Getting Back to Routines | Back to School Tips & Tips for New School Mums

Getting Back to Routines | Back to School Tips & Tips for New School Mums

We are back to school! Yay! Hope you survived the school holidays.
Enjoy these top 5 tips for starting Kindergarten and going back to school. 

Becoming a new school Mum can be overwhelming and daunting. These tips will help you reduce the pressure and stress of getting back into school routine. Whether you are starting school or have children in older primary school years, these are my go-to tips to help with the overwhelm of it all.

1. Stick to basic lunchboxes that are easy to open and aren't heavy.
2. Join school and class facebook groups or whats app groups.
3. Don't fill up every afternoon with activities.
4. Secondhand uniforms, school bags and school shoes are great!
5. Don't stress about being perfect, trust your friends that you make and trust your teacher.

Transcript

Welcome back to inspired to be for semester two term three. If you are a mom who has kids at school, I hope you survived the school holidays. I am certainly so glad to be back in routine. It was just like the last few days of the school holidays, if you know, you know, I feel like I organized so many things in the first week and then they had a few activities and then by the last few days of the holidays it's like we just need to get back to routine. I guess my kids are probably like me in that they thrive off of routine and we just need to be back there. So man, is it nice to be back. I hope you're all taking a breath and feeling good and we're getting back into regular programming here on inspired to be. I am going to now be uploading every Wednesday and I am hoping to bring you a guest every second week. And every other week will be a tips episode, an inspired episode from me, a solo episode. Today, specifically, I am sharing with you my tips for heading back to school and I'm actually sharing with you a mum inspired throwback from the mum inspired days. It's an episode where I share all my tips for new school mums. But these are also really relevant to going back to school and I really loved listening back over this content because when I recorded it, I only had Zara in school, whereas now I have Zara and Adrian at school and it definitely all the tips that I mentioned were definitely ones that I've then implemented with Adrienne as well and they've been super helpful and it's nice to just have a little reminder going into semester two, especially with a kindy kid. I guess you now have sort of found your feet a little bit, but also you are still getting used to things. There is definitely things that I'm still learning and still putting in place with Adriene having started kindy this year. So I think you're going to love these tips. Hopefully they help you getting back into routine this semester. One thing I did mention in the tips was joining all of the school Facebook groups, which is definitely still relevant, but I think now more so they are WhatsApp groups. So I think that's the only thing that's changed since I recorded this episode, is that in my experience these days, it's more about joining the for example, there's a WhatsApp group for the whole of kindy at the school where Adrian goes. And then there's also a WhatsApp group for his specific kindy class. So when you're listening to that tip about Facebook groups, keep in mind that it might potentially be WhatsApp groups depending on your school as well. So I really hope you love this episode. I hope that it helps you just pick up some little tips to make your life easier if you're a school mum, if you're getting back into the busy routine, and I just want to say you're doing an amazing job, sometimes mumming is just really busy and really tricky. So take a breath and you've got this. And I hope that you have a really good start back to term. Okay, so let's be honest. I have been there. I have bought many too many expensive lunchboxes. I've cooked all my snacks and food from scratch that don't get eaten. I have spent so much money buying new things only to have them lost, painted on or even cut with scissors. It is such an exciting time. So I think you really want to do everything brand new and you want it to be the best and you take on a lot of pressure on yourself. But let me tell you that you are the same as every other mum out there. Every mom is feeling the same. And once you become part of this group of school mums, you will realize that you're all actually in the same boat. And you'll laugh together and you'll help each other out and you'll be okay. So with all that in mind, here are my top five tips from my experience over the last few years to help you enjoy the process and hopefully feel not alone. If you are feeling really worried about this new little phase of life, number one is lunchtime, guys. Cheap lunch boxes are the way to go. No expensive lunchboxes. No heavy lunch boxes with ice packs. When Zara first started school, I bought the really expensive, like, I think it was like yum box or something, like bento box style lunch boxes. And I would cook like my own little mini muffins and like crackers and all these things from scratch and I'd fill it up and she just hated it because it was so heavy to take out for munch and crunch. So basically they have three different meals a day. They'll have recessed lunch and munch and crunch, which is just a fruit or vegetable snack. Normally it goes munch and crunch, recess and lunch. But at her school now, it's a different order. But basically all you need to do is pack. What I found works the best for