By Julia Wilhoit
The lazy days of summer are almost over, and school is about to begin again. While some families may be looking forward to getting back to a regular routine, others may be dreading the school schedule and everything that goes along with it – cranky kids included! However, preparing now for the challenges ahead could go a long way in easing your worries and allowing your family to experience peace as the school year kicks off. Here are some ways you and your family can be ready for the new year:
Routine: Slowly begin to get the kids back into their school schedule a couple of weeks ahead of time. Every day you can set bedtime to be 10 minutes earlier than the previous day (and get them up 10 minutes earlier) so that their first day of school wake up time isn’t a huge shock to their system.
Nutrition: Start to wind down the snacking and grazing that might be happening around the house and set up healthy snack breaks instead. Time your lunch at home to coincide with their anticipated school lunch break. Make sure to have easy to make breakfast items stocked up for the first week of school.
Exercise: Get in the habit now of adding 20-30 minutes of exercise to your daily routine. With all the sports and school activities starting back up, you need to make sure to prioritize a time when you can go for a walk or stop by the gym to increase your energy levels.
Organize: It actually does relieve a lot of stress just to feel organized for the school year ahead of time. Get your school supply shopping done early. Clear out a specific area to store all of the backpacks and gear that needs to go out the door each morning. Designate a homework space for the kids when they come home from school.
Attitude: Remaining positive and excited about the beginning of school will help your kids feel more relaxed and excited about it as well. Spend one on one time with each of your children asking them how they feel about their upcoming grade and routine. Help them to think of all the good things that can come from starting something new – new friends, new teachers, more responsibility and independence, etc.
It’s important to remember that the one consistent thing in life is…change. Change can be hard to navigate, but we must teach our children to embrace change and to enjoy new challenges and responsibilities in life. Preparing now will encourage your children to look forward to the new school year with confidence.