Tips

Start the School Year Right: Back to School Organizing Tips

The swim lesson badges have been earned, the camp songs have been sung, and the All-Star games have been played.  Be sure to enjoy these last, fleeting weeks of summer, because (believe it or not) it's time to start preparing for back-to-school!  Here are five kid-tested tips for easing the transition from care-free summer to schedule-filled school year:

1. For little kids, store their clothes as outfits, not as separates, to make dressing themselves before school easier.  Even better:  make a nighttime routine of choosing and setting out their school clothes the night before.
   
   
2. Twice a year, do a seasonal purge of outgrown clothes (The Cossitt 
   School Clothing Sale in LaGrange is a great motivator to do this!).  
   Store off-season clothes in a bin under the bed or at the top of the closet to make room in the dresser for school-approved clothes.  If you're saving outgrown clothes for younger siblings, store them in containers lableled by size.
   
   
3. Designate a specific hook by the door for each kid's backpack.  
   Remind them every day for the first few weeks of school (until it sticks as a routine) to hang them there and empty them as soon as the kids get home.  When homework is done, it goes right back into the backpacks, ready for the next day.
   
   
4. Create an "in-box" for papers for mom/dad, and decide where kids will do their homework every day.  Stock that location with a dedicated homework box or drawer with tools like pencils, erasers, calculator, dictionary, spelling lists, etc.
   
   
5. Help kids learn responsibility for their own school activity schedules by printing a list of each kid's regular weekly activities and posting it above their backpack hook (Band on Tuesday, Running Club on Thursday, library books due Friday).  Have them check the list each night (maybe when putting homework away) so they can stock their backpacks with whatever special instrument/shoes/materials they need the next day.

The key to smooth school mornings is routine.  Kids thrive on it!  
Spend some time at the beginning of the year setting up these family routines, and save your energy for the real challenges to come.  Have a great school year, and I'll see you on the playground!

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