055: Tips for Back to School - Part 2

Over the next 10 months , I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings and I have never looked back . I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system and I'm here to share all the tips , tricks and encouragement . Let's listen to today's show . Welcome to another episode of the Decluttered Mom podcast .

This is going to be the second part of the three part series . All about back to school tips , tricks , systems , routines all of the things that are going to help you reduce the chaos , reduce the stress and just maybe even enjoy back to school a little bit . Maybe , who knows , but at least take away the stress right ?

Don't forget that we do have a giveaway going on for this series . It's a three part back to school series , so if you want to take part in that giveaway , all of the details are in the show notes .

It's super simple to enter and one random person is going to win $300 to use for back to school things , whether that school supplies , food , gas , whatever they need for back to school . Okay , so let's just jump into today's tips , because we don't have time to just go into all the other fluff , right ?

So we're going to jump into tip number one , and that is dodging this snack time funk .

We all know that when we go to pick up kids after school , or right when they get home , if they come off the bus or wherever it may be , they are hangry and we want to make sure that we are not not only dealing with hangry kids , but not knowing what we're going to feed these hangry kids .

And so I have always struggled with food , with snacks , with meals , because it's just not something that I don't enjoy cooking , I don't enjoy baking and I have ADHD and I oftentimes just forget to eat . Like I just get so hyper focused on what I'm doing that it can be like three o'clock and I look at the . I'm like , why am I so hungry ?

And I'm like , oh yeah , because it's three o'clock , and so having kids kind of forced me actually to be more proactive when it comes to all things .

Food and snack is one of those things , and so , for whatever reason , when we go back to school , I have noticed a trend that we like forget what to do when it comes to snacks , and I think , maybe because we're doing back to school lunches and there's already other , so many other things that are is on our mental plate and our physical plate , and so what I

did a few years back and I do it every year now is create a master snack list . So what this is is I sit down with my kids , I have them come up with as many snack ideas as they can . I come up with as many snack ideas as I can . If there's not enough which usually there's plenty from that list .

But if there's not enough , then I can go on Pinterest , I can go on Google , I can type in on TikTok kids snack ideas like there's so many resources out there when it comes to kids snacks and I just add them to this list .

This master list I keep printed in the kitchen , in the inside of one of my cabinets , and if I'm ever doing my grocery list and I'm just having a moment where I'm just struggling on thinking of what I can order for snacks , then I just look at this list and I order .

Those are the things that I have , and so Having this list just keeps me stocked with fresh ideas and just makes the planning easier , either when I'm doing grocery day or when the kids are home and the food is already in your house and you just can't think of what to give them . It's helpful in both of those scenarios .

Tip number two is to keep this first weekend after school totally clear . This is actually a tip that a mom of teenagers gave me when my oldest was going into kindergarten and she was like can I give you some unsolicited advice that really helped me through the years ?

And I was like 100% , because if anything you guys , I will always listen to advice from moms who are further ahead in older stages than I have ever dealt with , because they have wisdom , they have paid no things that I just don't know yet . So she was going to kindergarten in the fall .

I was like we had done preschool , but it was like very minimal , like two half days a week type thing . So I did not know what I was really getting into with back to school season . And so she was like so my best unsolicited advice is to leave the weekend after the first week of school totally open and just totally free .

And if the kids want to watch movies all weekend long or they want to sleep in until 11 am , like , I just let them . We have no obligations , we don't have to be anywhere .

And she said that just having that cushion after a crazy first week because , let's face it , no matter how prepared you are the first week of school , everybody's tired , everybody's a little bit overstimulated , and so just having that buffer at the end of the week is really helpful for them , especially because as you do it for a couple of years , the kids know

to expect it . You know to expect it . So you can kind of like , if things are extra crazy , you kind of like have that in the back of your mind is like , okay , it's crazy tonight or today , but like we have that coming up where we can just do nothing all weekend long and the kids feel the same .

And the other part of that is having a one-on-one time with each kid during that weekend . So this can be as simple or as elaborate as you wanted to make it , but for me I just take each of them on a long walk one-on-one alone , just them and mom .

And that way I have found that when there are two times my kids talk to me the most or they open up to me , I should say the most .

They will talk to me all day long , but as far as like open up to me about like things going on with friends or just thoughts that they're having or worries they're having or anything like that , I have found the two times they really open up the most are right before bed and when we're walking , like I think and I don't know if that's just like a

neurological , physiological thing right when , like , our brains are like kind of preoccupied with , like just the simple mode of walking . But that tends to be a time that they really open up to me .

And so I take each of them on a one-on-one walk and I don't put any expectations on that walk , I don't like grill them with questions , I just am there in case they want to talk about anything . And I think that that has really been helpful , also for just a chance to like connect in the season of a little more crazy than normal .

And so that has been really really helpful and was great , unsolicited but welcome advice that I got several years ago . Okay , tip number three was actually the one-on-one time . I got ahead of myself . Okay , and for the sake of me not getting confused with the rest of the numbers , we're gonna say that that was tip number two and three .

So tip number four is to get ahead of the game and load your planner or calendar , whatever you use with the whole school year . Yes , so include all school events , days off , spirit days , anything .

Obviously you're not gonna know about some random things that pop up , but you should get a calendar from the school at the beginning of the year with all of the events , all of the teacher days where the kids have a half day or a day off , or there's a million , one bajillion things .

