The school year is never easy, but there are things you can do to make it easier. Read on for the things I think make the school year easier for parents.
Tomorrow is the first day of school in my little corner of the world. If you’re like me, you tend to have the Sunday scaries, and the day before the first day of school is like the Sunday scaries on steroids. It’s overwhelming. You really want your kids to have great school years and you want to get through the school year with minimal damage to yourself. Unfortunately, I can’t ensure that your kid has the greatest school year ever, but I can help make the school year easier for parents.
My secret: a little bit of preparation can go a really long way toward making the school year easier for kids and parents. With tweaks to only a few aspects of your life, you’ll get in the swing of the school year before you know it!
How to Make the School Year Easier for Parents
Routine
My first tip to make the school year easier for parents is to introduce as many routines into your days as you can. When everyone knows what’s coming next, they are more likely to chill out and just enjoy the ride. This involves a bit of trial and error, so don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have perfect routines in place on day one. Every day is a baby step toward the routines that work for your family.
So, what can we make into a routine?
Morning
Get everyone going in the same direction in the mornings. Everyone should be on board with what time they need to be up, and then the sequence of events that follows. Our morning routine (one in daycare, one in elementary school, mom operating solo most mornings) is as follows:
Mom gets up and ready for the day
1st grader gets up, dressed, and heads downstairs
Preschooler gets up, dressed, and heads downstairs
Breakfast
Brush teeth
Shoes on
Mom and 1st grader drop off preschooler at school
Return home, last prep for school
Walk to the bus stop
After school
I don’t dare to even suggest that you can have a consistent after school routine that works the same every day. Activities happen certain days of the week, parents’ work schedules change – it’s pretty impossible for every after school day to look the same. Don’t worry if it doesn’t. Develop a flexible routine and then modify it to deal with whatever is happening on that particular day.
Bedtime
It is so important to stick to a consistent bedtime routine! As much as you can, target the same(ish) time for bed every night, and follow the same(ish) sequence of events. Our kids brush teeth, shower, and get dressed. Then we read together before a few one-on-one moments with each child right before lights out. We do our best to keep this pretty similar every night. It’s not perfect, but we try our best!
Magic question
It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned my guru, the Lazy Genius. My favorite of her Lazy Genius Principles is to ask yourself the magic question. What is the magic question? “What can I do now to make life easier later?” I basically live by the magic question during the school year. It’s my secret to almost success. Here are a few ways I use the magic question consistently during the school year.
Clothes
We try to select and lay out everyone’s clothes for the next day before bed. This task takes only a few minutes, but it seems much less dauting at 6:30 pm than at 6:30 am.
Lunch
Please try to avoid making your kids’ lunches in the morning. This is unnecessary stress that you do not need when you’re trying to get everyone where they need to be when they need to be there. I work from home, so I like to make lunches for the following day while I’m making my own lunch for the current day. It won’t work for everyone, but it works for me.
Bags
Get that backpack ready to go the night before! Is there a permission slip due? Slide it in the folder the night before. Does your kid have library tomorrow? Pack the library book before bedtime. Trust me, you do not want to be running up the hill to grab a show-and-share item trying to beat the bus.
Calendar
It is absolutely essential that you keep a family calendar during the school year. I don’t care if you choose an analog or digital calendar, just keep one. I’m an analog girl who has family members who don’t have access to much tech, so we keep it simple with a master paper calendar and a weekly dry erase calendar by the door. I put everything in the master calendar as soon as I know about it, and then transfer the important information to the dry erase calendar week-to-week. Everyone knows where to find both of these calendars, so no one has an excuse not to know what’s going on (except for my 4-year-old who can’t yet read).
Systems
I am a huge fan of systems. Along with routines, they help keep my house from crumbling around us. Systems can take many shapes, so implement whichever systems work for your family to make the school year easier. Some of my favorite school-related systems include assigned backpack hooks in the mudroom and the paperwork basket that lives on the kitchen counter. Every school form, bill, coupon, or other paper goes straight into the basket so I know where to look when it’s time to deal with said paper. It’s not a perfect system, but it mostly works.
Encourage independence
The thing you can do to make the school year easier for parents that will pay the most dividends just might be encouraging independence in your kids. The more you encourage them to do by themselves the more they will be capable of doing by themselves. Delegating these tasks to your kids won’t take all of the school year stress away, but it will certainly help!
Now, my kids are currently 6 and 4, so we don’t have a whole lot of independence yet, but we are working on it. If you’re not sure what things your kids might be capable of doing themselves, here are a few ideas.
Snacks
I used to keep the snacks pretty inaccessible because I didn’t want my kids to gorge themselves on snacks and then refuse substantial meals. As they’ve gotten older, though, I have sacrificed the remote possibility of them digging into the snacks too much for removing the snack task from my plate. I keep easy snacks and lunch box fillers in a place where the kids can access them easily. Then, when they’re hungry for a snack they can get it themselves. This new system also lets them grab what lunch “extras” they might want to pack. One less thing for mom to do in the morning is a win.
Night before
I’ve said that I like to help my future self out during the school year as much as I can. But when I can get my kids to help my future self, that’s even better! I get the kids to pack their backpacks and lay out their clothes before they head up to get ready for bed as often as I can!
Chores
I’m a big fan of age-appropriate chores. My kids do all sorts of things around the house. They trade off setting the table for dinner, my son deals with the trash, and my daughter replaces the trash bag, among other things. My son is also in charge of emptying his backpack every day, which includes putting his lunch containers in the sink and popping the insulated lunch box back in the freezer. Maybe when he gains a few more inches he’ll actually wash the containers?
Homework
We have not reached the homework stage of school yet, but when we do, I fully intend to set clear expectations around when, where, and how homework gets done. For those of you who do have kids who have homework, what are your tips?
Sleep
It’s so easy to let sleep slide during the school year, but if you really want to make the school year easier for parents and kids, you need to make sure everyone gets enough sleep! Set bedtimes for kids and parents, cut off screens, and create optimal sleep environments wherever anyone is sleeping. I did a whole post on how moms can improve their sleep if you want more tips!
Manage stress
Last, but certainly not least, I’m going to need you to manage your stress about the school year. I know it’s easier said than done. But it’s so important! In fact, let’s take a few minutes to talk about ways you can manage your stress to make the school year easier.
Community
Seek out a village! It’s so hard to manage all the things when you feel like you’re alone on an island. Make a concerted effort to find similarly situated parents that you can help, that can help you, and that you can just talk to about all the things that come with parenting school-age children. I got lucky and found one across the street, but you don’t have to live in the same neighborhood to live in their village!
Coping strategies
Even if you try to avoid stress to the extent you can, you won’t be able to avoid it all. Cultivate some mom-friendly coping strategies so you can get through the stressful times without falling completely apart. The one I’m currently leaning on is planning vacations. My bank account might not like this one, but it’s making me happy!
Expectations
Finally, I implore you to manage your expectations about the school year. You will forget to sign a permission slip, your kid will forget his Chrome Book, your kids will have activities that occur at the same time. If you know that these bumps in the road are inevitable, you’ll be more likely to roll with them when they show up.
Other posts
Looking for more help to make it through the school year in one piece? Check out these posts:
So, are you feeling better about the school year now? I truly hope these tips make the school year easier! What are you looking forward to most this school year? Share below or over on Instagram @sarainseason!