I think it’s safe to say just about every member of every family would
agree that the first week of September is one of the worst of the year. Kids
have to say goodbye to long days lounging on the couch playing video games,
evening soccer games, and their favourite summer camp, and parents have to say
goodbye to cottages, camping trips, and barbecues. Worse than leaving all of
that behind, though, is having to gear back up for the return to school. Kids
may feel they’re the ones getting the short end of the stick, forced back into
cramped classrooms and daydreaming of summers days gone past, but any parent
who’s gone through the back to school routine a couple of times knows they’re
the ones facing the real challenges. For parents, back to school means packing
lunches, buying new school supplies, and organizing the endless supply of
homework and notebooks strewn about the house. To help all the stressed,
overworked parents out there through these difficult times, Ridofit’s compiled 5 simple tips for a
smooth transition back to school.
1. Recycle old supplies. Have your son/daughter dredge up and organize last year’s school
supplies. Too often kids insist on replacing last year’s supplies with the latest
and greatest books, markers, and backpacks, and when you don’t know that they
actually do and don’t have, left from last year, it can be hard to say no, so
don’t let them off the hook easily! More often than not, they have perfectly
good supplies that can carry over from the previous year and tapping into those
reserves will help keep you from breaking the back to school bank.
2. Don’t
leave shopping til the Last Minute. It’s always tough to find time for
excursions as involved as back-to-school shopping, but getting it over with as
early as possible is sure to lighten the load a little. The closer we get to
the first day back, the busier the stores will be and the fewer supplies will
be left. Take some initiative and get out there ahead of time and you won’t
regret it.
3. Organize, organize, organize. It can
be difficult to keep your kids’ school stuff in order, especially at the start
of the year with added challenges like the seemingly endless stream of handouts
and the time it takes to get back into old routines, but keeping things
organized from the get-go with bins, folders, binders, and more, will get you
into good habits for the rest of the year and good habits are easier to
maintain than hard habits are to break.
4. Invest
in quality products. It can be tempting to take the path of least
resistance when picking up school and organizational supplies for the school
year, but making a slightly larger investment upfront can pay huge dividends
down the line. Having a backpack, binder, or desk set break down mid-way
through the year could cause serious problems and investing just a little bit
more up front to reduce that risk is the safe bet.
5. Set up
a family calendar. Don’t limit back-to-school organization to your
children’s things, it’s just as if not more important to organize day-to-day
and week-to-week schedules as well. A new school year will bring new
commitments for your kids and your schedule probably isn’t getting any lighter.
In the interest of keeping everyone sane and finding family time amidst the
chaos, have everyone pencil in their schedules on a dry-erase or large format
calendar, It’ll make it much easier for everyone to keep up with their
personal, professional and family commitments.
Now we know you might not want to, but get out there and get back on
that horse. If you go into the school year adequately prepared it’ll breeze by
and you’ll be back to those long relaxing summer days in no time.
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