Back to School Basics

Getting Back into your Back-to-School Groove

Summer is a time for relaxed evenings and lazy mornings, a time when the sun stays awake longer and the kids follow suit. In the morning, kids get to turn off their alarm clocks and wake up with their body clocks. Mealtime is mellow as breakfast turns into brunch, lunch becomes “linner”, and dinner… well, it just happens when, or if, it happens. Even working parents feel more relaxed when they don’t feel the pressure of crowding homework, a healthy dinner, and bedtime routines into a precious few hours. When school is out, they can come home, take the family to the park or the pool, eat dinner, and relish in the fact that the kids will fall asleep easily from pure exhaustion vs. clever coercion. It is a fact, summer months are a time to cherish, but every year, the lazy days of summer must come to an end. Even so, there are a few things you can do to help ease you and your family back into your back-to-school groove.
 

Evening Reading Ritual

All well-meaning parents have idyllic visions of their children using their “free time” during the summer months to brush up on math skills, read a few good books, and keep writing skills sharp by keeping a journal of their adventures. But, before you know it, it is the beginning of August, pencils remain unsharpened, books are still filed neatly away on the bookshelf, and the journal has but a scribble or two. Starting school, staying organized, and the pressure of homework is bound to meet with resistance. Try easing your kids back into learning mode by instituting mandatory reading time each night before bed. This not only gets the brain cells going again, but also helps the kids settle down and fall asleep with just a little more ease.
 

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

One of the hardest transitions for the kids can be waking up to the alarm clock. Sure, some children are early birds, but even early birds tend to resist the morning wake-up call when it means getting up for school.  Although it may be tempting to just jump into the fall routine cold turkey, this may lead to a drama-filled first day, week, or even month. Make an effort to ease the kids into earlier bed times so they naturally wake up sooner without help. A couple of weeks before school, start shifting bed times forward by just 10 or 15 minutes each night, and after just a couple of weeks, you will have shaved an hour or two off your summer schedule. Try incorporating your reading routine into those minutes and they won’t even notice.
 

Get Meals Back on Track

As bed times and wake-up times begin to stabilize, meal times can start to get back on track as well. Breakfast can go back to being the most important meal of the day. If summer breakfast has been more of a light snack, start bulking it up so kids get the energy they need to stay alert in class. In the week before school, try serving lunch closer to their school lunch hour to help their bodies transition to their school bell schedule so they can focus on school rather than their rumbling stomachs. And, with the transition to earlier bedtimes, you can begin to serve dinner a bit earlier too. Also, if summer meal times have been more of an individual event with kids eating when they are hungry, this is a great time to get the family back to the table. Studies show that the ritual of a family dinner provides a necessary support system that results in better self esteem, better language skills, and better school performance.
 

Practice What You Preach

Be aware, the first days of school are bound to bring changes to your routine as well. You may need to get up earlier in order to give yourself enough time to get yourself ready for work before rousing the troops up and getting them off to school. Maybe you need to leave the house a bit earlier to accommodate a new drop-off routine, or later to wait for the bus. Whatever it is, it will help if you practice your new routine before school starts, too. If you find yourself with a few extra minutes, use that time to catch up on your favorite magazine, relax, have an extra cup of coffee, and think back on the great memories of the summer.
 

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