color for their events. It
will make it easier to see that it is Susie’s concert that you
need to attend and not Billy’s. Buy a calendar that has plenty
of room in it for all of your information and by immediately
putting this on your calendar in a neat and organized way, you
will have less chance of missing those important events. Consult
your calendar first thing in the morning so that you know
exactly what you need to do for the day.
A+
Work
Don’t forget to set aside some time in the evening for your
child to work on their homework. By setting aside time in the
evening you will not have to be trying to complete homework
pages first thing in the morning. Take the time to check your
child’s work and discuss their homework with them. If you have
no idea what they are doing, bluff your way through it or run
over to the internet and see if you can figure it out. Trust
me, our parent’s did it- we just really believed them.
Now you truly can enjoy that cup of coffee, your morning paper,
and your smooth morning.
