A Better Bag of Groceries

My New School Year Resolutions

Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 09:23 AM

My Jewish friends will celebrate the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, tonight and tomorrow.  It’s yet another reason why I think that I may have been Jewish in a previous life – celebrating the New Year in early September makes so much sense to me.  The end of summer and the beginning of the school year is the new year to me and to my family and it is the right time for us to make some New Year’s Resolutions.

While most parents I’ve talked to lately are excited to send our kids back to school, we are all dreading one thing:  the Morning Rush.  Getting four people out the door and to the places they need to go to on time is a superhuman feat that needs to be repeated on a daily basis.  And it is Stressful with a Capital S.  So, as we’ve enjoyed these beautiful, blissful last few days of summer, I’ve spent a little time making a mental short list of things that we can do as a family to make our morning routine run just a little more smoothly this year. 

1. Use a Kids’ Checklist to keep on track.  We instituted the kids’ checklist for both their morning and evening routines last year – about halfway through the school year.  They worked pretty well.  We made them in excel and they hung on their closet doors in their bedrooms and the kids checked the tasks off as they completed them (brush teeth, make bed, etc).  The problem with those checklists however, was that I could not read them from afar.  So, if I was running from the bathroom to my dressing room trying to get myself ready for work, I couldn’t really see where the kids were in their morning routine.  We had to constantly keep on top of them.  So, this year, we made big checklists using big flip-chart paper and we had the kids help plan out their routines so they would feel some ownership for what they needed to do.  I’ll let you know how it goes!
2. Make all the lunches the night before – including Mom’s and Dad’s lunch.  We’ve always made the kids’ lunches the night before – beginning way back from when we were sending bottles and finger foods to daycare.  However, for some reason, we stop there.  I think we’re just too tired to then make our own lunches too.  Well, that means that we spend ten (plus) minutes making lunch for ourselves in the morning.  That’s ten minutes that we don’t have.  So this year, we resolve (I have to get my husband to read this post!) to make our own lunches the night before too.  It will help to have a little snack-bagging party on Sunday, where we pre-slice and bag some fruits and veggies.
3. Speaking of the night before, we will follow the motto, if it can be done the night before, we will do it the night before.  We will lay out clothes, we will pack up all laptops and electronic equipment, we will write the check for the milkman.  Heck, we will make an Evening Checklist of the things we can do the night before.  Woo hoo!  I’m getting very excited about these resolutions!  Too bad I can’t shower, put in my contacts and dry my hair the night before.
4. My son will do his homework before dinner.  Welcome to second grade.  Last year, our routine was homework after dinner.  It wasn’t particularly productive.  By that time, everybody was tired and cranky.  There were some nights when one of us was still working with my son well past 8 pm because there was still homework to be done.  Enter our new babysitter who begins next week and our new after-school program that has a Homework Club.  Our new babysitter asked me if I would like for her to work on homework with my son because that’s what she usually does with the children that she watches.  Sounds great to me!  And on the days that my son is at his after-school program, he will work on homework at the homework club.  We have already broken the news to my son, that while there will still be time for playing after school, homework will be done after school, not after dinner.  We need to leave time for all the things we need to do on our Evening Checklist in Resolution #3.
5. Back to the morning routine, we will use the clock countdown method for breakfast.  My kids get the sillies at breakfast time.  They stall.  They like to talk about movies and TV.  Truly, it is maddening at times.  So, this summer, when our morning routine included slathering their little bodies with sunblock, head-to-toe, we instituted the clock countdown method at breakfast time.  That meant that we would say, “you have until the big hand is on the 3 to finish your cereal and blueberries.”  It works pretty well.  It also helps to make sure that no stuffed animals or toys made it to the table.  Which leads me to Resolution Number 6.
6. Stuffed Animals will remain on the second level of our house.  At all times.  OK, I’ll let them come down to Floor Number 1 for Pizza Movie night on Fridays, but that’s it.  You see, stuffed animals are this huge distraction in our morning routine.  Now, I do have a neighbor who makes her kids put on their school clothes the minute they get out of bed.  I’m OK with my kids coming down in their pajamas for 10 minutes of TV to wake up (hey, we all need our “coffee”) before breakfast.  But Elmo, Duck and Snoopy stay upstairs.  End of story.
7. We will use Out the Door Checklists (one per person) to make sure that we are not making emergency drives back from the office with lunches, gym shoes, snacks, etc.  I love that my kids are getting big enough to carry their own stuff.  But it certainly does increase the error percentage rate, doesn’t it.  They did great all summer – my son only forgot his lunch on the very last day of Summer Day Camp – and then my husband had to turn around, come back and get it.  And so, he missed his train to Boston.  So, while my house will be a sea of checklists, hanging everywhere, we will place one last checklist on our front door, so that everyone can check to see that they’ve got their stuff.

I think that seven New School Year’s Resolutions is enough to keep track of.  I have to say that my husband and I always start out strong, and soon slip a few weeks into the new routine.  So, I’ll let you know how we do this year.  Wish us luck!  And Happy New Year!

First Day of Second Grade

My son was up at the crack of dawn for his big first day of school.  He literally waited at our front door for 45 minutes with his backpack on.  (You see – at first it’s easy.  Wait until a few weeks when he’s tired and cranky).

All was good until the skies opened up and the lightning bolts started coming down right at bus stop time!  Oh well, we made it.  Can’t wait to hear how the first day of second grade went!

Question of the Day

Do you have any New School Year Resolutions?

Yesterday’s Winner

Congratulations to Commenter #24, Hillary!  You’ve won my Back to School, PB&J Giveaway!  Please send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address so that I can send your prize to you.  Thank you to everyone who entered.

Posted by: Melissa 5 comments

Posted in: back-to-school

Tags: back-to-school, New School Year Resolutions