This is a sponsored post with Nature’s Harvest® Bread and Entenmann’s® Little Bites™ Snacks by Activate by BlogLovin. The opinions are all 100% my own.
Back to School can be hectic if you don’t have your act together. There are so many things to do in the morning that will make you perpetually late if you don’t prepare some of it ahead of time. So if this happens to be your first time (or your twelfth) we have some tips to help you out with your Back to School routine.
· You may have found it invigorating in the past to get your shower in the morning, but this will kill your morning routine for your little ones. Get them bathed in the evening. If bath time is anything like mine it involves endless delays and playing and clean up and mess (has your little one ever tried to play mermaid in the tub?). Avoid this hassle in the morning. The bonus is that a warm bath will help make them sleepy, which is a good thing before bedtime, and a bad thing in the morning when you want them alert and awake.
· I have to admit that I got a new toy recently. A Laminator. My daughter’s school sends home a lunch schedule calendar for the year, which I laminated. So I’m going to try that out for box lunches. I put together a selection of various options to take. For main dishes: sandwiches, sandwich rollups (see our sandwich rollup recipe), mac & cheese (in a thermos), etc. then a selection of sides (fruit, veggies, Little Bites, etc), drinks, and desserts. Like a restaurant menu. Then I laminated it and put it up on the fridge. So when we are going to pack, I let her pick from the “menu” the night before with a dry erase marker. So in the morning there is no asking what she wants or arguing back and forth. We go what she has picked off the menu.
· Practice your morning routine BEFORE school starts. If you start on a Wednesday or Thursday start on that Monday. Get up at the appropriate time, get them dressed, make their lunch, practice the walk to the bus stop (or take a practice drive if you drop off). Do this during the week, not the weekend, so you can get a reasonable idea of what traffic is going to be like. You can also ease into the routine. Start the first day just by getting up on time. Then the second day add in getting dressed, etc.
· I’m a fan of checklists and to-do lists. I am lost without my task list and notebooks of things to accomplish. And when my little one sees mommy doing something, she wants to do it. So I created a checklist for our morning routine and…wait for it…laminated it!! So now right on the fridge every morning is a checklist for her to cross off things that need to happen before we are out the door. This keeps her on track and helps set the routine.
· Set an alarm. Not for the morning. For the evening. Sometimes the evening routine can be hectic as well. With homework and practices and dinner, etc. Setting an alarm in the evening keeps you and your kids from letting the evening getting away from you. I go one further and set a bathtime alarm. So I know when is drop dead time for getting a successful bath with enough time to get her to bed on time.
So those are some back to school tips. What are yours?
