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This is our first official back-to-school season. For the most part, it’s lived up to our expectations: lots of exciting back-to-school activities, new teachers and friends, shopping for school supplies, and many first experiences (like riding the school bus). The hardest adjustment for our family has been the schedule. Liam’s in kindergarten full time, five days a week. We were typically the wander-in-at-the-last-minute family at preschool. Obviously that can’t happen for public school. So far, we’ve made it to the bus stop on time every morning. Yay for us! But we’ve had to make some changes to our typical routine to make sure there’s enough time for everything and that I don’t go crazy trying to manage it all.
I’ve been reflecting back over the last couple of weeks on what we’ve done that has made our lives easier and what I plan to integrate for our back-to-school seasons going forward. I’m sure I’ll add to this list as we become seasoned at this whole school thing. But I thought I’d share these tips with you as your kids head back to school too in case you’re looking for more ways to simplify:
Order school supplies online
If you’re like our family, you were probably busy right up until the first day of school. We were trying to soak in the last few weeks of summer and even packed in a couple of last summer trips. Although it was worth it and so much fun, I didn’t have a chance to do any back-to-school shopping until a few days before school started. I missed our tax free weekend because we were out of town. By the time I got to the store, half of what we needed was out of stock.
I ended up ordering the rest of Liam’s school supplies online, like these headphones and these notebooks which will last us for a couple of years. I realized that I should have shopped online to begin with. Amazon makes it super easy, especially if you’re a Prime member. But you can shop online with pretty much anyone these days. Many Targets now have a pick up option, so you can place your order and then swing by to pick it up if you don’t want to wait for shipping.
Make dinnertime easy
School is new for our family this year, so I honestly didn’t know how we’d all adjust to the earlier mornings and full day schedule. One thing I love is that because we’re all up earlier than usual to get Liam on the bus, the timing is perfect for throwing dinner in the crockpot. I’ve been trying to meal plan on Friday or Saturday for the following week and then get my grocery shopping done over the weekend. I really like about crockpot meals because many of them can also be used in the Instant Pot. So if I fail to get the ingredients in on time in the morning, I can throw everything in the Instant Pot in the late afternoon.
If meal planning isn’t your thing (I get it – sometimes I need a break too), this is the perfect time to try out a meal subscription service like HelloFresh. With these all the meal planning is done for you and the ingredients arrive at your doorstep every week. You can use the code WEARLOVEWANDERS80 for $80 off your first month of HelloFresh meals.
Utilize Goldfish Swim School’s parent portal
You’ve heard me talk about our swim lessons at Goldfish Swim School before. Liam LOVES his lessons there! Goldfish came out with their Parent Portal over the summer, and let me tell you – this is a game changer. I’m generally pretty good at staying on top of our schedule, but I’ll admit that I’ve forgotten to call over to cancel and reschedule lessons before. I tend to think about it late at night when they’re not open, make a note to call in the morning and then forget later on.
The Goldfish Parent Portal allows you to view your classes, make payments, mark your child absent from classes, book makeup lessons and request a transfer to a different class time or day. I love that I can sit down with my calendar any time of the day to mark Liam absent from any upcoming classes. I also recently used it to find a new time slot for him, since we had to switch from a weekday time to an evening class after school. If you’re a current Goldfish member and haven’t checked out the Parent Portal yet, you really need to.
Related: Kids swim lessons in Columbus
Plan ahead for appointments
It occurred to me the other day that Liam will be due for a well check in October. Since our pediatrician only sees patients during the weekday, I knew I’d have to take him out of school to go. Her schedule typically fills up fast, so I wasn’t sure when we would be able to get in. Thankfully, I was able to get a first appointment of the morning. It will mean getting up extra early and battling rush hour traffic, but hopefully Liam will only miss a couple hours of school that day. As much as a pain as it will be, it’s still better than having to take him out of school in the middle of the day and then bring him back later.
If you have a preference of day or time you want your child to get into appointments, I recommend making them as early as possible. Make a list of all your child’s doctors appointments you’ll need to make in the coming months (doctor, dentist, specialist, etc.) and then call to get everything scheduled. Find our how far in advance you can make appointments too. For instance, our dentist will schedule six months out, but our pediatrician will only schedule three months in advance.
Move up bedtime
This one probably isn’t as crucial if you have older kids, but for those of you like me with younger ones, an earlier bedtime has been so helpful for us. Our kids love playing outside, so this summer, they typically weren’t in bed until close to 9 p.m. or later. During the school year last year, Liam’s bedtime wasn’t much earlier either, but he was still taking a long afternoon nap most days. We moved bedtime up a little earlier a couple weeks before school started. Once Liam started kindergarten, though, everyone’s been in bed early – even on the weekends. And every night, Liam – the kid who has a zillion excuses at bedtime – is asleep within seconds. So the extra sleep is definitely needed. I also think it has helped limit how many meltdowns he’s had these first couple weeks of school.
Have you been doing this back-to-school thing for a while? What other things do you do to make your lives easier each fall?
This post is part of our ongoing partnership with Goldfish Swim School.
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