We go back-to-school on September 6th, and I’m already dreading the drudge of all the driving, lunch-making, and general grind of getting people to and from school and all their activities. Here are some tips I’m going to try to follow to help me stay one step ahead of the school year. (Note: We are a Montessori family so we don’t have homework other than reading, in case you are wondering where the homework time is!)
1. Make lunches the night before. Some parents have their kids pack their own lunches but in our house we don’t have the time (I’m an “alpha male” and I like to do it quickly, and efficiently – having a child pack their lunch requires supervision and patience and organization that I really don’t have). Also, I’ve seen some self-packed lunches – for me it’s really important that my children love – and eat – their lunches. Some of the self-packed lunches I’ve seen – peanut butter sambos, Cheezits, bag of prunes, an apple, a cookie – have come home uneaten, except for the cookie. Once in a while I’ll have them help me pack them, but mostly I just pack them myself (they help me cook dinner, though!)
To help me, I usually have a weekly menu of 5 lunches that I can rotate, like this (which helps with my grocery shopping) and I make things ahead, like a big bowl of fruit salad, oatmeal cookies, and pasta salad:
- Monday: Pesto pasta salad with chicken cubes, fruit salad, oatmeal cookie (for drinks, they always have ice water).
- Tuesday: Turkey sambo on roll, crunchy veggies w. ranch dip, apple.
- Wednesday: Homemade soup with a roll, fruit salad, yogurt.
- Thursday: Hummos & veggies, whole grain pita bread, cheese cubes, low-fat pudding cup.
- Friday: Pizza day so I don’t pack anything for Ella, but Fi is gluten-free so I pack one for her. Her favorite lunch is chicken Caesar salad, yogurt with oats she can sprinkle, an orange, and a little square of chocolate.
2. Have a big drawer where you keep all the re-useable lunch containers. Have the kids bring their lunches in after school, empty them, wipe the lunch boxes down, and put the reusable containers into the dishwasher or sink.
3. Everyone gets to bed early and on time – follow the same bedtime routine nightly: shower or bath on “shower nights,” brush teeth, reading time, bed. Because she’s older, Fi gets to stay up 45 minutes later than Ella, reading in bed.
4. Keep everything that needs to go out the door for the day (i.e., backpack, field hockey sticks, leotard etc.) on the “launch pad” so you don’t forget anything in the morning.
5. Wake up before the kids do so you get a jump on the day. (Um, just the fact that I have to write this one down tells you that it’s a tough one for me!)
6. Make a daily schedule for everybody and generally stick to it. For us this schedule revolves around getting the music practice in (piano and violin) first thing in the morning – we do an hour in the morning before we leave the house, and 30 minutes as soon as we get home from school. If we miss doing this hour, it really backs up our afternoon and night time schedule and it doesn’t go as well since everybody is tired and needs downtime at night.
7. Before bed, have the kids pick out their clothes for the next day, right down to shoes and socks so you don’t have to go looking for them in the morning. A fun thing to have them do is lay the clothes out on the floor to make “people” shapes.
8. Breakfast is tricky for me because Fi is gluten-free and loves a “full, hot breakfast” in the morning, while Ella (who needs protein every 3/4 hours or she’s prone to have a meltdown!) eats like a bird in the morning. It helps to have a pitcher of gluten-free pancake batter made in the fridge so I can just pour it, and cook it. I sometimes serve Fi “microwave” bacon with it. Another “fast-food full breakfast” I can do is poached eggs on gluten-free toast. For Ella, it’s usually something “on-the-go” in the car, like an apple turnover or a (gasp!) a donut and a “breakfast milkshake” with milk, a banana, and protein powder. Sometimes if she’s hungry enough she’ll have hot oatmeal. So frankly, I am all over the map with breakfast and I’m the one who needs some tips here! - for some unknown reason, they don’t like to eat breakfast cereal (other than slow-cooked oatmeal…slow-cooked! eeks!) so this really slows us down!
9. Keep their schedule on an iPhone calendar so you can check it when you’re on-the-go if you need to. We have so many things going on and so many activities to get to – sometimes I don’t even know what day it is. So for me, the iPhone has saved me.
10. Hang a monthly family calendar with appointments and events scheduled where everyone can see it (like in the kitchen).
Ado’s Back-to-School Tips http://t.co/w68Cevty via @sharethis
OMG you’re so organized with the lunches!
The laying clothes out the night before? I’ve been doing that since I was a kid.
(I still do that now, and I do it for the kids too)
Have you tried those ‘instant’ oatmeal pouches from Quaker? It’s premixed and you just add milk (or water) and chuck it in the microwave. It’s hot and it’s oatmeal so…..
Twitter: AlisonSWLee
I’m organized with the lunches *if* I follow my little schedule. There’s nothing worse than rummaging around the empty cupboards the morning *of* to put me in a foul mood and start the day off wrong.
