One of the things I was MOST nervous about before having our 4th baby was the fact that my due date was 2 weeks before school started! Having a first grader in a University Model School (Milly in class on Mondays and Wednesdays and she homeschools with me Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays), with 2 preschoolers at a different school than Milly, and a newborn baby who needed to eat every 2-3 hours was quite overwhelming to me! While I had a few days of feeling panicked, thinking how in the world am I going to be able to do this, I decided to try to get a game plan of help in place and put in place rhythms that would help me. I listened to this class called the Back to School 3 R’s and it reminded me of practical ways I could train my kiddos to be more responsible and help themselves instead of relying on me for every little thing! Many of my ideas listed below come from that class, and some others are things we’ve just done on our own.

Here are 5 things that have helped this transition back to school run much more smoothly than I even anticipated!

1. Worship Playlist for our drives
   There is something SO powerful about getting our minds and spirits singing praises on the way to school! It cheers up some of our grumpier mornings and honestly, it helps me get my heart right on hard days too.
   

2. Clipboard Checklists
   My girls, ages 6 and 4, each have a morning checklist, afternoon checklist, and evening checklist. They only have to complete them Sundays through Thursdays, and they get a reward at the end of each checklist if the complete everything by the time the timer goes off! I made them in Pages, and I grabbed the icons through Canva.
   

3. Time Timer
   I cannot say enough about this timer. It is such a helpful visual for kids who literally have zero concept of time! Before we leave in the morning, I set the timer in front of them, and they know that when it goes off, we hop up and get in the car to leave. Same for before dinner, same for bedtime. THEY are responsible for doing their checklists, and only when they check everything do they get to watch TV, read a book, etc! It helps them understand time and manage it at an early age. It takes a few days of getting used to (and saying “I’m sorry, but you can’t watch TV because the timer just went off!”) but it is so worth it once they catch on!
   

4. Weekly Family Meetings
   We are juuuust starting this one. But I can already tell it’s going to be a sweet little rhythm for us. It goes a little something like this:
   - Share encouragement for each member of the family (What do you love about ___? Then we each take a turn sharing uplifting words for that person)
   - Go over weekly schedule
   - Share our feelings (when they get older, we can discuss problems / issues)
   - Pay them for their work / chores
   - End with a game or family activity! (Last week we did the hokey pokey, ha!)
   

5. Organized Grandparent/family help for the first 2 months of school
   Asking for help is so hard. SO hard. I want so badly to be able to do everything myself and not feel like an inconvenience. But what I’ve learned is that A) I CANNOT do everything in this season of life and B) the grandparents actually like to help! They just need details, communication, and planning ahead. So I got a game plan / loose schedule outlined before Benji was even born, of pick ups and drop offs for school and preschool in September and October. It has made ALL the difference. Also I know that this won’t last forever - it’s just helping me get on my feet with 4 kids. I’m so blessed to have grandparents who live close and I never, ever want to take that for granted!

Any thing on this list you’d like to try? Also I’d love to hear any rhythms you have for making school transitions more pleasant and fun! Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

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