Now that school is officially in session, I wanted to share my back to school tips that help make our life easier.
Last night, we celebrated with our annual rainbow cake and had prayer time over some of the neighborhood kids as they officially started their first day today. So many of you were surprised to hear that we started so early but we have had a little over 2 months of summer vacation. Now that we are back into routine, I wanted to share my back to school tips that help to decrease stress as we prepare for all the things like backpacks, snacks and lunch prep.
We love our little tradition and it’s a joy watching these kids grow up together.
Tip 1: Create a space for Backpacks and Lunches
Years ago, we created a makeshift mud wall. Since we don’t have a mud room in our home, we really needed to create a space that would hold backpacks, library books, jackets and purses.
This is a small wall next to our garage door open to our kitchen and breakfast area. Since we have an open floor plan, this wall is precious real estate! It may be small but it really works hard to be an efficient and functional space for our family.
We installed hooks that are easy for the kids to hang their book bags after school. They are responsible for taking out their lunch boxes, refilling their water bottles and hanging their bags. The beadboard wallpaper protects the walls from all the rough use. It’s easy to clean since we can easily wipe any scuffs off with a magic eraser.
I also have a bag for library books, a basket to hold items that need to go back upstairs and a trunk to hold winter accessories and other miscellaneous items.
Tip 2: Pack snacks early
Before the school week, pack snacks and place them in a basket or container. I keep these in our cabinet pantry so the kids can easily place them in their book bags the night before school.
Tip 3: Fill water bottles the night before
This one simple tip saves us so much time the next day! If your kids are old enough, have them fill their water bottles and place them in the fridge.
Tip 4: Organized sandwich items
This is one of the best things that I can tell you! Place all your condiments and sandwich making ingredients into clear containers and keep them in the fridge. Instead of taking each item out one by one and looking for that missing mayo, now you’ll have all of them together in one place.
Tip 5: Make your own mementos keeper
Creating a mementos keeper was one of my very first posts on the blog. I shared how to keep important documents, treasured art work and special awards and photos for your kids. Each one of my kids has their own binder and I place all their important paperwork and items into their own binder. This keeps it organized by grade and in one place. It also prevents us from keeping too many items.
Doing these 5 tips really does make the start of our school year run a bit more smooth. If you happen to follow any of these tips, be sure to share them with me on Instagram or Facebook!
If you have kids that started school already, I hope you all a great success in starting the new year. A huge thanks to all our teachers too!
xoxo,
Let all that you do be done in Love. 1 Corinthians 16:14
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