Back-To-School Planning For A Successful Year

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It’s that time again! Some parents are excited, some are dreading it, but it happens every August…it’s time to prepare for back to school!!! Preparation is everything when it comes to back-to-school. We aren’t just preparing for a one time event or for a busy week…we’re preparing for a nine month marathon.

Putting proper thought and mapping out goals and systems now will go a long way towards making the next nine months as seamless as possible.

The first thing that I like to do is reflect on the prior year. What went well? What felt like a trainwreck? Where can *I* as a Mom improve? Where can my children improve? Do we need to add any extracurriculars? Should we cut any extracurriculars?

These are all really important questions to ask ourselves and to answer honestly so that we can chart a better course for the next school year. 

Back-To-School Shopping

I’m sure everyone here already knows that the best back-to-school shopping happens in August. Whatever you do, don’t wait too long, or there will be nothing on the shelves.

For children who attend school, they receive a list of supplies. We homeschool, but lots of school supplies are still essential.

So whether you are sending your children to school or homeschooling, approaching back-to-school shopping with a solid plan will ensure that you can get great deals that will last the entire year.

Instead of looking at the list and just buying enough to get started, think about how much you will need for the entire year. There is nothing more frustrating to me than spending $6.99 on a notebook that I could have gotten for $2.99 if I had just purchased it in August!

So before going to the store, really think about how many pencils, pens, notebooks, crayons and colored pencils it will take you to get your children through an entire year, and then buy a few more!

I like to use this time to stock up on home office supplies as well. I have my own preferences for pens, sticky notes, and notebooks, so if I take advantage of the good deals for myself and try to stock up for the year, again, we are saving.

We are not just saving money, but saving time as well. If I only have to think about buying school and office supplies once a year, that is saving a lot of time.

Back-To-School Time Management

Oh, time management…here we are again. You have probably heard the saying “If you don’t manage your time, your time will manage you.” 

This saying could not be more true, but that doesn’t actually make it any easier to manage our time.

Nevertheless, we must persist in truly coming to a point where we can say that we are proficient time managers.

In regards to school, time management is absolutely essential, not only for our children (though that should be reason enough!), but also so that we as mothers don’t completely fall apart.

There are so many things to balance with school…papers to sign, homework, extracurriculars, parent/teacher conferences, volunteering, the list is endless.

There are a few different ways that have helped me immensely in becoming a better time manager.

1. Allocate more time for activities than you think they need. As humans, we will give ourselves less time for an activity than it will actually take.

Acknowledge this, and then give yourself an additional 20-30 minutes for each activity you schedule in.

Giving yourself additional time will create margin in your life, which is something that we as women desperately need more of.

So for example, if you think that giving your children a snack and collecting all of their papers, and dealing with lunchboxes will take you thirty minutes…go ahead and give yourself an hour.

If you are constantly jumping from one task to the next without giving yourself a moment to just breathe, then it’s safe to say it’s critical for you to give yourself some margin. If you do not, you will burn out, and that’s not pretty for anyone.

2. Get REALLY good at using a Google calendar. This blog post will get entirely too long for me to go into details, but I would strongly recommend that you increase your skill with the Google calendar.

You all probably know me well enough to know that I am NOT a techy person at all, and I vastly prefer pen and paper to my iPhone or laptop…but with that being said, the Google calendar can change your life if you let it.

I may need to do a video to show you all of the ways I am currently using it. If this is of interest to you, leave a comment and let me know.

Back-To-School Kitchen Management

Planned, simple, delicious and nutritious meals are one big way to ease your days. The more planning you can do here, the better.

If you do not already have a rotation of meals that are easy to prepare, then I would recommend trying one of the many family meal plans that are available. I have a 30 Day Meal Plan in the shop, and there are so many others out there…

If meal planning is an area where you struggle, the money spent to have someone else give you ideas and a plan are well worth the money.

Dinners should not be the only meal that you plan out. Breakfasts really should be more substantial and nutritious than sugary, processed junk. Protein and fiber will carry your children through until lunch and give them the energy to focus on their studies.

Prepping breakfasts for the week over the weekend is a fantastic way to ensure that you can serve your children a quick breakfast without having to cook each morning.

Breakfast casseroles, breakfast sandwiches (using whole wheat English muffins), and breakfast burritos (using whole wheat tortillas) are favorites in our home. We use eggs, turkey sausage and cheese to make these high protein and delicious.

Pro tip: Adding some potatoes to these offerings are a fantastic way to make the meals even more satiating. Did you know that potatoes are the most satiating food (according to a 2014 study).

Lunch is another area where you are going to want to make sure to pack in some nutrition. I’m not saying to never give your child treats, but I am advocating for not making the whole lunch box treats.

A high fiber starch, protein, healthy fat, fruit and some veggies will make sure your child makes it home without the afternoon slump. 

This can be easily accomplished with a sandwich on whole grain bread with an avocado oil mayonnaise, slice of cheese and lean meat…if your child enjoys lettuce and tomato or onions on a sandwich, I would recommend putting those in a zip top bag to keep the sandwich from getting soggy. If your child doesn’t like lettuce and tomato on his sandwich, then pack some baby carrots or celery sticks. My children love the individual hummus packs and the avocado packs, so that is a nice addition for dipping. Add in your child’s favorite fruit…apples, mandarin oranges, and grapes all keep well in the lunch box. You could add in a yogurt cup for dipping the fruit. 

This is a well-rounded lunch that will fuel your child to get through the rest of the day. You could include a small dessert, but I would encourage you to think about foods that will still benefit your child. Dark chocolate covered berries are a nice treat, and dark chocolate is very good for the brain, and the berries are healthy too! I buy packs of these at Aldi in their chocolate section.

Back-To-School planning is such a monumental task every year. There are so many plates to juggle when it comes to the successful education of our children. It’s hard to think about mastering all three of these areas in one year.

I would encourage you to first focus on the shopping. That can be done and then it’s over! It’s a quick win (my favorite kind)!

After you have completed your shopping, I would encourage you to pick either the kitchen management or the time management and focus all of your attention on laying down strong habits. After you feel like you have your first choice under control, you can start working on mastering the other.

Strong and thoughtful planning will get you through the school year, and then the summer will be your reward for a job well done!

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