Please share your best tips/life hacks for starting P1

[pepinanalilyplant]

DD due to start P1 in August is a challenge in the morning at the best of times. With working from home numerous self isolation from preschool our routine has been disrupted. Add to the mix we have a newborn who hates sleep, is flat out refusing bottles etc!!! I'm beyond stressed about getting DD to school on time. The baby is prone to wanting feeds at random times!

I will of course prepare uniform and lunch the night before.

Any other handy tips to make sure things go smoothly?

Many thanks x

Forgot to add: do I send in a extra pair of clothes in the bag in case of accidents? DD is quite good with getting to the loo on time, but sometimes in a new environment and over excitement may be too shy to ask.

Yes, change of clothes - put it in a separate bag labelled with your DD's name so it can be kept at school if that's how they want to do it.

Have breakfast things laid out the night before too. And also clothes for yourself.

Thank you. That would save time

Take a picture of any letters, party invites etc that get brought home so you always have them to hand and don't stress when you can't find the original.

@RedPakora thanks! Gosh I hadn't factored in all the extra admin starting school brings in.

We have a plastic drawer tower thing with 5 drawers in wardrobe. A drawer for each day. Put full days uniform in each drawer and anything else (PE kit, etc) needed on that day. Do this on a Sunday for the week ahead. Worked really well with foster children and my DS. Means you know everything is sorted for the week and child can just get everything out of the day's drawer without having to ask where this that or the other is or what they need to wear that day.

If you’re in Scotland, every child in P1-3 gets free school meals, so no lunch prep required!

@LeafyBamboo great idea! I'm going to have a look on IKEA now for a tower thing! Thank you! I've thrive on being organised and prepared but with the baby everything is so disorganised, which is causing me to be unnecessarily anxious and stressed.

@doodlejump1980 yes Scotland but the school has asked to send a snack for the mid morning break.

[quote pepinanalilyplant]@LeafyBamboo great idea! I'm going to have a look on IKEA now for a tower thing! Thank you! I've thrive on being organised and prepared but with the baby everything is so disorganised, which is causing me to be unnecessarily anxious and stressed. [/quote]
Perfect for you then!

Teach your child to recognise their name, dress and undress independently (especially coats and zips), use the toilet and wash hands independently.

Name everything that will go into school. Put clothes out and prep lunches the night before. Have a set place for school shoes, coat, PE kit and school bag, so when ready they’re in a place where your child can get them easily in the morning. Have at least enough uniform to only need to do 1 wash midweek.

Be prepared for them to be very, very tired after school, even if they’ve done longer hours in childcare before now. I always used to take a snack and a drink to have immediately after school and we always had a routine, home, in through the door (having had snack etc in car), reading and homework before any TV so the rest of the evening could be more relaxed.

I fold my kids uniform into little plastic drawers labelled with each day. So in the morning they go grab their clothes for the day. We’ve made a little poster in prep for starting that has their tasks and my tasks on it - like brush teeth, collect clothes. They think it’s a game, helps me massively as I’m not constantly shouting out orders lol.

We get up, get dressed, clean teeth and then head downstairs.

I know this seems like the wrong way round, but if I were to let my kids go downstairs for breakfast first we’d never get out the door! This way they’re good to go within 10 mins of waking and they can have a leisurely breakfast without me nagging them to get a move on.

Also, some small envelopes are handy for getting notes to the teacher or for when they need money for charity collections etc.

I always have small rolls in the freezer and cheese triangles and plenty of boxes of crackers so that if I haven't got a recent grocery shop in - I can rustle up a snack for school. They love little wraps with ham too here.

Have small change handy for different events or dress up days. You may need things like a shoebox or something random like a baby photo for a project at short notice.

I always have plenty of uniform and a rain coat plus a bomber coat (so have a spare incase they leave one at school)

To help them know the difference between their left and right shoe, draw a smiley face with half on the inside of one shoe and half on the other.

