Back to School Organization Tips
The time of year that is back to school should be a fun and exciting time for you and your family. After a summer well spent, your kids will be back to the classroom and can reconnect with their friends and classmates! However, there is a lot of preparation and organization required to get your family back to school ready, so it can be a bit stressful, too. It can feel like you have so much to do, but not a lot of time to do it all!
Below, we have a list of tips and tools for back to school organization, so that you can beat the overwhelm!
Back to School organization ideas
Of course, some of the school organization ideas that work for one family aren’t necessarily going to work for yours– and that’s okay! This roundup of tips below is meant to serve as a jumping off point for you. Pick and choose what works for your household, and leave the rest!
A good way to figure out what works is, naturally, trial and error, but you can also start to figure out what strategies will work by determining what sorts of approaches help your kids deal with change in the first place.
Clean Up
First things first, do a full cleanup at your home. While you have probably been cleaning even when school isn’t in session, this is a great opportunity to go through and cull anything that your family does not actually need. With less clutter, it will also be a lot easier for you all to stay organized.
One of the things you could do to clean up and declutter is take a look through your child’s closet and get rid of any clothes that do not fit. This will also help to make room for new back to school clothing!
Get Back to Your School Schedule
The school schedule involves earlier mornings, so that means earlier bedtimes for your kids than they were used to in the summer. It will be helpful if you start to get used to these times and ease back into them before school actually starts– the week before is usually a good time to start practicing your school year schedule again.
If you try to wing it and just wake your kid up early on the first day of school, rather than working on getting used to it slowly, it probably will not work as well. After all, you want to ensure that your kids are well rested for the classroom!
Practice Your Morning Run Through
This tip is similar to getting back into the school schedule. It can be taken a step further and you can actually practice getting ready for school so that your child knows what to expect– besides just what time they need to wake up!
Some of the things that you can practice doing are getting up earlier, picking out clothing and getting dressed, and brushing their hair and teeth. Make sure you do not forget any part of the morning routine! This will help your kids get into the habit for when back to school comes around.
Get Supplies
Many schools or teachers will provide a list of school supplies that your kids will need to bring to the classroom. You will need to make sure to get these, of course, but it can help you to stay organized if you get some supplies for at home, too. Take a look at what you already have in the house, and then you can determine what sorts of school supplies or stationary you still need to get. It can be fun for your kid to come with you (or the whole family) while you shop for back to school supplies so that they have a say in what colours or patterns you choose. It can also help them get excited for school!
Deal With Your back to school Paperwork
Sometimes– especially when your child is entering a new school– there is a lot of back to school paperwork and permission slips to handle. You should try to get this done as soon as possible so you are not scrambling to find forms or fill them out at the last minute.
A good way to keep your paperwork organized is to either use a special folder for all of the forms and keep it in an easy to find spot, or put the digital files in a file folder on your computer.
plan out school lunches
you’re probably thinking, right…! i now have to carve more time out of my morning to make my kids school lunch. this one you can try to plan ahead of time by stocking up on some items that are easy to add to your child’s lunch like granola bars and cheese sticks.
By setting aside some time now to plan some lunch ideas for the week, you won’t be overwhelmed come the day of school. you can even have your older kids help pack their own lunches as well!
Set Up a Central Calendar
Last but not least, use a calendar to keep your family organized. Find a calendar that you like, and then you can hang it up in a high traffic designated spot in your home where your family will see it every day. You can record commitments on the calendar such as playdates, lessons, or sports. Doctor’s appointments or other commitments can also be written on the calendar. It will be easy for you to keep track of everyone’s schedules, and you can avoid missing any important appointments.
Back to School organization Tools
You’re already off to a great start at back to school organization with the tips we went over above. However, that's not all there is to it! There are also plenty of tools that you can use to help you get organized, too. They can be especially effective for visual learners, as well as for keeping the entire family on the same page about schedules, chores, or commitments.
Take a look at the below list for some great tools that you can implement to help you get organized for back to school, and throughout the ensuing school year!
