The summer has come to a screeching halt. Students across the Bay Area are swapping stories about their new teachers and classrooms — or savoring their last few days of freedom.
Real estate activity takes a brief pause every year at this time as homebuyers with young children settle into the new homes they bought in advance of the new school year. Buying will pick up again in a few weeks, but right now the focus in many homes is the start of school.
With that in mind, here are some back-to-school tips that might help your children — and you — get the most out of the school year ahead so you can get back to home shopping or remodeling the property you just bought.
- Involve your kids in programs that they can do after school to keep them active.
- Try apps like iHomework or MyHomeWork to help your kids organize assignments.
- Create a family calendar that tracks everyone’s activities and commitments.
- Refresh rules about screen time for the school year.
- Teach your children to prioritize their assignments by making to-do lists with deadlines.
- Remove distractions like TVs and video game consoles from homework areas.
- Help your kids develop a filing system for organizing their documents for each class.
- Set — and enforce — regular weekday and weekend bedtimes and wake-up calls.
- Have your kids set realistic goals for the new year, such as reading a certain number of books.
- Create a list of fun after-school activities and games to keep your children entertained.
- Touch base with teachers early on to troubleshoot any issues your kids may be having.
- Model good behavior by doing your own work/projects while your kids do homework.
- Encourage your children to lay out their school clothes the night before.
- Create an area for kids to leave things that need your attention, like permission slips.
- Set a time each week to sync up individual calendars with the family calendar.
- Get copies of school menus in advance to discuss lunch choices.
- Keep a small emergency allowance in your kids’ bags, just in case.
- Purchase lunch boxes or reusable bags to help save the environment.
- Have a backup transportation mode planned in case your kids miss the bus.
- Set your clocks forward 10 minutes. This makes it easier to be on time.
- Keep a single, easy-access file for vaccination records and other important papers.
- Map out a schedule to avoid family conflict for bathroom time.
- Figure out different ways that you can be involved in the classroom this school year.
- (Photo: Flickr/Kipp Jones)