Week One: Success!

This was the first week of the kids going back to school. I am happy to report that it went well.

These are my goals for the new school year:

• Get Jennifer to the bus stop on time EVERY DAY that she is going to school
• Get Jesse to the preschool at 8ish
• Have a drama-free morning
• Get the kids up at a sufficient hour of the morning where they don’t have to RUSH, RUSH, RUSH to get out the door
• Have EVERYTHING we need ready and at hand so we don’t have to make last-minute decisions on clothes or hunt for a missing shoe (oy, those missing shoe hunts!)
• See my kids off with lots of hugs, smiles, extra love – and NO SAD FACES because of a sucky morning.

Yes, it does seem like a tall order. But I am happy to report that we met ALL of those goals for the first week of school. HOORAY!

And … nobody missed a bath/shower. Nobody had incomplete paperwork or forms on the day of going to school. And everybody was well-fed and dressed before heading out.

Yay again!

Before the start of school, I did some serious planning. I decided on what kind of goals I wanted to meet for this year. We also went through ALL clothes to have school clothes in one drawer or in the closet, and playclothes in the other.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to buy school supplies for either of the kids. Their schools provide supplies. With Jennifer’s school, I pay an annual fee for the supplies. So it worked out well. All the kids got for the new school year were new backpacks (though Jesse got his during the summer). While the local paper ran articles about families struggling to afford school supplies for their children, I was grateful that we didn’t have to worry about that.

This year, I’ve had to make some changes, too. The kids know they can’t watch TV while getting ready for school, because then they won’t get ready for school. (That’s what caused some of the drama last year.) Same with computers. NO COMPUTER on school mornings. I have seen how I have to follow that rule, too. I’d get distracted watching the news on TV or checking email. So, no more of that for me! Because I did not drive them to school this week, however, I was able to do some early morning online stuff. But it just can’t happen for the mornings that I am the driver. I also can’t get my morning workouts until AFTER the kids are in school (they just take too long and I might not have time for a shower then show up being all stinky – yuck!). These are changes I’m totally okay with. The important thing is taking care of getting the kids off to school FIRST. That is the number one priority on school mornings.

And that rule just might help us have some other school morning successes in the weeks to come. At least, that is my hope!