Back to School Tasks You've Probably Forgotten

It’s your kids’ last few days of freedom before the new school year starts up, which means you’ve got to deal with all the last-minute things you’ve put off over the summer. Now is your final chance to ensure all the shopping is done, the uniforms are ready and school bags are packed and ready to go on Monday morning.

As well as all the big things that are easy to remember – after all, your kids can’t really go to school without shoes – there are bound to be other bits and pieces that can risk falling through the cracks. No one wants a mad dash at 7am on a Monday to do all the things that have been forgotten, especially when you’ll already be dealing with hyper or sleepy children.

With this in mind, here’s your handy final checklist to help get you sorted this weekend and ensure you’re as prepared as you’re going to be:

If your kids are using the same school bag as they were last year, you might want to check it and clear it out before Monday – possibly while also wearing a hazmat suit. Who knows what could be lurking in there, so it’s probably a good idea to deal with it this weekend, especially if you tend to have a weak stomach in the mornings.

Whether you’ve just bought them a new one or they have an old one at the ready, pencil cases and everything that goes into them seem to vanish just in time for school to start. Get hunting now so you know exactly where everything is.

No one wants to find half a ham sandwich from July in their kid’s lunchbox that vanished under the bed on the last day of school when you’re trying to get everyone out the door. You also don’t want to discover that every single lid for all your lunch pots have vanished when you’re trying to pack your child’s snacks.

The chances are it will be the one thing you didn’t manage to put a name on before the start of school that will go missing on the first day. Get out your permanent marker and get a name in everything your little one is taking to school before they come home without half their uniform.

Avoid the mad dash to fill lunchboxes during the first week of school by putting a plan together and buying everything you need this weekend. You can even get the kids involved to get them learning about healthy eating. We’ve got some great lunch ideas here that could make mealtimes more enjoyable this year.

That’s right, our checklist isn’t the only one you’ve got to go over. You may have run through the school list on your big back-to-school shopping trip, but when you’ve got kids getting bored or asking you to buy everything they see, it’s easy to miss something. Triple check there’s nothing you’ve forgotten that they’ll definitely need.

This weekend is the perfect time to get your kids ready for their school routine. Get them to bed at their usual time during the school year over the next few days and get them up in the morning. You may even want to get them an alarm clock so they feel a bit more in control of getting themselves out of bed. While this probably won’t stop all the Monday grumbling, it should at least make it a little bit quieter!

The first week back at school is always stressful, especially for parents. Don’t forget the emergency bottle of wine, you may need it!

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