This week or next, your kids will be heading back to school. If your house is anything like mine, that means terror, trauma, and chaos – and that’s the good stuff!
The first few weeks of school are probably going to throw you some curve-balls, too: your child gets bullied, the bus schedule is rearranged at the last minute (we lost a 6th grader for two hours the year before last when they changed the bus routes at the last minute!), or the teacher is “a big old meanie!” You can spare yourself the time to deal with those sudden crises by making sure that you and your children have set up an efficient system to deal with the everyday stuff of going back to school.
Especially if the adults in your household are all working, just making sure the kids are up, fed, and ready to go to school – and home, fed, and ready to do their homework – can be a hassle in itself. Try some of these tips to take the hassle out of Back to School time, and save your energy for the unexpected crises around the corner.
1. Plan meals a week at a time.
Make a list of the things you regularly make for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and pick 5 of each off the list every week. This will help you a) put together a shopping list that doesn’t have you running to the store every other day to pick up whatever you forgot, b) make sure your kids get a balanced diet, and c) save money by avoiding unnecessary shopping or wasting food.
You can also save some time during morning crunch times and post-work exhausted times by cooking or otherwise preparing food in advance. We do up 5 lunch bags for each child with all their non-perishable foods – cookies, crackers, muffins, whatever. Then we only need to make a sandwich or whatever and drop in a bag of veggies and they’re ready to go.
2. Set up a Snack Drawer.
Instead of mounting a 24-hour death guard on the pantry door to make sure that unauthorized snacking doesn’t occur – and that authorized snacks don’t consist of piles of sweets every day – make the pantry (or cupboards, or wherever you store food) a “No Kid” zone. Instead, designate a drawer, cupboard, or even a basket on the counter as a “Free Zone” and stock it with enough treats for the week. Make sure to balance sweets with plenty of healthy foods like apples and bananas.
Once your snack drawer is set up, let your kids pick their own snacks every day from whatever’s in the drawer. If they want sweets every day, that’s fine – after a day or two, though, there won’t be any left, and they’ll have to pick something healthier. If they want to gorge themselves on Monday, that’s fine, too – by Wednesday there will be nothing left, and they’ll face the rest of the week snack-free. Giving your kids control over their own snacking (within the parameters you’ve set up) will help teach them to regulate their own eating habits and be responsible for the amounts they eat.
3. Clear the bulletin board.
Or set one up if you don’t have one. Ours is in the kitchen, and announcements and stuff needing a parent’s signature goes there – or it doesn’t get signed. The corkboard is also a “brag board”, for posting the latest masterpiece from art class or the letter announcing someone made the Dean’s List – which keeps our refrigerator door a little less cluttered.
4. Set up the Landing Strip.
A landing strip is a point at or near the front door for kicking off shoes, hanging backpacks and coats, and clearing the pockets. We have an entry table across from the coat closet – it’s the last thing to check in the morning and the first thing to check when you get home. Packages go there, as does mail (when the kids get it), and anything else that needs grown-up attention. More importantly, although the landing strip gets cluttered, it’s easier to straighten out the entryway than to look all over the house for a missing sneaker or dropped keychain.
5. Start a Weekly Review and Homework Buddy time.
Schedule a block of time once a week to sit down, with or without the kids, and go over the upcoming schedule and iron out any problems that have emerged over the week. We do this when we plan meals and write up our grocery list.
Also, schedule at least one block of time each week for homework help. Spend some time helping, or just reviewing the work they’ve done recently. This is your chance to take an interest in what they’re learning – and maybe to show them that it’s not all quite as useless and stupid as they think, especially if you can show how you use the same topics in your own work.
6. Do a false run.
If you have the time, get up one morning as if it were a school day and run through your morning routine. This will help you identify any bottlenecks (our 12-year old is going to take a little longer this year because she has discovered eyeliner!) and also start getting the kids into the habit of getting up early again. In fact, it’s not a bad idea to do a full morning routine each morning in the week leading up to the start of school – so that, while you’ll still have to deal with all the trauma of actually going back to school, you won’t have to deal with it at the same time that the kids are recovering from a summer of sleeping in.
7. Update your emergency contact and pick-up information
Make sure the school has current information to reach you at work or on your mobile phone if they need to. Also, designate a couple of trustworthy adults – a boy- or girlfriend, a grandparent, a close neighbor – to pick up your kids in case you can’t, and give their information to the school. Some schools require information like Driver’s License numbers or photos – make sure they have whatever you need. The time to discover that your best friend can’t get your kids from school is not when you’re in the Emergency Room following a workplace accident.
