Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. In today's video I'm going to be sharing with you some
back to school hacks. I cannot believe that the summer is already over, and it's time
to get back to school, and get back into a routine. For me, and I'm sure a lot of other
moms, September feels like a brand new year. A time where you can evaluate things, and
how they've been going, and vow to get more organized. In today's video I'm going to share
with you some really simple, achievable mom hacks for back to school, that do work. I
hope you really like this. If you do, give it a big thumbs up. And if you're new to my
channel, I would love you to consider subscribing if you like what you see. Without further
ado, let's get into my 10 back to school hacks. My first hack is to have a school routine
chart. This is something that I've created for the boys, just to help them get back into
the swing of things, and their normal daily routine. Because, over the summer holidays
we definitely slacked a bit. I let the boys stay up later, some days they got dressed
at about noon, and I barely ask the kids to make their beds over the summer holidays.
This is just going to layout the tasks that they need to get done in the morning before
school, and also the tasks that they need to do once they're home from school.
I have made a school routine chart, and also a chore chart. If you want to download and
print either of those, I will put a link in my description because they're on my website,
and you are free to use them as well. But, I love having chore charts for my kids. They
really do like having them, to my surprise. And, it's just so nice that all the tasks
are laid out on there so that I don't have to nag them all morning. They just have to
get all of those done before we go to school, or before they have any TV time, or anything
like that. And, they like doing their chores because at the end of every week they get
a reward, and they can choose what that is. Fraser's is often more time on the PS4, Caleb,
it's normally sweets. But, you can discuss a reward, and they've really enjoyed it. And,
it just makes your life so much easier. Another hack is to color in sections of your
clock using a whiteboard marker, or a wipe-able marker. This is a new hack that we're going
to do for the first time this year, because my eight year old is great at telling the
time. You can color in sections, like when they get in from school, it's snack time.
Then maybe it's homework time, playtime, dinner time, bath time, brushing teeth, and reading.
You can just put whatever things that you normally do in your routine, and then they
can look at the clock and know what's coming up. This will also be a great prompt for me.
This next hack is going to help your children to make their own lunch on the days they're
not having school dinners. I got talking to a mom with a child the same age as my eldest,
and she said that he makes his own lunch every day and I couldn't believe that I never encouraged
Fraser to make his own lunch. I'm going to this year, but to help him out I'm going to
have assembly line lunches. In his lunchbox I've written a little checklist
of things to include in his lunch, and then in the morning he can make his own sandwich,
and then grab the other items that are on the list. I've laid out our snack drawer,
which we've always had. But, I've laid it out with things that he can grab and go for
lunch, and I've also made one of the shelves in the fridge for packed lunches so hopefully
he can easily pull that out, grab what he needs, put it into his lunchbox. I think he'll
really like the responsibility, and also choosing things for himself.
Something I've talked about so much on this channel, and I include in every evening routine,
is to get everything ready the night before. So, layout their uniform, I line the three
boys up on the banister upstairs, also choose your outfit. If they need anything for clubs,
dinners, lunches, money for school, anything. Have it all ready, and it will make your mornings
so much easier. And, another hack is I have these initial hooks, one for each boy, where
I can hang their bag or anything they're going to need for school. Then, in the morning we
can just grab and go. And, a hack to make planning your kids' outfits
even easier is to get a hanging organizer, and place one outfit in each section for every
day that week. This way on a Sunday night you could plan out what your child is going
to wear for the entire week, and then it's done so in the morning rush you're not looking
for matching socks, or a clean top. Everything they're going to wear is there, and if they
have nursery on certain days you can put nursery clothes into those sections. And, also when
they're old enough to dress themselves they can get into the routine of just going to
that, and pulling out everything they're going to need to wear.
And, when it comes to homework it's great to get your child into their routine of as
soon as they walk in the door, checking if they've got any homework. And if they do,
just getting it done straight away before playtime. If your child doesn't have a desk
like my doesn't but you want to keep all of their homework things together, you can get
a little storage box. I just got this one from Poundland, and then put everything that
they're going to need on a regular basis for homework, maybe scissors, glue, tape, pens,
pencils, all of that is in one place. Then, they can take this little storage box or homework
caddy with them wherever they're going to do homework in the house. It might be the
dining table, it might be their bedroom. But, everything is in one place, and it's easy
to find. When it comes to keep school work or artwork,
plan ahead and get yourself an expandable accordion file now. I just picked this one
up in Wilko's, and then over the course of the year anything they bring home, I can just
put it into this file, and at the end of the year I can go through, see which bits I really
do want to keep, and then put them into their memory boxes.
Another hack is to take pictures of their artwork, and then create a photo book of it.
Another hack is to set alarms. If you find yourself always running behind in the morning
before a school run, you can set a series of alarms. Maybe one is make lunches, maybe
one is get the drinks out of the fridge, maybe one is get your shoes on. You can set all
of these little alarms, and it will keep you on track. I also always have an alarm go off
at 2:30 every day just to remind me to do the school run. Not that I would ever forget
it, but sometimes you get tied up, or you're playing with another child, and it's just
great to have that little reminder. Another little hack that I love to do throughout
the school year is if their rucksacks, or bags, or even shoes get dirty I will throw
these into the washing machine, and wash them. I mentioned this in a cleaning video, and
so many of you didn't know that lots of washing machines have settings for shoes. So you can
wash them, and also with the bag I just put it on a delicate cycle and it comes out as
good as new, and smelling so nice. Another tip to help to clean your shoes, I don't know
if everyone needs this, but my son's are obsessed with playing football at lunch time. If they
get grass into the Velcro of their shoes, I've discovered that a tape dispenser blade
works so well to just get this right out. Right, so that's it for this video. I really
hope you liked these back to school hacks. If you have any of your own please put them
in the comments down below, because you guys always have the best ideas. If you also have
any requests for more hacks videos, let me know what you would like to see. I hope back
to school goes really well for you guys. I'm sure I'll be a blubbering mess like I always
am. But yeah, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you in my next one. Bye guys.