Back to school organisation tips!

[mummyofthreeunder4]

My DD starts school in September. We have three DC 4 and under. My DD's school starts at 8:30, she needs to be there for 8:20 and I have to squeeze in drop off off of my DS at nursery en route first. Before leaving the house I will need to feed and dress the baby before we leave, plus dress the older two ready for their days. Mornings are going to be hectic! DH leaves house at 6:45 for work so the majority of this is going to fall to me.

On mat leave at moment but when I am back to work I tend to have to be away for one night per week/fortnight, meaning my husband deals with things that day/night but he is hopelessly forgetful.

I want to get organised!!

Looking at uniform stations so I can insert the school uniform / kit / other after school club stuff needed into labelled drawers/boxes on a Sunday evening ready for the week ahead.

Does anyone do this and can you recommend one? Any other top tips to help with school organisation to getting to school on time!?

One thing stands out to me: dress the older two. Your school age one will be expected to dress herself in reception (barring a bit if help if needed obv) so start teaching her how to do that now.
Deal with paperwork from school/nursery and all the bag packing the night before. As soon as PE kit comes home, wash and repack, never leave it.

I have 3 (soon to be 4) children. The eldest 2 are school aged.

The uniform station, I think, while a good idea on paper, really means, you will be spending a fortune on uniform to have sufficient for 5 days. I have done it in the past, and really, it just leads to a LOAD of additional washing.

I would actually just have 2 or 3 days worth and make sure you keep on top of washing (it actually worked out so much easier for me tbh).

My biggest tip, is to put every ‘day’ in the diary as soon as they are released from school. Every dress up, charity, day off, non uniform etc. Then set a reminder for a few days before and the morning of the actual event.

For any dress up days, set a reminder for a week or 2 earlier to allow sufficient time to make (buy…!) a costume.

Set reminders weekly for PE days (I use Alexa for a lot of these things), filling water bottles etc etc, anything that you might think you’ll forget in a morning panic. Just use this time to set up something quickly so it’s done.

Your routine will come into place fairly quickly. And everyone tends to be a bit out of sorts at the start of the year!

Oh also, it mightn’t work for everyone, but the rule here is that everyone is dressed before coming down in the morning. It allows for the faffing about that will follow breakfast to not become a major stress.

• Make the lunch the night before.
• Use a family calendar like Family Wall to keep both you and your DH on top of what's coming up and for who - you can colour coordinate for family members.
• If kids have cereal keep it in plastic containers and get a small plastic jug for milk, have bowls and spoons on the table the night before and let older kids serve themselves.
• Get schoolbag ready the night before and leave it at the front door.
• Drill it into the kids that they need to leave their shoes and coats in the same place when they get home, this way they won't go missing. Lost shoes are the most frequent reason for my kids being delayed!
• Factor in time to get yourself ready too. If you can, get a quick shower before your DH walks out the door, that way you'll be more ready for the day.

We have drawers in the front room so any clean enough uniform goes in there to be reworn. Before we go to bed DH sorts through it and makes sure each one has everything they need and lays it out on the sofa for morning. Pack bags the night before. Have a school specific water bottle so no faffing around trying to find it after the weekend. Breakfast comes last Once everything else is done (and no TV until then!). Once the big ones are having breakfast then baby can have milk/ breakfast. It seems massive now but you'll soon get into your own routine honestly!

Make sure bags/PE kits/coats/hats/shoes are ready the night before. I have a set of child-height pegs by the front door that everything hangs on. Set alarms for when you need to do certain tasks, so we have alexa alarms at 7.15am to have breakfast, 7.35am for reading school book/phonics practice, 7.55am for teeth brushing, suncream and uniform on, 8.25am for shoes on and collect everything we're taking, then 8.30am into the car. The children are much more responsive to an alarm reminder than to me chivvying them.
Take a photo of any letters that come home immediately and save them in a folder on your phone. If it's a permission slip or something that needs to be returned, action it the moment you open it and straight back into the schoolbag.
Also if your kid's school is like ours, buy some of these Money ENVELOPES 100PK amzn.eu/d/dD6F5qo and get £20 in £1 coins from the bank at the start of each school year for the endless raffle tickets, non-uniform days, bake sales etc

4 year old dresses themselves. Aim to be ready 10 mins before you leave. Visual timetable so kids know what is coming and more importantly what they need to do next. Personally I don’t see the value in drawers with the days of the week, just get out everyone’s clothes the night before.

Choose a theme for party gifts. Eg reception age, usbourne sticker books, buy 4 at a time. Bulk buy kids birthday cards.

If the kids don’t already teach them to put away bags and coat and empty their bags when they come home, water bottle, snack box and any pictures when they come home.

If needed baby can do the school run in PJs.

Have a place for:
Envelopes
£1 coins
Christmas is coming(!)
They will come home at the last minute with requests for:
Cards
Christmas jumper (hate this but....)
Get it all gradually in the Autumn term

Child height pegs and basket each in hallway, or somewhere near door. Coat, shoes for school/nursery, bag all hung up. Basket for any extras that need taking.

colour code each child.

prep clothing night before. Child can do themselves with help. Means cardigan can be reworn if clean, fresh if not. And you know night before if something is lost or filthy rather than 7am panic.

dressed before breakfast. If someone is too slow then can then get toast and banana on the move

no tv in the mornings. Slows everything down. Dressed, eat, teeth, shoes on. Only when completely ready can they then play with something or look at books 10 mins if time.

The thing that made the biggest difference to us:

A table stuck to the fridge, showing what each child needed to (a) wear and (b) have in their bag on each day of the week. The Reception child will have PE day (probably wearing kit these days), return phonics book in book bag on a particular day etc.

This method allowed DP to get on top of it independently rather than me being the one holding it all in my head (and answering questions). I had to write the table, obvs. But it helped me too.