Back to School Countdown! - Get the kids ready to go back to school- Post #1

Back to School Countdown! Get the kids ready to go back to school! #1

  

       It is that time a year again!! On one hand I am jumping for joy! On the other hand I am a little sad. I have had a busy, but for the most part, great summer with my children.  There were those moments of boredom, misbehaving, and wild and craziness and, honestly, I didn’t know if I would make it through the summer; but we all have survived, and now there are only 21 days left of summer. Let the busy-ness and rush to be ready for school begin!
     When it becomes time for the kids to go to school, there is automatically all this stuff that needs to be done to get ready. In our house we have everything from spring cleaning of rooms to buying new clothes and all the needed school supplies.  During the summer we let the kids do most of what they want -- stay up late, eat at random times including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or even not changing out of their pajamas until maybe around 1 or 2 in the afternoon if that is what they desire. The first step for us here is getting everyone back into a routine.

    
     I don’t want the kids to immediately think, “awwwww mannnnnnn, summer is over,” so I try to ease them back into it. We started talking about back to school and how we were going to prepare for it about a week ago. We explained to the kids that they only had a little bit of time left before it was back to school as well as all of the things coming up. Our first step to getting them ready for school is to set a bedtime.  We do this in stages.  The first  bedtime we set is 10:00 p.m. which we follow until the first of August. At that point  they will only have 19 days left, and then their bedtime will be moved down to 9:00 p.m.  The final goal is 8:30 p.m. which is their school year bedtime.  With an 8:30 bedtime, the kids start getting ready for bed at 8:00 (showers, brush teeth, & read for 15 minutes) and then it’s lights out at 8:30. It's very important for all children to get a good night’s sleep and have a healthy breakfast every morning to help them focus and be the best they can be at school.

     In order to be prepared for the early morning rush of eating breakfast, getting ready, making sure we have everything needed and getting to the bus on time, we have to be organized. Every year before school starts we do a deep clean on the kids’ bedrooms. This helps them get organized. We make sure  we have all the necessary supplies for their desks and homework and then see what all they need  as far as  clothes and shoes. Logan and Laila hate to clean their rooms, but they know in order to get new stuff for school that this has to be done!  I really hate cleaning their rooms, too, -- I have enough to clean and do already --but  it is also a plus because once you gather all  the stuff that’s too small for them, you can go make some money by selling it on Ebay. J

 

So, these are the things we are focusing on this week – setting new bedtimes and getting organized.  The next step will be refreshing all of those Math, Reading, English, and Writing skills they learned last school year as  they may need some practice  with them to be ready for this new school year.  More on that later.