Vertical Calendar
The Vertical Calendar is one of the calendar options that was requested the most– many people wanted a vertical option for their home office space. It can fit in smaller spaces, which can be helpful if you don’t have a lot of wall space to work with. Some of its included features include a notes section, a to do list, and of course, the calendar sections themselves. It can either be hung up with a magnet or with an adhesive sawtooth hook.
Erasable Family Calendar and Planner
This calendar is a great option because of its size! Unlike some other calendar options, it has the full month as well as a section on the side for each day of the week. Plus, there is an area for you to jot down any additional notes or reminders, too.
Since it is a dry erase board, you can use this same board every month, and it also comes with a black dry erase marker to use. You can implement different coloured markers to color code your calendar and plan your week, which can be helpful when just looking at the calendar at a glance. Use a different color for each member of your family and their to dos or commitments.
The notes section is great when it comes to homework time as you can jot down all of the homework assignments and your child can whipe the board clear once they have completed it!
Erasable Menu Planner Board
When you are trying to stay on top of things and make sure that your children are all set for school, some things at home may slip– especially in the beginning of the school year, when everyone is adjusting to this new normal. A tool that can be helpful for you in staying organized at home is the Erasable Menu Planner Board.
You can hang this on the fridge or the pantry door– or simply the wall in the kitchen! There is a section where you can plan your meal for each day of the week, and there are even lines where you can make a grocery list while you do your meal planning.
Children’s Calendar
This is another calendar option that you can use. You can put it in your child’s bedroom or playroom so that they have a calendar of their own– rather than you trying to fit your commitments as well as theirs onto the same calendar. Plus, this can make your kids feel more involved and make it more exciting for them to stay organized and on top of things!
There are also areas on the board where your child can record things that they are grateful for to encourage a positive attitude, and a section where they can brainstorm ways to help out at home– this section can function as a chore chart. As this is a dry erase board, it does also come with a black dry erase marker in the package.
Daily Goals and Tasks Erasable Board
This particular tool can be great for school organization, because it can help both you and your family stay on track. You can use it to record your to do list and make sure all of the important things get done, or you can even designate it for your children to use exclusively, so that they can break down the different projects and homework tasks that they have to work on. That way, no project gets left until the last minute and no homework gets forgotten! It is also a dry erase board, rather than a notepad, which is more eco friendly and can be used again and again!
Frequently Asked Questions
What can you do for school organization?
If your kids are going back to school, you will want to be sure you get organized at home and teach them how to stay organized at school, too. It will certainly make everyone’s lives a lot easier!
Try to implement strategies like homework and paperwork boxes or caddies, so that you can store all of the paperwork that your children will be coming home with. Depending on the different kinds of paperwork your kids are bringing home, you could make a new caddy for each category of paperwork to keep things extra ship shape!
How can I get organized for back to school?
It may not be easy for you to get back into the swing of things after a long summer. It’s important though, that you get organized so that you can model this behaviour for your school age kids, too. You can start by beginning to get back into the schedule that you use for the school year, with earlier bedtimes and earlier wake up times, too.
Try to implement this schedule before school starts so that you and your kiddos can begin to get acclimated to this new routine again. You can also get a calendar and place it in an area of the home that makes it easy for everyone to view and access.
How do I keep my child organized at school?
Especially depending upon your child’s age, it can be tough for them to stay organized in class. Back to school can be an overwhelming time for them, so it’s important for you to help them start off on the right foot and build healthy habits. Try to help them based on what sorts of learning styles they respond best to.
One way that you can help a visual learner is to use a colour coded chart, calendar, or list. Setting specific time blocks at home for studying or homework can also help your child get into a routine and stay organized.
How do you organize your back to school papers?
Once school starts, you and your child are likely going to have plenty of school papers to deal with. These can begin to pile up fast, so it is good to have a method of organization in place so that you can deal with them properly. One of the things you can do is to get colour coded folders to create a folder system at home. Your child can bring their school papers back home in one folder. Then, when it is time to go to school, put the papers they need to bring back– like homework or school forms– in that same folder.
All of the paperwork that they don’t need at school can be offloaded at home into a folder of your own. That way, your papers are not all over the place– they have a spot where school items can be put away.