8. Set up a Homework Zone
Clear a place – in their room, in an unused room, in a quiet corner, or even at the kitchen table – where the kids can do their homework, and stock it well with pencils, pens, markers, paper, and other supplies. Put everything into a basket that can be easily moved if the Zone is needed fro something else (like actually eating on the kitchen table). Establish clear rules for behavior around the Homework Zone – for example, kids that don’t have homework have to stay out of the Homework Zone until everyone is finished.
9. Update your address book
Get the phone number and email of all your kids’ teachers, and their room number (in case you have to have a child pulled out of class in mid-day, it will save time if you can tell the school what room they’re in). Also get the front office, principal’s office, and nurse’s contact information. All this goes up on our bulletin board, and also into everyone’s phones.
10. Stick a box of school supplies in a secret place.
Avoid the inevitable “I have to do this by tomorrow, we have to go to the store now!” emergencies – instead, keep a box full of school supplies in a “secret place” (your bedroom closet, for instance). Put pencils, paper, spare scissors, glue (stick and white), a ruler, and anything else they need in the box and forget about it – until the emergency comes, when you can just say “give me a minute” and pop upstairs to get whatever’s needed.
11. Add school dates to your calendar.
Add the dates for Parent-Teacher conferences, Teacher Development days, and any other school holidays to your calendar now, so you won’t have to count on the kids to bring notices home later. Also add any field trips, school events, or recitals the school informs you about at the beginning of the school year.
12. Assign “first thing” chores
If you can’t trust your kids to have the good time-sense to get their chores done before dinner or before bedtime, assign them “first thing” chores – chores to be done “first thing” when they get home. In our house, take out the trash is a “first thing” (and bring the trashcan in on trash days), as is clear the dishwasher and straighten the downstairs bathroom. They won’t always remember, but after a few reminders they’ll start to get things done without being told. One small step for parenthood…
Do you have any tips for the first week or so of the school year? Let us know in the comments.
Dustin M. Wax is the project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.
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12种方式帮助你的学校生活重上轨道
这个星期或者下一周，你的孩子们将要回到学校。如果你的房子完全像我的一样，充满了恐怖、心伤和混乱——那可是好东西哦！
开学的前几周也可能会给你出一些难题：你的小孩可能被恐吓，公车时刻表在最后一刻被重新安排（前年他们在最后一刻改变公车路线让一个六年级的小学生失踪了两个小时），或者老师是个老反叛鬼。确定你的孩子们已经建立起一个有效的系统来处理每天回校的琐事，你就能省下时间处理突如其来的危机。
