Time saving tips to simplify the school week

As we prepare for the kids to go back to school, it's a whirlwind of emotions and logistics for parents. From lazy summer days to the impending structure of the school year, there's a lot to navigate. This week I explore the highs and lows of transitioning from a carefree summer to a more structured routine.

In this episode, I delve into strategies to ease the back-to-school chaos. I discuss meal planning and how to ensure your kids have nourishing breakfasts and satisfying after-school snacks. Plus, I share tips on simplifying dinner preparations with batch cooking and online grocery shopping.

Managing morning and bedtime routines is another crucial aspect we explore. Discover how organizing school uniforms and PJs can streamline the daily grind. We'll also touch on screen time and bedtime routines, finding the right balance between relaxation and preparation.

Lastly, we discuss the importance of getting organized with calendars and scheduling. Learn how to keep track of everyone's activities, from school events to family gatherings, and explore both analog and digital tools to help you stay on top of your busy life.

Let's embrace the changing seasons and find joy in simplifying our lives. Whether you're a seasoned parent or just starting this journey, these strategies might just help make your school year a little smoother. 

Transcript

Hello. Welcome to this week's episode. 

With the kids going back to school next week, I have been juggling a lot, and I've had so many things to sort out to organize get ready so that we're all prepared and the new school year can get off to a good start. It's it's a lot of stress, isn't it? We have a lot to do. This can be quite an emotional time for us moms. we've had lovely summers with our children. We've been allowed to be free.  For me, there's been lots of lazy PJ days, baths in the morning. They've had breakfast cereal for dinner when the day got a bit upside down for us. it's been quite freeing to have less structure and no fixed times where we had to be up or to be somewhere or we had to get out the door. There's been a more relaxed flow to the weeks without the crazy panic on a Sunday night to make sure all the uniforms are clean and dry for Monday morning. That homework's all being done, all the things that we have to do, as mums getting everything ready for the week ahead. So it has been quite nice to not have that stress and that fixed structure in place. 

Having said that, there has also been a downside too. Bedtime and mealtime routines have become blurry without that structure, not just the bedtime shifting a little bit later, but also the kids have been pushing their boundaries, asking for extra story books, extra bedtime songs, not wanting to go to bed because its still light, these kind of things. It's all nice memories and lovely moments, all those cuddles and and extra stories. Those are things I will treasure, but there's also been tantrums and tears and lots of bribes and threats. Like, if you don't go to sleep now and you don't stay in bed, there's no TV tomorrow. I'm sure that I'm not the only one doing this crazy power dance with my little dictators, but part of me is thinking that I might be in for a rough week ahead when school is back next week and routines and schedules, and all the stuff has to be followed. Again, they might not be so compliant. 

So this week, I'm gonna talk about some of the things I think are gonna help me and that I'm gonna try to do and put in place. I'm full of good intentions, and maybe 1 or 2 of them will appeal to you. And you can try them and give them a go and see how they go for you as well. So first up, I'm hoping to get better organized around food and meals with 4 kids all who have different favorites and some sensory issues as well. I've let meal planning go out the window. I've just made sure that they've been eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, really. I'm hoping to change that and get a better system in place that'll work around the school hours and making sure they have warm and filling breakfast to start them off right give them energy for the day. I have no idea if they eat much or any of their lunch at school, but I'm going to assume that since they come home starving and what I would call hangry, when I bring them home, I'm planning on having a good selection of snacks for after school. I've been practicing with cheese and crackers and grapes. I know some days it might just be a packet of crisps, But that does make them walk, quite nicely and keep well behaved on the way home from school because they're so busy eating they're crisps that they aren't running off to play with friends. So that might be in my favour to to use the crisps as a little bit of  a tool. 

For dinners, I gonna aim to do some more home cooking, rather than relying on frozen pizzas and turkey dinosaurs or takeaways that I've been using over the summer. I'm gonna attempt to plan the week's meal out in advance, by planning out the week's meal in advance, then I can do an online food shop so that everything getting delivered for me on the Sunday for the week ahead. And then maybe I can batch cook some of the stuff or prep some of the things on the Sunday, and that's gonna take pressure off myself during the week. I really, really struggle around all of the decisions that come with food and food prep and what to cook for dinner and what to give them when they ask for a snack. I feel it's a real thankless task, and I just don't enjoy the actual cooking and feeding part of the day because it tends to have negotiations and little battles and So having it planned and maybe, list or something up on the wall, showing the kids what they're getting every week, it just might take some of those battles away. I can say, look, this is what's for dinner. It's up there. It's all being decided, and it just might reduce some of that for me. I'm also hoping that by doing some the preparation, maybe using the slow cooker in the morning when the kids are at school, instead of having to cook with them under my feet, that that also might reduce some of the parts that I like doing. And it just might mean that I can group things into batches of time instead. It's also gonna help me keep the dinner time to an earlier part of the day. So instead of letting it run later, because I'm thinking, oh, what am I gonna make? And then I have to start making it. If I've done some of the prep, then I can get that dinner time bang on between half 4 and 5. And then that means there's a little bit of a gap between dinner time and bedtime. because I feel like sometimes the days get away from me and dinnertime battles are only ending, and then I have to start the bedtime battles. 

