Back to school routine/prep?

[Wintercoffee]

Anyone have any advice/tips for getting the little ones ready for school routine again etc?

Make sure they're in bed at a decent time the night before school starts, other than that, enjoy the summer break!

Sleep at a good time, the expectation that certain things are undertaken first thing in the morning before playing. (Whatever's important to you clothing/breakfast/toothbrushing)

I was just going to remind them what we will need to do in the morning.

Nah. Just make sure they don’t go to bed too late the night before.

@NightmareLoon

Sleep at a good time, the expectation that certain things are undertaken first thing in the morning before playing. (Whatever's important to you clothing/breakfast/toothbrushing)

I really like that idea! Still gives expectation and structure before certain tasks, thanks!

Bedtimes tend to be a lot later during the hols for us. If it's just a half term, getting them into bed and asleep at the 'proper' time the night before is fine but over the Summer hols the later to bed/later to rise routine is more ingrained. We will start gradually moving bedtime earlier a week before schools return.
We generally keep the same rules regarding being dressed and teeth brushed before going downstairs to have breakfast through the holidays anyway, so don't have an issue there (our DCs are strongly motivated by their stomachs!). The only difference is no TV on a school day, but we'll go cold turkey with that on their first day back.

I think it depends on what aspect you think they’ll struggle with. We’re finding that holiday camps are keeping us more or less in the same routine at the moment. I’m sure it’ll all go a bit more to pot once we’re off.

I migrate bedtime back to normal several days before term starts and I wake up DD progressively earlier that week too.

Also a few weeks before school starts I do the following:

• check winter coat, shoes and PE shoes still fit, and are clean
• DD goes through her pencil case and we check all the right things are there
• clear out school bag and lunch box, put them through a cold wash
• get a new water bottle and label with her name
• double check the homework requirement (there's usually something daft we were supposed to do and haven't yet)

And weekend before:

• make sure I've put packed lunch ingredients in my online shop
• cut DD's hair (I do it myself, so that's easy)
• go into the After school club website and her Violin lesson website and update her School Year information (for some reason we have to do this ourselves, they can't simply go through and add 1 to everyone!)