特别是，如果在你家大人们都在工作，单单是确保孩子们起床、吃早饭、准备上学——还有回家、吃晚饭、准备做作业——这件事本身就是一场激战。试一下这些建议，可以使你不至于深陷回校时间的麻烦里，也为处理不期而至的危机保存能量。
1、 一周一次地计划伙食
为你常列的早餐、午餐和晚餐的食物列一张清单，然后每周从清单里剔除五种食物。这会帮助你a)把清单上的东西放到一起，不会让你隔天跑一次商店去买你忘记买的东西；b)保证你的孩子们获得均衡的饮食；c）避免不必要的购物和食物浪费而节省开支。
你也可以通过做饭或者提前准备食物，在早晨的最后两分钟和下班后疲劳的时候节省时间。我们为每个孩子准备5个午餐袋，里面装上不易腐坏的食物——曲奇饼、薄饼和松饼或者其它。然后我们只需要做一个三明治或者别的什么，然后装上一袋素食，他们就准备走了。
2、 设一个零食抽屉
与其准备24小时死守在食品室的门口以避免孩子们偷吃零食的情况发生——每天获准吃的零食不包括一堆堆的糖果——还不如让食品室（碗橱、或者任何你储存食物的地方）成为无孩区。相反地，指定一个抽屉、碗橱，或者甚至是柜台上的一个篮子为自由区，在里面存放一个星期吃的零食。确保糖果和大量的健康食品，如苹果和香蕉，是均衡的。
一旦你的零食抽屉建立起来，随便你的孩子们每天从抽屉里拿走放在里面任何零食。如果他们每天都想吃糖，那好——一两天以后，什么也没剩下，他们就必须吃更加健康的东西。如果他们想要在周一就饱餐一顿，那也行，到了周三就什么也没有了，他们将在这周里省下的日子没有零食可吃。让你的孩子们控制好他们自己的零食（在你设定的参数之内）将能帮助你教会他们规范他们自己的饮食习惯，并对他们所吃的数量承担责任。
3、 明确公告牌
或者，如果你没有的话，可以建一个公告牌。我们的公告牌在厨房里，注意事项和需要父母签名的食物都在那儿——否则不带有标记。软木公告牌也是一块吹嘘炫耀的板，因为会在上面粘贴艺术课上的最新杰作或者宣布某人当选系主任的信件——这让我们的冰箱门口不至于那么混乱。
4、 设一条起落线
起落线就是设在前门或者靠近前门的一个点，用来脱鞋子、挂背包和上衣以及清理口袋。我们在衣橱的对面放了一张进门桌——这是早上最后需要检查的东西，也是当你回家以后第一件需要检查的事情。包裹放在那里,邮件也是（如果是孩子们取邮件的话），或者任何别的需要成年人关注的东西。更重要的是，虽然起落线会变得混乱，但是比起满屋子找一只失踪的运动鞋或者一条遗失的钥匙链，把门口弄成一条直线会容易得多。
5、 开设一周回顾和家庭作业伙伴时间
每周安排一段时间，有孩子们在场或者没有，坐下来仔细检查即将开始的时间表，并且解决掉在过去的一周里出现的问题。我们会在准备食物或者列购物单的时候做这项工作。
同时，每周安排一段时间来辅导孩子们的作业。花点时间帮助或者只是评论他们近来做过的作业。这是一个让你对他们所学的东西感兴趣的机会——而且可能是一个契机，告诉他们并不是所有的东西都像他们想象的那么没用和愚蠢，特别是如果你能在你自己的工作中向他们演示怎样使用相同的主题。
6、安排一次错误的日程
如果你有时间，在某个早晨像上学日那样正常起床并且照常进行你的早晨例行事务。这将有助于你识别一些瓶颈（我们12岁的孩子今年要花更长一些的时间起床，因为她已经发现了眼线膏），然后重新让孩子们养成早起的习惯。事实上，开学前一个星期把每天早上的例行事务排满并非坏事——如此，当你还必须处理回校的麻烦的时候，你就不必同时解决孩子们正从贪睡的暑假中恢复的问题。
7、更新你的紧急联系人，选择信息
确保学校的最新信息可以在你工作的时候传达给你或者如果他们需要，也可以通过手机通知你。同时，当你不能去接你孩子的时候，指定可以信赖的成年人——一个男性或女性朋友，外祖父（母）、一个关系亲密的邻居——去接他（她），并且把这些人的信息给学校。一些学校要求得到像驾照号码或者电话号码这样的信息——确保这些人有你所需要的任何信息。发现你最好的朋友不能去帮你接孩子的那一刻不要是工作事故后你正呆在急诊室里的时候。
8、建立一个家庭作业区
明确一个地点——在他们的卧室、一个不用的房间、一个安静的角落或者甚至是在厨房的餐桌上——在哪里孩子们可以做家庭作业，好好存放他们的铅笔、钢笔、书签或者别的日常用品。把所有东西都放进一个方便移动的篮子，如果作业区需要用作它用（如真的在厨房的餐桌上吃饭）的话。为作业区周围的行为建立明确的规则——比如，没有作业的孩子不能走出作业区，直到每个人都完成作业。
9、更新你的地址簿
拿到你所有孩子的老师的电话号码、电子邮箱地址和孩子们的教室号（如果你中午必须把一个孩子接出来，告诉学校他在哪个教室将会节省时间）。你也要得到总办公室、校长办公室和护理人员的联络信息。所有这些都要写在我们的告示牌上，也要存进每个人的手机里。
10、放一箱学习用品在一个秘密的地方
避免这样的紧急情况发生——我明天之前必须完成这个，我现在必须去商店。相反地，把一个装满学习用品的箱子放在一个秘密的地方（比如说你房间的壁橱）。把铅笔、纸、备用剪刀、胶水（杆子和白纸）、一把尺子和任何他们需要的东西放进箱子里，然后忘掉这件事——直到紧急情况出现，那时你就只需要说“给我一分钟”，然后迅速跑上楼去取任何需要的东西。
11、把校历加进你的日程表
现在把老师-家长会、教研日、和任何其它的学校节日的日期加进你的日程表，以后你就不必要依赖你的孩子们把通知带回家。同时，大约在每一学年的开学，把学校通知你的野外旅行、学校活动或者音乐演奏会加进日程表。
12、确定重要的日常事务
如果你不相信你的孩子们有良好的时间观念，能在晚饭或者睡觉之前做完他们的琐事，给他们指定“重要”事务——他们回家以后必须做完的事。在我们家，倒垃圾就是一件重要的事（在大扫除日把垃圾桶带回家也是），就像清洁洗碗机和清理楼下的浴室一样。他们并不总会记得，但是在提醒过几次之后，不用提醒他们也会开始做事。朝父母角色迈进的一小步……
你对开学的第一个星期或者一个学年该做什么有什么建议吗？让我们知道具体内容。
沃克斯·杜斯丁是Stepcase Lifehack公司的项目经理，同时也是作家科技公司的创始人，该公司致力于书写工具的贸易。他不写作的时候，在拉斯韦加斯教授人类和性学。他是《你别犯傻》的作者，这是一本大学指导学习和成功的指南。
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