Time saving back to school ideas for parents

Back to school

September is here, and after a long (LONG) break, the kids are going back to school.

For some, it will be our very first year as school moms, for others, we have been through the back-to-school rush before, and am no doubt welcoming it with a mixture of delight and dread. Not because we don’t want them back in school, but mostly because we are well aware just how hectic school mornings can be.

I am talking those moments – right before you have to leave to make it in time – when no-one can find their uniform shirts, when books have mysteriously gone missing overnight, when hockey sticks that are not where you thought they were, when lunchboxes are left on the counter, when your coffee has gone cold, when nobody likes the breakfast you cooked, or when someone is crying over something.

Sounds manic? Look – it can be.

But that’s why we need all the help we can get.

Here are some really clever – yet simple – ‘mom hacks’ to ensure your breeze through these back-to-school mornings. May your coffee, sanity and organisation game be strong!

Prep ahead

Your evenings are about to become your new mornings, moms.

Don’t worry – you can still chill out and watch your favourite Netflix show – but before you do that, take 10 minutes to prep ahead for the next morning. Lay out uniforms (or just whatever your kids are wearing the next day, even if the school has no uniform), make sure the shoes are ready in the hallway, put school bags in the hallway, ready for you or your kids to plop the lunchboxes in the next morning.

Set out breakfast dishes, as well as lunchboxes and water bottles, all ready to just be filled the next morning.

If you really want to be on top of things, lay out your own outfit too – meaning one less thing to think about when you wake up.

 

Get up 20 minutes before you need to

Yes, it might mean having go to bed a little bit earlier the night before, but trust me, these 20 minutes (30 even, if you can manage it), will be your life-saver.

Personally, I like to wake up half an hour before I wake my children up, simply to get myself fully ready before waking then. This means I have time to drink my tea (or coffee!), take a quick shower and get dressed – in peace, all without having to cater to anyone else.

What it also means, is that once I wake my children up, I am fully ready to just focus on them, and getting them up, dressed, fed and out the door, knowing that I am ready for the day as it is, so no need to keep slipping back upstairs to find my own clothes or apply makeup.

Put out clothes for the full week ahead

If you really want to save yourself time (and patience) in the morning, why not use this clever mom’s hack, and put out all the clothes and bits for the entire week – all ready to be grabbed and put on every morning before school.

Kids hemming and hawing over what to wear can really slow things down on a busy morning, but this way, your child will know in advance what they are wearing for the entire week. Even better – include them in the process of picking out the outfits in the first place, and you will really notice your mornings becoming less stressful.

There are several ways to organise this, you can use hangers, or clothing rails or even different compartments or drawers in a dresser for each day of the week, the idea is just that everyone your child is wearing for the day is put together, from underwear to outerwear, meaning all they have to do it grab it and put it on.

Grab-and-go breakfast

 

If you find yourself really pressed for time in the mornings, why not make breakfast a portable affair?

And don’t worry – a grab-and-go breakfast doesn’t have to mean making unhealthy choices – it just means that those kids –especially if you are living with tweens and teenagers – who are forever cutting it fine when it comes to getting to school, can just grab their breakfast as they are racing out the door – and eat it on route.

Just type in the search term ‘Healthy Breakfast Muffins’ in Pinterest, and trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

 

Create a lunchbox station in your kitchen

Pick one drawer or kitchen cupboard, and use this just for your kids’ lunchbox items, such as boxes, lids, bottles, and all those tiny containers perfect for berries, raisins and other tiny snack items.

Now that you have everything you need in one place, packing lunches in the morning is about to become a much less stressful.

We love these easy to open lunchboxes from SorenHouse. Super cute!!

Take the thought out of lunchbox ideas

We love this fab new lunch recipe book from Mummy Cooks by Siobhan Berry. There are lots of easy, healthy and super tasty ideas your little ones will love! You can buy it here.

 

 

Easy peasy name-tags

Sending your kids to school means having to label everything.

From uniforms, to lunchboxes, books, pencil cases, hockey sticks – it all needs to have your child’s name on it.

And I don’t know about you, but most moms these days have better things to be doing that trying to sew each label on each individual item.

Enter stick on name tags – so strong they will survive both the washing machine and dishwasher. We love these ones from mynametags.ie!

Just peel, stick and off they go.

 

 

Get the shoe on the right foot

 

If your little one struggles to get their shoes on the right foot and still requires help to get it right – we bet you are all going to love these adorable stickers.

Just add to each pair of shoes so that your child will always know which foot to put the shoe on – all by himself. We love these ones!

 

 

 

With these small few changes you will hopefully reap the rewards and save yourself some of those morning squabbles and heartaches and give you those extra few minutes of potential peace!