This kind of brings me to the next point that I want to discuss. And the next thing I want to try to streamline and really simplify, and that's the morning and the bedtime routines. I've tried to be smart, and I've made sure that I've got enough school uniform and all the pants and socks and everything that they need to do me for the whole week. And they each have their own container box for it. It's just, I've got one of those big white cube storage shelf things with the for the boxes. So they each get one for their uniform, and then they've, you know, they've got space there for shoes and bags as well. And it can all be stored there too. The idea is that I'm gonna reduce my loads of washing for school uniform for the week because I've got the extra and it should last. And also, the clothes will last longer as well. because they're gonna get less wear because I've got a few more. So instead of replacing them later, I just have them all out at the start of the year. I also won't have to go searching all over the house to find something when I'm trying to get them all dressed and out the door. Also, the idea is that they'll be coming down and having breakfast in their pjs. And so then I don't need to worry they're gonna spill their breakfast all down the front of their uniform. If the last thing they do is get dressed before walking out the door, there's a good chance I'm gonna get them to stay clean until they get to class. This might seem like a military operation, but getting out of the house on time with 4 kids needs to have very simple predictable structure, or it's gonna be complete chaos for me. 

I've got a similar white storage cube box thing next to the TV for their PJs for bedtime. as well. So that's hopefully gonna help me there. After dinner, they can play. They can go for a bath. And then it's PJ's on and something calming on the telly with cuddles. And then once they're all calm, I can grab some books, or I can ask the kids to pick a book each, and it can be stories before bed all together. As reading in the rooms has started to cause some problems, they each want more books. They all think the other one's getting more. at least on the sofa to everyone at once. It seems fair, and it's also more enjoyable for me too. It's a nice thing to do. There is advice that you shouldn't do screen time before bed, and I know that can work for a lot of parents. For me, I always used the CBBC bedtime hour as the calm down and bedtime story, as the trigger that sent finished, now it's bed. So since they were small, that was the routine. And that's what they know. And while Igo Pigle and Maka Paka don't do it for them anymore, if you know, you know, there are lots of other lovely things on the BBCI player or Netflix that you can't watch. My kids like, puffin' Rock on Netflix, or I put on some of the Julia Donaldson animations from her books on the BBCI player, room on the broom is a favorite one before bed. 

But ultimately, it's about keeping the routines as simple and predictable and calm as possible. That way the kids know what to expect and they go along with them. I don't want the mornings and the evenings to be battlegrounds and full of shouting and nagging from me. It's not fun for me, and it isn't fun for the kids there. And so if I can make these parts of the day nicer for all of us, I think it's gonna go a long way towards creating a calmer and more loving start and end to the day, and then that's gonna help with the week as well. I mean, I don't want to send them to bed or into school thinking that mommy's crossed with me, that mommy's been showing. It's not nice. I want to end those moments because I'm not gonna see them for a while with a nice moment, with a hug, with a kiss, and, see you soon, honey. That kind thing because it's just it's gonna mean I feel better and they feel better, and then hopefully it'll be a better day and a better week. 

The other big thing that I want to do is get really, really clear and organized and on top of the calendar. At the moment, we've been pretty rubbish. filling it in over the summer. Quite often, we only look in the morning, have a look and see what's happening that day. It hasn't made a problem the summer because we didn't really have any plans. And so, what I've done is I've bought a large weekly planner that I want to use to help keep track of everyone's schedule. to mark in all the important events and make sure everyone knows what's going on. So often a lot of the things for myself are actually my head, and it's a lot to try to remember. And then because life gets overwhelming, it's easy to get confused and get a day wrong, or forget completely. With Christmas activities and birthdays coming up and family visiting, I want to be more on top of things this year, and I feel with 3 at school, I really need to be super organized. And while it's really not my strengths, I would love to improve it. 

So I'm very visual a very visual person, and I think I might need to look into some digital options. So, if there's a way I can set reminders and help to coordinate my personal calendar where I put my self care and things with my husband's calendar and also with my, what my family are doing. My sister helps out a lot, and she also has her own life and commitment, so I need to be able to factor that in and keep track of it. It's a So if you have any favorite organizations tools that you love using, please let me know, and I'll be brave and I'll try to move away from my beloved pen and paper and my post it notes. We all like using what we like using, don't we? So it's hard to make changes sometimes even when we know that they're gonna be good for 

So, those are the three things that I'm going to be trying to change this new school term, and they're going to hopefully make my life run smoother. They're gonna help create a little bit of a better balance and make things less stressful for me and for everyone around me. And all these things, they're trial and error, and I'm going to be flexible if something isn't working, I'm going to make tweaks and I'm going to try other ideas. Nothing's fixed in stone and being adaptable and flexible to whatever the upcoming weeks have in store is the only way I know how to navigate them.

I absolutely love this time of year as the leaves all start to change and they drop and the nights grow darker, and it just reminds me to slow down, take stock, let go of what not working or serving me. I look forward to crisp autumn walks, wrestling leaves, warm fires, snuggly jumpers, hot cupers, and curling up with under a blanket. Every season has its good bits if we look for them. And after a busy summer, I'm happy to slow down a little, and I hope that you can find the joy in slowing down and simplifying things too. 

Maybe some of these ideas will resonate with you, and you can give them a try. If you're trying something new, this school term, please let me know. Maybe I can add it into my life to make my life less too. We all need to work and support each other, don't we? We're all full of ideas, and we're all trying to do our best. So I'd love to hear what you're trying this new school term to make your life a little bit easier as call. But thanks for joining me, and I hope you have a lovely weekend. And I'll be back with next week's episode next Friday.