So I just take that calendar , I print it out , I sit down and I put every single thing into my Google calendar . Yes , google calendar . If you've been listening to me for any period of time , you're like Tiana what Cause ? You know that I always talk about being a paper planner person . I even have a planner myself that is a free download .

You can print it yourself , you can have it . I do still use that sometimes , but I will say the last five-ish months I have really turned into more of a digital planner person , which I know , I know , I know it's crazy .

Maybe I need to talk about this in another episode , because I could probably talk about it for a full episode , but that doesn't mean I will never use a paper planner again . That is just what is working for me in this season of my life . So I'm going to . If something's working for me , I'm gonna hold onto it and ride with it .

I'm not going to push back just because something else worked better for me in the past , and so , yes , I think I'll talk about this on another episode , because I do think I could talk about this for a while . But so what I do is I just print it out and I sit down and I put everything into the Google calendar . That way , I have it there .

I actually also have a new thing that I ordered for our command center , which is like a digital calendar , like frame , I guess I don't know how to describe it . It looks like a frame that's attached , like you hang it on the wall , but it's a digital . You can like sync your Google calendar to it , and so it's there , and so that will be a new test .

I don't know how that's gonna work , but I really wanted to try this so that everyone has easy access to the calendar , but again , I'm getting off . I'm getting off track . The idea is to basically just get everything that you can extra curricular activities .

If you have all the practice or game schedules or anything like that , just get it in your calendar now , because you never know when you're planning something . Like it's October , you haven't been thinking about school stuff for a while , and like you plan something for January and you're like , oh shoot , that's when the school has X day .

You know what I mean , and so just having everything in your calendar for the whole year really helps you to prevent any scheduling issues down the road . Okay , tip number five is to use alarms or personal tech . I don't even know what are they called . Okay , I don't know . Alexa on Google what is it ? Echo ? I don't even know . I don't even know .

We have Alexas in our house and I'm sorry because I'm probably , by saying that , like turning your Alexas on and saying they're saying like , what can I do for you ?

I'm sorry , this always happens anytime I talk about them , but I like to use these as my personal assistant in the home as far as reminders , and so I have Alexa or whatever your preferred assistant is give countdowns for leaving the house .

So like , if I know we have to leave the door or get out the door at 6.55 am , no-transcript I'm gonna have , and I'm just making that up . We actually don't leave that early .

If it's six to 55 am , then I have a reminder at 6.40 am saying 15 minutes until you leave for school , and that way the kids have a little bit of an idea of how much time they have left to be ready for school . That also not just the kids , it helps me and my husband also just kind of stay on track with where we are with time .

Again , adhd , I know , but like time blindness is a thing and so it's really easy for me to like completely not even pay attention to the time . So having these like reminders is really helpful .

I also set alarms on my phone for school pickup because there was one time in my oldest was in kindergarten that I forgot about school pickup because I was on like a meeting . Then I got distracted and then I was like , oh no , I'm supposed to be there right now and it's all drive .

So I don't ever , I don't ever wanna do that again and you could be the best mom in the world and still forget to go pick your kids up .

Because , especially when it's back to school and you're in a new routine , it's easy to do so I just have an alarm on my phone , that way if I'm not home I'll still get it , and I just do it for like 20 minutes before pickup or 20 minutes before the time I need to leave . So that's like , oh yeah , I need to do that .

Do I have time to like do this one last thing before I leave ? But at least it like puts it back on my radar so that I don't ever forget Again . I realized that it makes me sound like a bad mom , like don't forget to pick up your kids .

But we have a lot on our plates and sometimes we just need reminders for the most simple things , especially when we're in a new routine . This tip number six is another one that a mom of older kids gave me and that was just to simply bring a snack and water for school pickup .

Obviously , if , like , your kids ride the bus and they get home , it says a little bit different . But when my oldest was in kindergarten , I didn't do that at first and like she was so hangry and emotional and overstimulated and like just having a snack for her . Just making that simple shift was so , so helpful .

Obviously , you need to adjust this based on how old your kids are and how clean you wanna keep your car , but I just think that getting food in their system when we pick them up , even if you don't like them eating in the car , even if you just like hang out outside of the school for a little bit while they eat their snack , I just think it makes such a

big difference and I think that it's important to remember that if it's your child's first time in school , this is new for you and it's new for them , and so there's a lot of big emotions , even if it's not their first time in school .

There tends to be a lot of big emotions at the beginning of the school year because it's a new class , it's a new teacher , it might be new friend issues , like there's things going on that our kids just have a harder time with , and so just making sure that they have food in their bellies and they're not angry and emotional just because they're really hungry or

dehydrated is just a really helpful thing to have . Okay , you guys , that is all I have for today . Remember , we do have a third part of this three-part series coming out next week . For the giveaway you can enter once each week , so once , like three times over the three . Can I make that any more complicated ?

There are three weeks with three different episodes for Back to School . You can enter the giveaway every single one of those weeks , okay , and so I would love to hear how this episode was helpful for you . Is there any of these tips that you're going to try with your kids with Back to School ?

Let me know , send me a DM I'd love to hear from you or sharing your stories and tag me and we will see you on part three next week . Thanks for hanging out and listening to the Decluttered Mom podcast . If you enjoyed this episode , it would mean the world If you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories .

And if you're on Instagram , be sure to follow me at thedeclutteredmom and send me a DM to say hi . I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode . I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again .