Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats
Yeats, of course, is right — but we need to make certain that fire he’s referring to is brainpower … and not emotional fires erupting on the first day of school and beyond!
Universally, all families struggle with the transition from the lazy days of summer into what sometimes feels like mayhem: the advent of school. Here are a few universal tips that parents in the know say have passed the test — and saved sanity.
routine, routine, routine
The end of August isn’t the time to get your kids interested in the ‘early to bed and early to rise’ credo. Begin prep now, preferably as early as your family can handle it. Most parents comment they start this process the very first week of August.
Belinda Jensen, chief meteorologist at KARE-11, knows routine first hand, as there is little wiggle room for her on the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts. “Our house year round really runs on a schedule because of my job,” says Jensen, adding that while she likes the summer months, she’s ready for consistency in the fall. “I do work on earlier bedtimes in August,” she says. “Mother Nature helps, as the sun starts setting in the 8 p.m. hour versus the 9 p.m. hour in late August — that helps with my four year-old for sure! We also have a few scheduled activities in late August that will get us all up a little earlier, so that will help facilitate earlier wake-up times.”
Changing the daily summer sleep patterns of the kiddos can be tough. Begin waking your children earlier each day until you reach the magic ‘school wake-up time.’ Again, doing this slowly over a longer time span will make it easier, and it will make the first school morning much more sane. Cindy Chapman, the Twin Cities’ momslikeme.com manager, says she heard of an idea she’s going to try. “Some of our moms have gone out and purchased, with their kids, a special alarm clock. The kids pick it out and set it themselves. It helps ease them back into waking up early when they’ve also bought into the concept.”
As well as the bedtime routine, how about the reading and homework routine? Homework you say? Surely you jest! We all saw the reminders about “summer slump” shoved into our kids’ backpacks on the last day of school. The term is familiar with teachers everywhere, makes its way into lessons plans, and is even in the Federal No Child Left Behind Act. The beginning of the school year is spent re-learning what was learned by the end of the last school year. But there are ways to combat the summer slump, and a reading routine can be part of it.
While it’s a good idea for all kids to be reading books over the entire summer, August is a good month for transitioning back into homework time. For some kids, reading all summer is no problem, but for others, it’s not so easy. Libraries can be your best friend in the summer months, and usually offer an array of fun reading programs for kids. Libraries also have a list of “recommend reading” broken down by class, and it’s a wonderful resource. Check out those books, but also let your son or daughter choose other books they are interested in.
My son struggles with reading, so he also sees a tutor one day a week during his “Kids Club” Summer Camp. The tutor works on his reading skills, as well as reviewing math problems, which has made a difference with summer slump.
Also check out your school district programs. Many offer some great programs that start around August, to help kids with the transition. Kids need to prepare for the workload that will be given to them when they return to school. And the month of August will also give parents ample time to work through this transition successfully, as well. “At the end of the school year,” says Chapman, “the teachers give us a bunch of links to education sites. We use these during the summer to get my daughter back into the groove.”
create a “fam” central calendar
One central calendar can make life easier for everyone. Whether it’s a large, dry-erase board in the kitchen, an electronic calendar on your computer, or a date book that one of the parents carry around, a unified calendar will keep everything in one spot. Find what works for you and your family. Some families enjoy filling out the kitchen dry erase calendar; each family member has their own “color” and lists the duties or activities of the day. It’s easy to color code different family members and/or color code doctor and dentist appointments in green, sports in blue, and academic items or field trips in orange. Other families have gone high tech, and keep a Google calendar of their kids’ schedules, syncing with multiple computers or smart phones.
Katie Welch-Peterson, the trend spotter on Twin Cities Live and president of Newsworthy Communications, has a trick with her calendar. “I start up a school bin through the summer months of all the mail and emails that start piling up with [upcoming] school-related dates. I chuck it aside for the summer months, but then in early August I start sorting through the activities and important dates.” Welch-Peterson also prints out the full year school calendar and takes an entire day or two to fill in all the dates. She admits she uses the “MomAgenda,” which helps her organize the calendar into her computer Outlook calendar.
“Back to school season is when I often feel like the Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland … ‘I’m late for a very important date!’ Now that my oldest is going to be a third grader, and my youngest [twins] are going into first grade, I finally feel like I have a system down!” she says. “I use this agenda to keep things together so I don’t miss out on important field trips, picture day, or overall special days.”
Location of the calendar is important as well. Keep it in a high traffic area, usually in the kitchen or the central office.
morning madness
All parents know this tip, but I don’t think too many of us do it. Or, we start out strong, but halfway through the school year we’re back to running around looking for that matching sock, or the book report on frogs due that morning. I’m talking about time saving.
Start thinking first about how you can be proactive, before the school year hustle and bustle begins to creep into the household. This can include early clothes shopping, planning and organizing the Fam Calendars or check-in/out baskets, hanging planner calendars and chalkboards, and most importantly, beginning to utilize some of these practices on some August mornings. A little practice-run, if you will.
Then, think about the big day. How can you make your mornings run more smoothly? Planning a little bit each night will help us send our kids out the door in a happy mood, ready for learning, instead of stressed out.
Each evening, think ahead to the next morning. Put your kids’ outfits out the night before, and get some breakfast items ready to go. Families who have more than one child will probably have to plan a bathroom schedule so that everyone gets mirror time, especially if you have daughters. These “mirror times” can be added right to your Central Calendar if need be. And they can be put into place in August for the trial runs.
Cindy Chapman says she’s just starting to live the “hair drama” with an 11-year-old daughter. She also said she reminds her daughter that if she wants something special to wear that day in school, lay it out the night before. “We’re not going to have a melt down about it,” says Chapman. “It’s her responsibility. I’m a firm ‘night before’ believer.”
So enjoy the long summer days, and hot summer nights. Savor it. School is right around the corner.
resources
parentfurther.com
organizedhome.com
planningwithkids.com
momagenda.com
