Back to School Preparation

I know a lot of schools are already in session, but my two school age children don't start until next week.

They are so excited and I'm excited for them.

After a long nine months of school I'm so ready for them to be home so we can relax and not be on any sort of strict schedule.

But after a nice three month long non-scheduled, lazy, fun-filled summer, I'm anxious to get back to a more scheduled life.

To help me stay organized and on top of everyone's schedules, I bought a binder at Walmart and designated it specifically for each child's school and other after school activities.

In my binder I have a separate folder for each child {where I can keep track of permission slips and other important papers}, a folder for the school calendar, and folders for after school activities like gymnastics.  I also left a lot of tabs blank as more activities and reminders for other topics might be needed.

With everything all in one place, it will be a lot easier to not misplace anything.

This would also be a great place to store emergency numbers if someone comes over to babysit my kids, etc.

Binders are great to buy now while they are still so CHEAP!

Another thing I did to prepare for back to school was to buy snack foods for my children's lunches.  Some are prepackaged and some are not.  The snacks that are not prepackaged, I package myself in individual ziplock bags.

I found a basket from another room that wasn't getting very much use, put all the packaged snacks in it, and stored it on a shelf in the pantry.

For me, this makes preparing cold lunches for my children or even for my husband so much easier.

Now all I have to do is grab a couple of these items along with a sandwich and a piece of fruit, toss them in their lunch bags and I'm set.

{confession: I really HATE making lunches.  I don't know why.  So the more preparation I can do ahead of time, the easier it is for me when it comes to actually making the lunches.}

While we're still on the subject of school lunches, HERE is a great site that has cute lunch box notes.

I can still remember way back when, when my mom would stick little notes in my lunch and it just made my day to know she was thinking of me.

I want my kids to know I'm thinking of them too while they're away at school.
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And last, but not least, if your kids are anything like mine, they come home "starving"!

I found some wonderful after school snack ideas on parenting.com:

{Click on the name of the snack and it will link you to each recipe.}

Tiny Tortilla Pizzas

Strawberry "Cheesecakes"

Cucumber Yogurt Boats

Chocolate-Banana Tortillas

Favorite Juice Jelly Cubes

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YUM!