Getting prepared for back to School

The Holidays are nearly over and it is nearly time for the uniforms to make a comeback and you need to prepare for back to school. The late nights become a thing of the past and learning how to function at 7am in the morning feels such a daunting task.

Even though your children will probably want to spend every last hour away from school, wearing comfortable clothing and chilling out watching cartoons, unfortunately, it is time to slowly introduce some ways to make starting back at school a little less painful.

The dreaded shoe shopping

If you have not already got your school shoes then now is the time to shop. No child! “Well mine certainly never have” will want to go out school shoe shopping, but the alternatives are unthinkable not having new shoes for the first day or getting caught in the last week rush. Just don’t leave it to late , Imagine Hamleys on Christmas Eve, which is what Clarks is like during the last week of the school holidays.

Shopping now before the last week rush begins, also gives you the chance to order shoe sizes into store that are already sold out. If you shop the week before school the chances are your size will not be available “That’s something I have dealt with a few times before and it’s a Nightmare”.

I personally like to shop at Clarks for our school shoes mainly because my twelve-year-old son takes whopping size 10 shoes and Clarks to my knowledge has the widest fitting shoes available for kids. At least I know Clarks can provide a width fitting that can leave my sons feet comfortable and protected. When we went shoe shopping I pre booked my appointment at a time and date to suited me. A fitting expert saw us the minute we arrived “No, Ques, Thank God”. I was so glad I had booked in advance as the store was crammed packed full of children and toddlers crying and moaning  “To be honest I don’t blame them, poor things”.

Remember whilst you are purchasing your shiny new shoes to buy a shoe protector at the same time because prevention is better than cure in the long run.

Give your shoes a trial run

We all know what it feels like to wear new shoes, which feel like they fit like a glove to find that after the first hour they are rubbing and hurting like mad!

Have your child wear their shoes around the home, a bit like a trial run. This way if they hurt or rub at all you can take them back to change for a bigger size.

Practice makes perfect

Practice with your child putting your shoes on and off, do not just stop at the shoes, practice putting pumps and if needed football boots on too. Make it a game, see how quick they can get their shoes on and off and into their pump bag. Make sure they can do it confidently at home, as it is a much harder scenario in a busy cloakroom.

Label, Label, Label

What more can I say but label everything, so many items of clothing even shoes go missing in the first few weeks of the school term. The uniforms are expensive enough without having to replace them in the first term.

 Try out the uniform in full

You may have bought all the uniform in good time, but have you tried it all on your child together?

Many Parents purchase school uniform well in advance when stock in the stores are good and you can have first pickings, they may have fit when you bought them, but what if your little darlings  have had a growth spurt during the summer holidays. My son even out grew his glasses in only 6 weeks and went up two shoe sizes “Oh the joys of having children”.

Try the uniform all together to make sure it looks smart and more importantly actually still fits.

The back to school bag

Whether you have a new school bag or are recycling last years now is the time to go through the pencil-case, checking they have everything they need for their school kit. This is more important in senior school when children are actually punished for not having the correct stationary. Please do not get me started on the time my son got a written comment for his calculator breaking down!

If you are using last year’s pencils and pencil crayons get sharpening them now rather than forgetting and leaving your kids feeling unprepared at school.

Get an early night

In our house our sleep patterns are everywhere, our nights are late and mornings well again later! As much as I hate to be a ‘party pooper’, I start to lower the kid’s bedtimes and wake them up a little earlier each morning. It is not easy but believe me the benefits are worth it.

The early mornings come to a shock to all of us; there is no harm with making things a little easier by preparing the kids.

Remember that during the first few weeks even up until the end of the first term your child will be shattered after school and probably a little moody, so try to be a little bit sympathetic. It is a real lifestyle change.

Now you are all prepared, Breath!

Now everything is in order and the clothes are ironed and hung away, you will have time to actually enjoy the rest of your summer holidays, have a movie day, go on an adventure or just simply have fun

Maybe I am a little bit over prepared, but I hate the thought of letting the boys go back to school and if I have gone through my checklist above, I know we will have a stress free few weeks left together before they all return to school life.

If you found this article helpful in anyway, please leave a comment below! If you have a question please feel free to ask.

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