These are the best lables. No ironing or anything

www.stikins.co.uk

Thank you very much everyone! I'm taking note and will hopefully be well prepared!

Sorry I have no idea what lables are

Have an emergency breakfast in mind that could be eaten on the way. It’s the easiest way to catch up if you are really behind.
Find things on the way to motivate them to get out of the house. Once we saw firefighters having breakfast on the side of the road. That was gold for weeks (‘shall we go and see if the firefighters are there today?’). Other hits are street sweepers and dogs. They don’t have much of a time or lateness concept so are difficult to motivate otherwise.
Mini versions of anything that needs to be done in the pram or in your bag (e.g. little hairbrush, mini-nivea). I hate standing at the gate and realising I didn’t brush her hair.
Same routine every morning and work out your timings. For example, I know that if I leave by 8:37 I can let the toddler walk, any later we take the buggy and after 8:40 big sister has to hop on the buggy for the first few minutes too.
Anything out of the ordinary goes into our shared calendar the second we get the email with a reminder at 9pm the night before and at 7 the next morning.
Once you work out what school asks for often (for us it’s empty loo rolls and shoeboxes) keep some. They are always asking last minute and it’s really annoying.
The one time we were late last year was when both kids needed a poo at 8:37. Sometimes you just can’t win.

Piece of fruit for snack. Apples seem to be the most reliable as oranges can be less obvious if they're dodgy plus less easy to eat yourself if you're 5. Pears are a bit fragile.

I'd strongly recommend a water bottle with a covered mouthpiece. Having done reception and P1 back to back I think moving on from the twisty Sistema bottles to the Ion8 (Amazon sells them) plus improved hand hygiene because pandemic made a massive difference to stomach bugs (which you really don't want with a newborn).

Depending on your school/pandemic changing rules you might find they're in PE kit a couple of days plus forest school old clothes.

If possible I'd have a separate set of waterproofs/wellies for forest school if you have forest school. Then you can clean off and pack ready for next week rather than frantic hunt for wellies in the morning...

See if you can master sling feeding. Made a massive difference to not need to interrupt feeds to go on the school run!

OP thanks for posting this! My DS starts P1 next week and loads of these tips are great

My kids coats / gloves / sun hats etc. live in the car after school, they get put back in on our way home (or left in when we get home as I often pick up in the car) that way there's no hunting for them in the morning.
At pick-up check they have their coat / gloves / sun hat / cardigan / jumper etc. & if someone else collects then remind them to check looking at you DP 🤬
Any changes i.e. non-uniform days get put straight in my phone calender with a reminder at 4.30pm the day before (enough time to do a quick wash & get stuff on the airer) & again at 7am. Always have a few wipes handy as I frequently discover something sticky on one of their faces as we get to the gates despite appearing clean as we walked out the door 🙄

My P1 child keeps a toothbrush and toothpaste downstairs now too so she doesn't have to go upstairs for brushing her teeth after breakfast. She would get waylaid up there especially if I didn't go up with her.
I keep a pile of £1 coins in a pot in the kitchen for non uniform/ charity days when I might not have change in my purse.

Get up and get yourself ready first in the morning, then there's just to dc to think about. Encourage dc to do as much as they can by themselves, dressing, teeth, shoes, zips etc. if they can learn how to do it themselves early on it'll save you time and energy in the long run.

Have 6 sets of uniform so you always have a fresh clean set ready (our uniform is cheap!).

Label everything.

Family planner calendar on the wall to keep track of everything.

Our school you need to order lunches for the week ahead online so that's Sunday evening job, not. Monday morning - you will forget put an alarm reminder on your phone.

Snack and water bottle filled the night before and put in the fridge. Have at least 2 water bottles as they will forget to bring them home.

Thanks again everyone for the tips. I'm not able to drive following complications in pregnancy so any time saving is invaluable. Have ordered more uniform and school bits and feel much more prepared.

Now to hope that my lovely but painfully shy DD settles in and enjoys school 🤞.