Getting ready for school

[MilkCereal]

Ok so we have 2dc and both work ft. I'm preparing for the madness of school. Got uniform etc sorted. Now going to do some food preparation this week so we have some easy meals. Anything else people do to prepare in sane situation? DC go to after school club so not home until after 5pm.

Any tips gratefully received as it does become a bit chaotic and honestly I'm dreading it!

How is it chaotic? You get them up dress them or tell them to get dressed depending on age take them to school then you dont have to do anything until 5pm when they get home and you feed them, do homework, send them to bed. Unless I'm missing something? Even with after school clubs added in it should be fine. Mone have after school clubs in different parts of town at the same time and even thats not too bad one just has to get there early and wait. They have school dinners so tea can be sandwiches in the car if necessary.

How old are they?

DC 5 and 7.
I think I just need to be more organized maybe with cooking dinner, getting dressed in morning etc- this can be a battle! My job pressure (I need to work most evenings) doesn't help either.

Can you share the load with partner?

Do they have school dinners or packed lunch?

Partner takes them in mornings, we cook together in evening if hes home. Sometimes hes not back until 6:30....
1 has school dinners most of time. Other packed lunches starting this year.

A lot of a packed lunch can be prepped the night before. Everything not refrigerated can be in the box, so its just adding the fridge stuff in the mornings. They take a few minutes.

Uniform and bags ready the night before.

Dont allow anyone to sit down or play (obviously sitting at table for breakfast ok) until they are completely ready).

Would it be easier if they both do school dinners, I assume one is coming out of KS1 free school meals (if you are in England)

I make the lunches the night before and fill water bottles and leave all in the fridge.
Batch cooking is great or I just stir fry and use microwave rice or ready to wok noodles if I am working and it's busy.

Yesterday I bought two containers and each night I will put in socks vest boxers shoes and their uniform. New rule no breakfast until dressed (except jumper)

Thank you!
Ok yes I like the box and get dressed first before anything else.
I'll try to prep lunches. - £2.60 a lunch each day we cant afford on top of afterschool club etc. So packed lunches it will be! Yes shes year3 so no more free meals !
Thanks for tips- stirfrys and batch cooking sound good too- thanks

I completely get it. We have 8,5 and 1.5 and it is chaos. Glad to hear that for some people the organisation comes naturally but for us it does not. We have found that hangers with full uniform/nursery outfits prepped at the beginning of the week, a very up to date and visible calendar, syncing phones to the schools events calendar and ‘Sunday admin jobs’ (checking for upcoming birthdays/ordering presents/non-uniform days/filling in school forms etc.) help! We also online shop to ensure we have more than enough packed lunch food, as someone always snacks on something/it goes out of date and there’s nothing worse than trekking to the shop at 10pm to fetch missing lunch things for the next morning. Diesel gets a full tank on a Sunday too, no ‘must go for fuel before school’ scenarios. We also prep activity bags for sports throughout the week/swimming all in one go and then they live ‘ready’ in wardrobes.

Repetition is the key. Do the same thing each morning so it runs like clock work.

Each set of school uniform out, complete and ready, along with packed bags, the night before. Kids eat breakfast, go up stairs, brush their teeth, get dressed. Everyone knows what's happening.

Lunchbox stuff prepared the night before. Coats and shoes all ready in the same place. When they get home from school, coats and shoes go immediately into the place they belong.

If you get into a routine with the boring stuff, it really helps. Also, in the week, ease up on the type of meals you have. They don't need to be gourmet meals. Omlette and salad are super quick, nutritious and don't create a mountain of dishes.

Then you're free to have some fun/downtime with the kids before bed.

Lower your standards for evening meals. Beans on toast once a week is acceptable.
Whatever you make Sunday, make double and reheat for Monday.
Slow cooker is your friend too. You can put food on in the morning and it will be cooked for your return home.

It is definitely chaos, I’m jealous of those who have a smooth run before school.

I only have one school age DC who is SLOW. Takes her ages to get active in the morning and it turns into a fight if I rush her as apparently I’m “pressurising”.

So what works for us is to get up a bit earlier than most and that way we have that extra time to faff around. Keeps me off her back and means I’m not clock watching.

Only thing that helps me is hanging out the school uniform the night before, other than that I do everything in the morning.

