Back-to-School: 8 Tips to Help You Plan Ahead and Reduce the Morning Stress

I know this post is a bit of repeat but it's back just in time for Back-to-School! For more Work for Me ideas, visit We Are THAT Family.

Think for a moment how your family starts off the day. How would you describe the mornings in your household once school starts? Do they tend to be calm and peaceful or rushed and stressful -or, somewhere in the middle?

I found that planning ahead really helps to curb the morning madness. This month, I'm sharing 8 quick ideas to help make your mornings less of production for you and your family.

1. Give yourself time to get up and ready to go before the children need to be up, even if it's just 15-30 minutes before the kids. I find that when I do this, I am more relaxed and able to focus on helping my children. The day is more likely to start off with conversation rather than prodding and nagging. I also feel better about myself. When I feel good about myself, it has such a positive impact on my day and those around me.

2. Make sure the kids have adequate time to get ready for school without being rushed.

3. Empty the backpacks after school, not in the morning to avoid any last minute surprises.

The Night Before
4. Have your children pick out their clothes for the next day. Make this part of their bedtime routine.

5. Make sure the backpacks and school supplies are ready to go near the door. Maybe even the shoes and jackets, too. In the winter I get all the snow gear get out and ready to go as well. What about the lunches? Can they be made ahead of time? Does money need to go to school to pay for hot lunch?

6. Determine the breakfast menu and set the bowls and cereal out after dinner. A healthy breakfast really adds a positive start to your child's day.

7. Develop a bedtime routine that works for your family and stick to it the best you can.

8. Double check your calendar, including the car pool schedule and after school activities. Think about what tasks or errands you want to accomplish the next day. I'm not talking about a major to-do list but maybe 2-4 items, or maybe just one part of a major project.

Don't Forget!
Another part of planning ahead is getting the school activities on your calendar or planner. This includes the school calendar for the year, any sports, activities, scouting schedules, etc. You can use a wall calendar, a personal planner or computer, but try to limit it to one.

I like to use Outlook on my computer. At the start of each week I print the 7-day view and post it on my refrigerator so everyone in the family knows what's going on. I tend to color-code activities by type of event (personal or child-related). You might want to color-code by member of the household.

Do you want ideas for organizing, displaying and maintaining your child's school papers and artwork? When you order my Tickler File System , I'll also send you my popular e-book, Maintaining Childhood Treasures: A Mom's Guide to Organizing School Papers and Artwork!

School Papers Piling Up? 3 Steps to Get Them Organized Today

Now that school is in full swing, are the papers starting to pile up? Use my 3-T Plan™ to sort your mail daily and to get through those growing piles on your kitchen counters, table, and mudroom.

1. Take Out -Get rid of (recycle, shred, throw) the stuff right away that you don't need! That includes junk mail, fliers, the envelopes the stuff comes in, expired coupons and anything else that you don't need in your home sucking up your energy.
2. Take Action - If something requires action from you, pick a time and/or a date that you can do it. Put it on your calendar like you are scheduling an appointment with yourself.
3. Take Back or To File - Got stuff that you have to file or take to another part of the house? Take it there once you are done sorting through the pile.

For more Works-For-Me Ideas, visit We Are THAT Family.

Organize School Papers in 4 Easy Steps

School papers and artwork - this is an area I know many moms struggle with because I get asked about this quite a bit. I'll share what works for me. For more Works-for-Me Ideas, visit We Are THAT Family.

Here are the simple steps:

1. Collect it. Have a basket or spot for each child to put the finish school papers, permission slips, communications from school that you need to look at. Be sure to put it in a spot that they can reach. Make this part of their coming home routine.
2. Limit it. If you kept everything, you home would quickly become a storage site. Perhaps you save your favorites from each year.
3. Share it. Be sure to spend time letting your child tell you about their work. That's why they bring it home to you!
4. Store it. However you decide to store the memorabilia, take time to label the containers with the child's name, the contents, and the age or school year of the child. That way when you do want to pull something out, you can locate the items without having to search and dig through one big container.

If you have piles of artwork and school papers you have been meaning to get through and organized, set an appointment with yourself (write it on your calendar now). Get your system in shape now!

Are you ready to put an end to all the paper piles in your home? Want the help to do it? There's still time to join me and other moms on September 26, 2009 for my Paper Organizing for Busy Moms ~A Virtual Workshop~ to learn the exact systems and steps I teach my clients to eliminate those piles. Click here to learn more and to register.

Helping Your Child Organize Their Thoughts

If you've been reading my blog or attended any of my teleclasses, you know I like to use a mind map. A mind map is a tool that helps get your thoughts out of your head on to paper, it's brainstorming really. I use a mind map when I am working on a project, an article, a new talk or teleclass, or just trying to work through a problem.

I remember learning this in junior high school to help with my writing assignments. It was referred to as a mind web. I even showed my daughter last summer but I didn't go into detail. One of those things I added to my list, "I really should take the time to....".

Last week I stopped into school at the end of the day and sat in on my daughter's first grade Language Arts class. (Stopping into school is also one those things I really should take the time to do more). Her teacher was having the class start a new writing assignment. And to my great excitement, she had them start with a mind web!

I have to get off track here for a bit and tell you why I LOVE my daughter's teacher.

1. She is great with the kids-caring but has expectations.


2. She's organized!


3. She takes the time to answer my questions and communicates what's going on in the classroom.
   
4. She draws cats on my daughter's papers because she knows that's what excites her.


5. She's really organized!


6. She lets the kids go to the bathroom when they need to. Why don't more teachers do this?
   
7. She challenges the kids at their individual levels.


8. And, finally, she's organized! She's also really sweet.

Back to the mind web. So I'm totally into this class now and I look over at my daughter, who also is obviously into it, too because she is sitting on the edge of her seat, with her pencil in her mouth (of course), smiling. It hits me because it's the end of the day-they just came in from last recess-she really does love school (I did not like elementary school!).

The children were asked to write about someone they really love or care about - think Valentine's Day. This is how her teacher had the kids use a mind web for their writing project:

1. Draw a circle in the middle of the paper and write the name of the person you want to write about.
2. Then draw four lines out from the center circle. These will be four reasons why you love that person.
3. Then, write two details for each of the four reasons.

So for example, my daughter wrote about her Grammy (that's my mom).

"I love my Grammy because she played games with me like tag and hide-and-go seek. I also love her because she read books to me, like I Love You When and the Bible.

Doing a simple mind web helped the children brainstorm and organize their thoughts. It helps them break writing down into individual steps. I love that! What a life-long skill.