We are already in our 2nd nine weeks of the school year and I must admit it has been hectic! I admit this year I have been struggling to keep it all together! Work, kid’s homework and sports have me trying to find helpful ways to get us back on track! I recently learned that Tyson® Any’tizers® snacks created a “School Year Survival Guide” tab on its Facebook page that contains a ton of helpful tips. After reading the tips and also reading other peoples comments, I seen I was not alone! I found some great tips that I will be using in the next few weeks.
I admit I really thought I was organized and ready for this school year! However, I find myself struggling just to keep up with my 2 middle schoolers schedules not including the baby. Before the school year started I created our “schedule”. The first few weeks went flawlessly then sports and extra activates started so reality sit in. My kids were not on the same schedule anymore and our only off day is Sunday! We were scrambling to think of how we were going to keep all of us on the same schedule and still get the kids to their activities without running around frantically. At first, it was a nightmare!
We started looking for ways to manage our family’s schedule so we could plan our trips, work schedules and other appointments accordingly. One of the things that we started doing was to set aside 30 minutes every Sunday afternoon to discuss the family calendar for the upcoming week. We go around the table and talk about practices, games and extra-curricular activities that each kid has for the next seven days. I learned really fast that things change so it’s better for us to do 7 days at a time instead of a monthly schedule! We still have our monthly calendar filled out but this time allows us to make sure we are still on schedule and re-arrange something if needed. Then I type the weekly schedule and post it on the fridge.
In addition to having a calendar hanging on the fridge, we also sync our calendars on all of our phones during our Sunday afternoon discussion. Now everybody can check their calendar wherever they are so they can see if there is a scheduling conflict when something else comes up during the week. I also like that when the kids are given an important date at school they can type it in their calendar and it automatically goes to everyone.
Since Sunday is our really off day we also make sure the kids clothes are ironed and picked for the following week, our weekly dinner menu is planned out, easy to grab healthy snacks are in place, the kids rooms are cleaned and everything is organized before Sunday night. These small but very important tasks have helped so much. However, I am now ready to take it a step further by using some of the tips I seen in the Tyson School Year Survival Guide.
If you are looking for more survival skills to get through the school year make sure to check out Tyson® Any’tizers® snacks “School Year Survival Guide”. And don’t forget to check back in a couple of weeks to see which ones we put to the test!
