UPDATE: We shared these easy tips on WFAA’s Good Morning Texas.
Resume a “normal” or “school day” schedule.
When you are home for the holidays, the routine is relaxed, bedtime shifts and the days lazily stream by. In preparation for back-to-school, back-to-work, get back on the schedule. So if you go to bed on school nights at 9:00pm and wake up at 6:30am, it makes life easier to go ahead and restart that pronto.
Limit screen time.
Studies show that screen time increases over the holidays, regardless of the fact that 2020 has increased the entire planet’s screen time. In preparation for a day spent with other activities, limit screen time and time spent on the devices. It’ll help the body rest, recharge and leave a mental window for other activities that will soon occupy the day.
Check your email.
In the rapidly shifting climate that is right now — our school districts are sending updates as fast as they have them. Regardless of whether your student is virtual or in-person, there are important details and updates neatly tucked inside your email. Give it a more frequent visit to make sure that you know all that you need to know
Handle the minutia now.
Laundry, supplies, devices, headphones, chargers, backpacks, lunch or lunch money — check. The list of minutia and tiny details that make back-to-school work need to be handled now. Do your and your children’s devices still work? Did someone drop their Macbook over the holiday or do they have sticky keys and you need to run by a store and pick one up? Do y’all need more cold weather gear? Make that happen — there are lots of delivery services that will help with that. Sit down for five minutes with a blank sheet of paper and right down all the details of the things that need to happen before back-to-school. And take another ten to get a plan together. Share it with the people and services that you need to enlist to make it work for you.
Run a couple of practice days.
The first few days back can be exhausting. Make life easier on yourself by running a couple of practice days. We typically start on the Wednesday before School jumps back in session. I wake the kids up at BTS time, do breakfast just like a day and have them run through the routine. It gives them a chance to get re-familiar with the plan and me a chance to get my head back in the game.
Take yourself to bed.
If you are like me, I’ve spent the holiday absorbed in my to-be-read pile and happily binge-watching Netflix [Can we say Bridgerton :)} after the kids go to bed. That age old sentiment of “If Mama ain’t happy…” comes into play. Make it easy on every one and go bed. Get some rest and get recharged for the shift. Top up on your vitamins and move a little. Get yourself back into the swing before it becomes necessary.
Avoid the last hoorah.
I’ve done it multiple ways and if at all possible, do not wait until Sunday… or the day before school starts to get back into the routine. That last hoorah makes a painful first day back to work, back to school and back to the nitty gritty grind.
