Thursday, August 7, 2014

Keeping The Back-to-School Storm Calm

Wow.  Where did our summer go?  Working at a school, I've seen many teachers coming in and preparing their classrooms for Michigan's after Labor Day start.  Whenever your start date (some of you may have already started), how is the stress management for you and your kids?  As I type today, the sun is shining, and it's looking to be a beautiful day today.  What are your plans with the children?  I hope they are to keep enjoying summer!  It's not over yet!

Every store where school supplies are sold will lead you to believe you are starting back tomorrow.  You probably don't.  How can you best manage the days leading to the first day of school?  Here's what I'd do...

1.  Take advantage of beautiful weather.  Go do something outside and allow the kids to play.

2.  Take advantage of the rainy/poor weather...that's a perfect day to go school shopping.

3.  Reduce stress with some financial planning.  Yes, your children will want to go back to school with some new clothes and spectacular supplies, but I'd venture to guess you do not need an entire new wardrobe. You may even have some of last year's supplies.  Keep it simple, and check out what they already have and can continue to wear/use.  Overindulgence is not a good thing.

4.  Have them use these days to assist the family, and 'earn' some of those extra items on their back to school list.

5.  When shopping for supplies, do not panic if you can't find an item.  You can wait until the first school day and communicate with your child's teacher a difficulty.  Believe it or not, they will not use all of the supplies on the very first day.

6.  Continue to read (that should be everyone's summer homework), and just enjoy the last few days.

I have added one of my favorite back to school commercials here...wouldn't it be fun to shop with your kids like he does?  Try it.

Keep it simple...and have summer fun!  ~D



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