Hi, guys. Welcome back to my channel. Today, I wanted to share with you some back to school
mom hacks. These are just little tips or shortcuts or things that I do to help me
stay organized as a busy mom now that the kids are back to school. I have three sons.
They've been at school for quite a while now. I have one in year seven, one in year four,
and one in year one as well. And I feel like I've learned so much over the years, so I thought it'd
be nice to share that with you guys. And I've also learned some brand new hacks recently now that my
eldest is actually in senior school. So definitely stay tuned for those as well. I hope you get
something from it. I hope you enjoy it. If you do give this video a like, and if you're new and you
like this kind of content, definitely subscribe, because I post so many hacks on this channel.
With all that said, let's jump straight into my back to school mom hacks. Okay,
so I'm going to start out with a question that I get a lot and that is, "How do you label your
kids' clothes or uniform?" And I do it in two ways, stamps and stickers. I'll link these in
the description if you're interested. But I love the stamps, because they make labeling really,
really quick. I have a stamp with each child's name on it, and you can literally stamp straight
into the clothes like this, or you can put it on tags as well. But this is great for
items that are tricky to label, like socks for instance. And the ink lasts for about 50 washes,
which is great. And then for bottles or Tupperware like this, I use stickers, and they're really
good. They don't even come off in the dishwasher. And another sticker hack, which you might have
seen on my channel in the past, is this one, where you basically cut the sticker in half,
place it into your child's shoes, and that helps them know which shoe is for the right foot. So
as you can see, they line up here. Whereas when they're the wrong way around, they don't. I love
this hack, but I have found that the stickers sometimes just come off onto my kids' socks,
so I've actually started using a pen. With black school shoes like this, I use a white chalk pen,
and I actually draw, like you can either draw a heart or a little smiley face like this,
and that way, they line up. In other trainers, you can just use a black sharpie. And it's really,
really effective and helps my son know which shoe is for the right foot.
And a simple tip that I do to speed my kids up when it's time to get ready is to use a
timer. I have a simple one from Ikea, but you could use your phone, or an egg timer as well,
or even make it a race between your children. This really does help to speed up the process.
And I also wanted to show you a little organizational hack for your children's
school bags. I was finding ours were just everywhere throughout the hallway,
so I bought these Command hooks. When I bought them, they said they were for handbags or for
wreaths as well, so they're nice and strong. And I've just put them here, and now all the school
bags have a little place. They're off the ground as well, and the kids know to hang them up here.
And another amazing back to school hack, which I really recommend is an online tutoring
service called GoStudent. You may have heard me talk about them in the past. My eldest was
having tutoring sessions for his exams last year, but now, my middle, Caleb, is actually
having weekly sessions in maths and English. And if you haven't heard of GoStudent before,
they offer one-to-one online tutoring for all ages in all subjects. And they've actually said
that you guys can have a free trial session to test out their tutoring, and if you like it or
your child likes it, you can also get 10% off of their tutoring packages if you use my code. It's
going to be EmilyX10, but I'll be sure to put that in the description, and I'll also include a link.
So if you click on that, you can find out more, and you can also book your free trial as well.
But the best thing about this tutoring, for me, is that it's so flexible, and you can just do it from
the comfort of your own home. You don't have to get ready, you don't have to get the whole family
in the car, you can just log on from home or wherever you happen to be. If you're on holiday,
you can carry it on as well. And it's very easy to schedule with their tutor,
and to reschedule as well when life happens. GoStudent has so many amazing tutors, but I really
do feel that they match the perfect teacher to the student, based on their personality,
their learning style, and their interests as well. They make the sessions really fun with quizzes,
games and music. I feel like Caleb's tutor gets so much more out of him than I ever could,
and it's really nice to know, now that Frasier is at senior school, if there are any subjects that
he struggles with in the future, I know that I can go on to GoStudent and find a tutor specifically
in a subject. And all UK tutors have enhanced DBS checks as well. It just really helps my boys grow
in confidence. So again, if you want to try it for free and get 10% off, my code will be EmilyX10,
and I'll put the link in the description. It starts very easy. Five plus one.
Six. Very easy.
You are correct. Let's start with number three. Which one's correct here?
One third. You are correct.
Six. One quarter. Yes,
one quarter of 24 is 6. And a really good tip, if you ever find
that the Velcro on your kid's shoes isn't sticking as well, it might get fluff in it, or dog hair,
or as you can see here, there is grass in ours, because it's kind of that time of year, the
quickest way to get any of that off of the Velcro is to use a tape dispenser. The little metal teeth
on the end of it take everything out of the Velcro so quickly. So I'll often just run this over,
as you can see, it's all come out straight away, and then the shoes will stick again very well.
And another shoe hack that I wanted to share with you is, if your child struggles with laces,
then you can actually take them out and swap them for elastic laces to help speed them up
and make it easier for them to put their shoes on. I ordered these just on Amazon,
and they were really easy to just swap out. So I just took the laces out, put the elastic ones in,
and it made his shoes like slip-ons. So he can do laces, but he was finding that he was taking too
long when it was PE Lesson, and he didn't want to ask for help from the teacher. So we just swapped
them out for these, and it's made it so much easier for him to just put them on himself.
I also really like to use routine charts or chore charts, because I find it motivates my kids and
keeps them focused in the morning and evening on everything that they need to do. So I'll link
these chore charts down below. They're just on my website, but I actually print them and put them
into a plastic wallet that I can use a dry eraser marker on. So I just put down everything that they
need to do in the morning and in the evening as well, any chores that they have or homework
as well. And then we put a reward that they want to have if they keep that up for the whole week.
And if they do then, they'll get that reward. Normally, it's Robux that they actually want.