I have tried the instant but because I love the slow-cooked, they’re used to it and it does taste so much better. But “slow cooked” is only like 10 mins. on the stove while I’m doing something else so the oatmeal works, that is if Ella even is hungry enough to eat it…see I’m already freaking out…
We do the slow-cooked oatmeal too – much tastier IMHO. I usually make it while I’m doing lunch. Other breakfast ideas you might like are one-egg omlettes with a little grated cheese inside – very quick & easy to make in a small non-stick skillet – and can be rolled up in wax paper for eating in the car. Or, almost-hot hard boiled eggs are good to bring in the car – I bring the egg cushioned in two paper towels in my purse more often than I care to admit (one for wrapping up the shell, and the other for cleaning fingers). I boil them in salty water so I don’t need extra salt sprinkled on. I’ve also been known to provide tubs of sliced fruit in the AM for eating while on the road, and dry cereal, and yes, microwaved turkey bacon. Mornings are tough, sigh!
Sherry these are great ideas! (Ella does not eat egg though, hates it unfortunately- but Fi does! Wax paper – now I can bring it in the car!) and the fruit idea. Thank you!
Are you telling us that your kids practice their instruments an hour and a half per day?? Between that and the rotating lunch schedule you are shooting to the top of my Parenting Guru list!
My goodness you’re organized! So many great tips. And Ado? I would like it if you would please do all the lunches in my house!
Twitter: SusannaLHill
Great ideas here and I am sick with jealousy at those well-balanced lunches. My biggest mommy fail (thus far, anyway) is that my kids are really low on the fruit-veggie rotation. Like…almost nothing. The younger will eat grapes or some apple, but that’s the extent of it. Their British school requires a uniform which i LOVE b/c: bam, they’re dressed in the morning. Easypeasy. I swear by Trader Joe’s multi-grain pancake mix, fyi (it’s not gluten-free, though, alas); I sometimes mix wheat germ into it as well. My kids like a BIG breakfast and so I pack it w/as much healthy stuff as I can. We have a white board hanging on the wall outside their room & on the last day of each week, they write down what needs to be done over the weekend, what’s coming up that week, and any special stuff (to avoid the MOM I NEED AN ENTIRE MODEL OF ANCIENT EGYPT BY TOMORROW MORNING AND IT HAS TO BE MADE OF SUGAR CUBES syndrome). *They* write down their lists (w/some prodding from moi)…so then everyone knows what’s what. Theoretically, anyway.
Twitter: mannahattamamma
wait. one more thing. what is a “turkey sambo?” i feel that if i know the answer to this, i can solve all my lunchtime problems.
Twitter: mannahattamamma
Oh, I forgot to mention that another fantastic pancake trick is to have them for breakfast on Sunday (or for dinner, I won’t judge), and then freeze them in ziplocks with wax paper between each pancake. Throw them in the toaster on weekday mornings and POW, delicious homemade pancakes without without gluten, berries, sugar, flax seed, whatever your dietary
pecadillos may be.
OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A GREAT TIP! I could just freeze + wax paper the gluten-free pancakes and then all I have to do is pop ‘em in the toaster! Fab tip, thanks!!
Yeah I was wondering what a turkey sambo was, too. I’m sure the teachers at our girls’ school slap their foreheads when they see V’s lunchbox contents. But V’s popularity has soared in the goldfish cracker exchange…I send her in with one flavor and she comes back with three other flavors she got in trade or donations and that makes her so happy.
I’m too flaky to follow a schedule for very long. I think it would throw my soul out of balance if I didn’t spend mornings running around in my pajamas in a panic. Embrace the chaos! But I am eagerly going to copy your lunch ideas!
lol…yeah and I did find out about Ella’s aversion to eggs. We are still laughing about her bloodcurdling shriek! Best memory ever! Of course she played it up for laughs. Ella is not just a person, she’s an awesome event!
I’m very lucky, I am not stuck with your long commute on the rare days I’m asked to drive V to the school. Mike insists on driving V, usually.. It adds a lot to his commute but he likes the daddy – daughter time. They listen to jazz together. It’s his big chance to undo all of my evil influences! But I have hopes of moving to a new development in a couple of years and if I do, then I’ll be taking on a similar long commute as yours. Then everything will change and I’ll have to refer back to this blog entry. The long drives do change everything. You are amazing to make the commute you do.
You can make a large batch of oatmeal in the crock pot and it will stay good in the refrigerator for a week. This works with steel cut oats and long cooking (old fashioned) oats. Just microwave a portion in the morning. I add cinnamon and some chopped apples to mine when I get tired of plain oats.
Hi
we met at blogher12 in nyc. just checking out your blog. I love it!
Twitter: parentsdesk
GREAT! suggestions! I have been enjoying the summer and spending almost zero time by the computer. I’m glad to be back in the swing of things, including reading your blog!
Twitter: melissaolive