me is to have three separate little boxes or containers so that at each time she just takes out the one that she needs. Rather than having to lug around this big, heavy lunchbox. You do not need to cook everything yourself. Keep it simple, guys. Remember that this is the first year of your little one. Unless they've been going to preschool a lot, where they've been encouraged to take their own lunchboxes and open their own things, this is the first time where they're going to have to do it all by themselves. So they may not be used to opening their lunchbox by themselves or opening yogurts on their own, or even opening packets of popcorn or anything like that. So one tip I would give you is that during these next few weeks before school starts, if you've already bought the little containers, lunchboxes, bottles, or you know the types of snacks you're going to give them, let them practise opening it by themselves. And if they can't do it, then don't put it in their lunchbox because it will give them an added emotional stress and might make them be a little bit upset at lunchtime. So also don't feel like you have to cook everything from scratch. I started cooking everything from scratch and then what was happening was Zara was coming home going like, can I just have tiny teddies? Because all my friends are having tiny teddies. So we don't have tiny teddies all the time. But sometimes, yes, I let her take tiny daddies, do you know what I mean? And a lot of the kids might just have like plain rice crackers instead of like really detailed, thought out cooked lunches. I have gotten to the point where seriously, just for sandwich, she'll have like, if it's winter, it might be like a ham and cheese or a turkey and cheese or avocado and cheese sandwich or something like that. And in summer it's literally just a vegemite sandwich or a honey sandwich. Remember how much energy they are exerting at school. You can definitely find healthy options. Make sure you get like the wholemeal bread or whatever, but just keep it simple for them, but also for you, lunchbox packing in the mornings or at night can be really stressful. So the simpler you keep it, the better for everyone. One thing I will say to invest your money on is an insulated metal water bottle. That is, especially if you're living in Australia, where it is really, really hot. I know that I've bought Zara, the thermos brand, and it's like a little bit of a bigger one this year. And you just push the button and the top pops up, but it keeps the water really cold, so you can fill it with cold water and a little bit of ice. And honestly, by the end of the day, if they haven't drunk at all, the ice is still in there. So it does stay really, really cold. So that's one thing I would invest in. Number two is join all the Facebook groups. Now, you'd be surprised. This was a hard one for me because I actually didn't go on Facebook too much. I'm more of an Instagram person and I was back then a YouTube person, but I didn't spend much time on Facebook. But what you'll find is your school probably has a Facebook group, and then there's probably a certain grade Facebook group, and then there might even be a class Facebook group. So say they're in kindy at blaschool. There's probably a kindy group, a school group, and then maybe it's like a kindy green group or something like that. And what's really helpful about those groups is that moms or dads will ask questions that you're probably thinking as well. And you can just check it. You can also get to know people and know who's in your class and make sure that you're sort of learning the names of the parents and the kids, which is really helpful. Also, you can go on there if you've lost something like, oh, Zara's lost her jacket. Has anybody else in the class taken it home? And more often than not, someone will reply saying, oh, yes, my daughter accidentally took that home. I'll send it back with her tomorrow. So that is super helpful. You will want to be probably asking about, like, mufti days, gold coin donations, presents for teachers. Normally at the end of the year, there might be a post on the Facebook group like, hey, does everybody want to put in $10 for this joint present for the teacher, rather than everyone just getting little presents? And I will admit that this year, just gone, I was not checking my Facebook and I completely missed out on being part of that present, which is okay, but that's just an example of how everything kind of happens on Facebook, in my experience. Just on the topic of gold coins, make sure you have a whole bunch of gold coins, because they end up taking gold coin donations for charities. If they're wearing mufti, they have to take a gold coin. Sometimes they might have a market store where they say a note home and say, oh, can you just bring a gold coin donation? And you get a little packet of lollies or whatever it is. So it's always good to just have a backup. Like if we have a little jar where we just pop our gold coins in, if we end up getting any for any reason. And then when she has a day where she needs a donation, we give her a few just to give one to a friend or something if a friend doesn't have one as well. So that's been really helpful. Number three, and this is a huge one that I learned the hard way, is don't fill up your afternoons with activities for the kids. I know that you feel like, oh, my goodness, they're just starting kindergarten. They need to do swimming, they need to do gymnastics, they need to do tennis, dancing, soccer, tutoring, all these things. But trust me when I say the kids are so tired, especially