Get your calendars out, ladies. We’re going to plan the school year before it starts!
I’m sorry if I offended you by suggesting that you need to start thinking about the school year in July. It’s upsetting, I know, but it pays to plan ahead. We all know just how crazy things get during the school year. If you plan the school year before it starts, you can minimize this craziness to the extent you can (it will still be crazy, though).
Lucky for us all, I’ve come up with a step-by-step plan for what you can do now to plan the school year before it starts. Just a little work now will pay huge dividends once the school year starts next month (yes, it’s coming that soon!). Should we talk about the plan? Yes, let’s!
Plan the School Year Before It Starts
Print the school calendar
I hardly ever suggest you print something that you have easy access to digitally, but I’m making an exception. You’ll want a hard copy of the school year handy when you plan the school year before it starts. It won’t go to waste, though! I like to post the hard copy I printed on the fridge so it’s in front of everyone’s face all year round.
Add schedule to family calendar
The school calendar is useless to you until you include the special dates on your family calendar. Now’s the time to add the school breaks, early dismissals, random days off, and school functions to the family calendar. Be it digital or paper, your calendar doesn’t know the school calendar until you give it that information.
If you need a paper calendar, I use and love Happy Planner’s Dashboard Layout planner. I’ve always used a calendar year set-up, but I’m starting to think that I might need to switch to a school year version instead. Do you have any convincing arguments for or against?
Add schedule to work calendar
If you work outside the home, I highly recommend that you add any school schedule disruptions to your work calendar now. I speak from experience when I say that you will regret it if you don’t.
Once you have the school calendar in your work calendar, you have a few things you can do.
Coordinate childcare
Most school schedules nowadays are way more chaotic than they were when we were growing up. School breaks are longer, there are way more random teacher work days, we mustn’t forget the worst of the bunch – the early dismissals. You’re probably going to need childcare for many of these schedule disruptions because there are simply too many to cover with the PTO that most jobs provide. Line it up now!
Whether you’re relying on camps (likely only an option over winter break if you’re lucky), a nanny/babysitter, or you’re flying in Grandma to help, it’s better to figure that all out now. There’s nothing worse than realizing the day before your kid has off for a random teacher workday that you have back-to-back meetings scheduled at work.
Communicate with work
It won’t be possible to line up childcare for every single day your kids have a different schedule than their normal schedule. For these days, you want to communicate your needs with work sooner rather than later. If you need to request vacation, do it now. Can you simply block off your calendar so no one schedules calls for you that day? Block away! Are you able to switch your schedule with a coworker? Start sweet-talking.
Negotiate with your co-parent
If you have a spouse or co-parent, it’s good to plan the school year before it starts so you can begin the negotiations. The parent who is reading this post is probably the default parent, but that doesn’t mean all of the burden of school schedule disruptions should fall on you. Even if your spouse or co-parent can handle one or two days, it’s better than nothing!
Flag opportunities for travel
If you want to take any trips during the school year, now is a great time to flag dates that would work and at least begin to research where you want to go and what you want to do. Miracle of all miracles, my husband actually has vacation time that overlaps with some of the school breaks this coming year. I’ve been bitten by the travel bug lately, so this is a rare opportunity that I do not want to squander. Who’s been to Costa Rica for Spring Break and wants to give me ideas?
Don’t forget that you can take advantage of your weekends for small trips too! It’s totally doable to leave after school on a Friday and explore somewhere within a few hours’ driving distance and make it back Sunday evening before another week starts. You don’t have to have a whole week to have a vacation!
Consider extra-curricular activities
It might be hard to consider your kids’ extra-curricular activities before the school starts, but if you can, you’ll be way ahead of the game. My kids have chosen their extra-curricular activities (at least for the Fall), and they are registered to participate, but we won’t get a schedule until pretty much right before the season starts. I hate this about youth sports. I know I’m not the only parent doing the taxiing by myself, and this is almost impossible to pull off when you can’t plan ahead. Do better, youth sports coordinators!
Map out daily routine
Getting the daily routine figured out can be even more important than dealing with the scheduling upsets, so don’t give the daily routine short shrift! Figure out who needs to be where and when, and then set your routine from there. You should use wake-up times, bus or school start and end times, dinner, and bedtimes as guideposts around which the rest of your routine gels. I’ve found that most people thrive on a schedule, so thinking through the best schedule for your family this school year is of critical importance!
Assign responsibilities
Yes, it’s up to you to plan the school year before it starts, but it shouldn’t be left solely to you to execute the plan. Everyone in your family, the parents and the kids, should have assigned responsibilities to keep the trains running on time.
The parents need to figure out who is in charge of drop-off, pick-up, etc. Who is making lunch, who is making dinner, and who is doing bedtime are all important responsibilities that must be assigned so they actually get done.
Obviously, the responsibilities you give your kids will depend on their age. I’m lucky if I can get my 4-year-old dressed and out of the house in one piece in the mornings, but my 6-year-old can get himself up and dressed and make his own breakfast. Because of this dynamic, my 4-year-old’s morning responsibilities will be things like brushing her teeth, selecting an outfit, and not saying anything hateful. The 6-year-old will need to make his breakfast, pack his lunch, and get his backpack ready for school. They’ll each have three items to check off so no one can scream “no fair!”
Other posts
Need more back-to-school inspiration (whether you want it or not)? Check out these posts:
Have I convinced you to plan the school year before it starts? What are you most looking forward to about the kids going back to school? Share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.