Invest in a slow cooker, an absolute god-send for meals in my house as both have after school activities and I work full time.
After they have gone to bed prep for next morning and have shoes / bags and coats ready. I would make sure you are up a good bit before the children and have had at least a coffee/ tea so you are alert and had a bit of stress free time before they are up and so it doesn’t feel as rushed.

We have a chalk board by the door. Everything needed for that day is liste on it (PE kits, homework,reply slips etc).

plan and repeat, plan and repeat!
Family weekly planner with who's going where and when and checklist for the kids of things like sports kit, musical instruments, library book day etc.
Coats, shoes and bags all hung up when you get home in an evening.
Kids get changed, put dirty uniform in the laundry, hang up anything to wear again and put out socks, pants etc for the next day. Then play.
Morning I would get up, breakfast, teeth then get dressed for school. As a grown adult I daren't eat breakfast in anything other than PJs or there's a risk of me getting food / toothpaste down my clothes for the day!
Family meal planner - batch cooking, prep Monday's dinner on Sunday, slow cooker, easy dinners, "freezer tea" or pizza on a Friday. You do the hard bit of making sandwiches for the packed lunches while kids pick out their snacks / fruit.
At that age i might even be tempted to make them a reward chart type thing to check off their side of the tasks.

Some sandwiches you can freeze e.g. ham, chicken. So you could make a weeks worth and get one out each day.

We meal plan every week. At least 2 midweek meals will be slow cooker (I prepare those the evening before).

For me the hardest parts are;
•Getting 12 year old ds to get to sleep at a reasonable time.
• Getting him up in the mornings!
• keeping up with laundry - especially sports kit.

Thank you thank you thank you! These are the tips I was looking for! Ordered a slow cooker to collect tomorrow. I like a reward chart for them to do bits and yes the other tops are mega useful. Never thought of freezing sandwiches either. Lovely that there are people like me who struggle as first response made me feel every inadequate!

Make your children responsible for themselves (yes, you'll have to still check stuff at first, but they'll soon be independent). Then you can focus on getting yourself ready.

so - they are responsible for putting out their uniform the night before (leave a list of what's needed - written or pictures to start with).

They are responsible for packing their bags (again, you write the list, varied by day).

I let mine watch TV once they were totally ready, which acted as an incentive, but I know some people prefer a no telly rule.

What time do you all need to be out?

I have to admit, I don't find mornings too disorganised. DH does, but he doesn't follow my 'system'. I get myself up at 6am, when DH leaves for work. I shower, hair done, cuppa and make up on if I'm going out. I wake the kids up at 7am, they can take anything up to 30 minutes to get up! They do teeth and get dressed. Then they go downstairs to have breakfast. If they have time, they get some telly. We leave for school at 8.40am. I WFH, so log on about 9am.

They take a bloody age to do anything though and God help you if you try to get them to go any quicker.

I used to get up about 7.15, give them a warning shout, I jumped in the shower and dressed 7.30 seconded heightened warning shout to get out of bed, go downstairs make breakfast, go upstairs and read the riot act, they would then pull on clothes and come down and eat, whilst I made lunches, exh would appear too then , upstairs to brush teeth then out the door for 8.35. Was never late in 17 years of schooling! The yelling never stopped though not even for 6th form but they did get up in time to shower by then

They leave 8:15 with partner, I'm out at 8am . They're early risers so getting up is no problem! I'd love to get up before them but that doesnt happen often. Breakfast seems to take ages so will focus on that.

Yes I think they're old enough to be responsible, I'll do a chart for them both.

OP I'm right there with you. Morning stress, evening chaos. DC are going into Y5 and Y8 now, you'd have thought I'd got the hang of it by now, but it's getting more difficult as they get older!

DH is either away or off early most days - this is the nature of construction.
DD should go to breakfast and after school club, but is extremely stubborn and increasingly reluctant. Working at home doesn't help because I am here, rather than working in the next city. Anyway, the rule is that she needs to be up and eaten by 8am, otherwise she eats at breakfast club.

Most evenings the DC have different activities at different times, so meals are becoming "serve yourself as and when" types. Stew, chilli, bolognaise etc, which I try and batch cook on the previous weekend. I do a lot of meal planning!

My dc had hot food in a thermos funtainer flask for packed lunch as it's much quicker.

Get the dc to do as much as possible. Eg empty their bags after school, bring their reading book to you, put their clothes in the washing basket etc.

Meal plan.