The trouble with end of year holidays is that they end. And that’s when the trouble really starts. Here’s how to lessen the pain and get yourself and your back-to-schoolers more organised for the big rush than ever before.
If December is the season to be jolly, then what follows must be the most un-jolly season of them all. Two weeks into January and your New Year’s resolutions are busted, your bank account’s bombed, and you’re still picking tinsel out of your carpet.
It’s into this most depressing of settings that the Back To School monster comes barreling. In January I have three sons going to two different schools to manage, and I have learned some lessons myself along the way. Mostly about time management, but also about cutting myself some slack in the Pinterest-style parenting department.
Here’s how you can neatly sidestep the stress that comes with getting your future rocket scientists and world leaders back into their classrooms, with the correct uniforms, stationery and lunchbox snacks:
Just call me Inbox Queen
Give me the back the days when letters notices were printed out and pinned to the back of your uniform. No really, they did that when I was in school. Now communication is via email, and it’s messy. Do this:
1) Create a folder for each of your children in your inbox
2) Create a Rule where emails coming from their school / after-school activities / swim coach / mom circles are auto-filed in each child’s folder.
Thank me later.
Google Calendar will change your life
When I receive an email from my child’s school, I don’t let myself close it until I have added all the little action items to our family Google Calendar. It syncs to every phone and tablet in our family, even my husband’s. And little reminders pop up on my phone during the day. Like “Ryan’s picnic tomorrow – buy snacks”!
Another amazing app is Wunderlist – it’s the cutest To Do list ever. And best of all, it’s free for Mac and PC, IOS and Android.
Write on the walls. No really…
If I’m really worried I’m going to forget something, we have fat whiteboard markers in a jar in the kitchen, and we write little notes on the tiles. It’s fun. And it wipes off with a wet cloth.
I also write grocery lists on the kitchen tiles, then photograph the list with my smartphone and go shopping. You can also write messages like: “Remember to pack your soccer kit” on the tiles above the loo.
Squirrel away the January fund early
January is not the time to scrounge under the couch cushions for forgotten R100 notes to bolster your stationery and school uniform shopping fund – November is. Yes, yes, yes – I know that’s not much help this year, but keep it in mind for next year, okay?
Sign up for The Lunchbox
12 years of packing creative, nutritious lunchboxes is mission impossible. I discovered this little service called the Lunchbox that sends you an entire month’s worth of bagged, labeled and numbered treats. Check them out here: http://www.thelunchbox.me/
Order stationery online
Avoid the mall, and point your clicker straight at Pick n Pay’s website. You can buy everything from Pritt sticks to compass sets to calculators, and they deliver to your door.
If your kid is old enough, let them choose their own stationery from the online catalogue (because that’s half the fight isn’t it? Which pencil bag to get).
If you only read one parenting book…
I don’t usually recommend books, but download this to your Kindle: “Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids”, by Kim John Payne.
It will change your outlook on the frantic, squeeze-in-as-much-as-you-can, style of parenting that has us creating entire pinboards of Minions-inspired cakes.
7 Supersmart ways to survive #Back2School madness, by @MissStaceyVee https://t.co/VgnBEAgIyT … #LoveChange
— BrightRock (@BrightRockZA) January 14, 2015
* This article was originally published in the 2015 back-to-school season.
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