3 Tips to Ease Into Your Back-To-School Schedule

It can be a real challenge to get back into the swing of the school time routine. Instead of trying to make the drastic shift on the first day of school, here are some tips to ease you and your family into the school time schedule.

• New bedtimes: A couple of weeks before school starts, start getting your kids into a new sleep schedule. Set bedtimes earlier and start waking them up in the mornings near the time they will have to wake up for school. Most school aged children need between 8-12 hours of sleep a night, so be sure that you’re setting their bed times accordingly.
• Read at night: If your kids took a break from reading over the summer, start to re-introduce nighttime reading a few weeks before school starts. Get them into the habit of reading a book or magazine for an hour before bedtime. This will help them to ease back into the routine of doing their homework at night.
• Eating schedules: Start adhering to a school-time meal schedule a couple weeks before school starts. Serve breakfast shortly after your kids wake in the morning, lunch around the time that they will eat at school and dinner at a time that would allow for homework to get done in the evenings.
• Nighttime routines: Help your mornings go more smoothly by sticking to a nighttime routine. Get your kids into the habit of picking out their clothes for the next day the night before. Once school starts, also make sure that they pack their backpacks the night before too.