in the first, even semester, first term, for sure. But first semester, they are so tired. Zara would literally fall asleep in the car on the way home from school. And she has not been napping since she was two years old. So it was huge. I remember the teacher saying to me once when I was talking to her about how tired the kids were, and she said, don't worry. Like, Zara's tired. But half of the boys in the class, I'll just find them asleep somewhere, asleep in a corner, asleep under a table, because they literally get so tired. Imagine how hard and fast their little brains are working. So for them to then have to go on and do an activity after school, man, they would be absolutely smashed. So I would say, just give yourself some time to see how they're going with kindy. See the friends that they make and the activities that their friends are doing before filling up all your afternoons with activities. The other reason it's nice to have a few free afternoons is because they will start making friends and going on play dates when they're a bit older. They might just go to someone's house without you. But in the beginning with kindy, it's nice to just go with the parents to a park after school. We used to do this a lot with Zara when she was in kindy on Friday. Afternoons, we'd just say Friday afternoon, park play after school. It was a really nice way to get to know the parents and to see how the kids all interacted. Number four is secondhand uniforms and school bags, school shoes and labels, etcetera. So I did go out and buy all brand new stuff for Zara when she started kindy, and I wish I hadn't because to be honest, they grow so fast. Those little kindy kids, when they come in, in the first day, they are so little. And by second semester you will have to go and buy new everything because they literally grow so fast. So I would suggest getting secondhand items if you can, at first because they also lose the they're not used to having to be responsible for hats, jackets and all of that. Yeah, so definitely try and get secondhand if you can. Maybe because it's such a special moment, you might want to get one brand new uniform and then 1 second hand or something like that. The school bags, if you don't have to get your school branded bag, don't get it because they are huge and the kindy kids literally can't carry them. They are so big and heavy and cumbersome. I would suggest getting just a normal school bag from smiggle or wherever you like, something fun for them that they can put a key ring on that's theirs and just makes them feel a bit special, a little bit individual, if that makes sense. School shoes. Go and spend money on good school shoes. We have got clarks and they literally wear them every day. They do activities they're running. If you can afford it, go and get clarks. There's also Facebook buy, swap and sell where you can always get secondhand of those good type of shoes. And because they're so little and they grow out of them quickly, you'll probably find them. But yeah, I would say investing goods school shoes depends how fast your kid grows. But Zara normally gets six months to a year out of a pair of school shoes. I normally buy them a little bit bigger too. And labels don't go out of your way to like spend heaps of money on these labels and spend heaps of time using iron on labels and waiting for them to be delivered and blah blah blah. Seriously, just get black Sharpie and just write names on things. It's so much easier. They won't rub off, they won't wash off and it will save you a lot of time. Number five, this is my last tip and this one is really, really important. Don't stress about being perfect and trust your friends that you make and trust your teacher. There's so many apps for communication between the teacher and parent these days. I think there's one called a school bag and then there's so many I can't remember between the preschool one, the daycare ones, and the school ones. Anyways, there's this app now where the teacher can just message you backwards and forwards if you want to ask questions. And they send photos and they send videos of the class sometimes times. And just remember that the teachers are kindi trained teachers. They've done early childhood, they've got a university degree and they actually genuinely love teaching children. So trust them with your child. They will absolutely adore their teacher by the end of kindy, their teacher will just be the best person in their life. So give your teacher a little faith and encourage them to be kind and embrace their teacher and let them know that they'll be safe there at school. Reach out to the other mothers and parents in your class if you're nervous, if you need some help, if you want to ask a question, don't feel silly, don't feel stupid. Just ask everything and anything honestly, everyone's in the same boat and it's pretty funny. You'll have a laugh. You'll do things wrong. Honestly, guys, I forgot to pack Zara's lunchbox a few times, but the canteen actually has provisions for kindergartens that forget their lunch. And like, she's worn sports uniform when it's not sports uniform. She hasn't worn mufti when it is. Do you know what I mean? We all are there. We've been there. So don't put too much pressure on yourself. And that's my tips guys. So if you're starting school, go away and think about some of these tips. Take your uniforms and lunch boxes, label them with a sharpie, set up some snap boxes to easily pack school lunch boxes and take lots of pictures because they grow up really fast from here on up and you won't believe how quickly time goes.