And then I also have a school routine chart, which is kind of for me, but also for the kids, and it
just keeps us all focused on what we need to do. And I also really like these magnetic whiteboards
that you can get for the fridge. It just keeps everyone focused on things that are going on,
clubs. You can also put meals as well on there, and I really like them.
And a really cool way to illustrate to your kids what your evening routine is,
is to actually color sections onto a clock. I got this one on Amazon for about eight pounds, and I'm
just going to draw on different sections. This is great if your kids are learning how to tell time,
or they're at primary school. So as you can see, I've done 3:30 to 4:30, it's playtime
and relax after school. 4:30 to 5:30, we're going to look at homework. Then it's dinner,
and then it's bath and bed. This way, you can point to the clock and say, "Okay, playtime's over
now. Let's look at any homework you have to do." And that's how we tend to do it. My kids like to
have some playtime as soon as they get in. I think they've had a busy day at school,
they want to chill out, maybe even have some screen time. Then I'll say, "Okay, have you got
any homework? Should we do your reading? Should we do your spellings now?" And then I can be helping
them while I'm making dinner. And then, obviously, we can eat, and then go upstairs. Another option
is to set alarms on your phone. I love an alarm. It really does keep me on track, so I have a few
for before school and also for after as well. And something that I find really handy when it
comes to homework is to keep everything that they're going to need in a caddy like this. My
kids still like to do their work at the dining table rather than their desks. I'm sure they'll
use them when they're older. But this is really great, because when it's homework time, I could
just grab this, and we have everything we need. And something else I wanted to show you, which
I've only just discovered are erasable pens. We've got these for Frasier to have for senior school,
but it's so cool. They're pens, but if you do mess up, they have a special eraser on the back,
and you can actually just erase your answer and change it.
And an easy way to get your kids involved with packing their own lunch is to write a little
tick list on the inside of their lunch bag. So here, I'm writing sandwich, fruit, crisps, treat,
and an extra snack. Normally, I put a yoghurt or something like that. And then just make sure that
everything that they're going to need to help pack their lunch is reachable for them. So as
you can see, in this drawer, we have all the water bottles, we also have all the lunch bags, so they
can just grab whichever one that they want. Our snack drawer is also nice and low, easy for the
kids to access things, like crisps and stuff. And then in the fridge, we keep treats, fruit,
yoghurts, and other things that they might like to put into their lunch. And then it's super easy for
them to help out. You can add this to their chore chart, or just make it a task for them to do.
For my youngest, I'll probably make the sandwich, and let him choose everything else,
but for my older two, they're capable of making their own sandwich, and this is a great way to
give them a little bit more responsibility. And while I was filming the food hacks, I also thought
of another one. It is these thermos bottles. They are so brilliant, especially in the summer. They
keep drinks nice and cold all day long. And then I also wanted to show you an idea
for a grab-and-go breakfast. If you leave early for the school run, or your kids have any clubs
before school, these are brilliant. I have these reusable Ziploc baggies that I got on Amazon,
and you can just fill them up with things, like muffins, yoghurt, maybe a bit of fruit,
and just have them ready in the fridge. And then when you actually get into the car,
you can literally just grab and go. And then I also wanted to show you something
small that I do, but my kids love it. I actually write little notes on bananas. You can do this
with a normal pen, but I also have these edible pens. These are really for cakes and cupcakes,
but you can use them on things like fruit. And they also work really well on wraps. And if I ever
draw or write a little message on my kids' wraps, they just love it. I'm sure the teachers are like,
"What is this?" But they are edible. You may have done this yourself before,
but a really easy way to create an ice pack for their lunch is to free something like a yoghurt
or a juice box as well. Once it's frozen, you can just add that to keep their lunch nice and cool,
especially in the summer. But then, by the time it is lunchtime, it has thawed out.
And then a great way to get organized with your kids' clothes or uniform that they're going to
wear for the week is to put it in a shoe organizer or something similar, like this, which I bought on
Amazon. It has five compartments, and it even has clear windows you can see through it. And you can
put Monday to Friday's clothes in each pocket, so you're just organizing it once on a Sunday.
So for me, obviously, my kids go to school, so I'm putting a full uniform parcel in with underwear,
socks, shorts, shirts, jumpers, everything. Or you may have noticed in my videos that I also like to
line clothes up on our banister like this. This next tip is great if you have a child in
senior school, or high school. It is to get different colored folders for each subject.
So now, that my eldest is at senior school, and he's got lots of different classes and subjects,
and he's been given lots of different notebooks and textbooks as well. So now, we're keeping them
each in a colored folder. And then the night before school, he just checks his timetable,
sees what he's got on the next day, and only chooses the folders for those subjects. This
means that his bag and locker isn't completely weighed down, he's only bringing to school
what he really needs to use for that day. And then I've also got a few more uniform
hacks that I wanted to show you guys. With energy prices on the rise, I'm trying to only wash what
absolutely needs it. So after school, I'll do a quick uniform check. If blazers and shorts aren't
too bad, I'll literally just spot clean them with a cloth or with a baby wipe, and then I'll either
Febreze them, or I have a really cool gadget, which actually deodorizes things with plasma. I've
also got this handy little electric lint catcher thing. It's great, it's just battery powered.
But if there's any hair or lint on anything, it takes it right off, and it's been great.
Matt's been using it on his trousers as well. And then, hopefully, it goes without saying,
but definitely buy the non-iron school shirts, because it just saves you so much time. And then
I also love these clever hangers. You can hang up to four or five trousers on them,
and that's actually all I've got for each child. They've got four trousers for school,
and they just all go on a hanger like this. Okay, so that is it for this video. I really
hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think in the comments below, and don't forget to check out
my GoStudent code and link in my description. And I'll see you in my next one. Bye, guys.