Parenting Article:

School and Kindy in 2009 - all organised!

By: Rebecca Mezzino

Each year most parents tell yourselves that this year will be the year that your child never goes to childcare, kindy or school with an unironed uniform on, eats breakfast in the car, arrives 5 minutes late every day, or returns their library books late all the time (or loses them completely!).

You've resolved that you will know where all their paperwork is, and have their forms ready for them to take with them when needed. You won't have a battle to get out of the door on time, and for schoolkids you will be able to save money by making their lunch every day.

But the big question is - how? How can this all be done? Here's a few techniques you can employ that will help those resolutions become something much more effective and long-lasting: HABITS.

Habit 1. Organise your paperwork. Have one folder per child for all their education-related stuff (and I'd also suggest filing all their extra-curricular activity paperwork in there, too). Employ a good household paperwork system to keep the piles at bay (if you've always struggled with this then a Professional Organiser can really help you - you'll wish you had done it years ago).

Habit 2. Have a 'launch pad' that you and your children put everything in that needs to be taken out the next day. This is related to Habit 3 - 'routines' and is very important in avoiding the last-minute rushes in the morning. Everything can go there, from bags and hats, nappies for the littlies, to paperwork or items that need to be taken to someone else.

Habit 3. Establish routines that will ensure all the important things get done. There are 3 very important ones which can be applied at childcare-age, kindy-age or school-age: Morning, After Childcare/Kindy/School and Before Bed. Start these routines when your eldest is around 2-4 years old; they'll love it and you'll have them in the habits before they start school.

The Before Bed Routine could include: lay out all clothes for the next day, including any sports clothes that might be needed, and put all bags and shoes on the launch pad; ensuring all paperwork and schoolwork is packed; laying out breakfast supplies; preparing lunches and checking the calendar.

The After Childcare/Kindy/School Routine should include unpacking bags and putting dirty clothes in the laundry, dirty lunch boxes in the sink and all paperwork in your Inbox.

The Morning Routine should include checking the calendar, packing lunches and self-care such as dressing, doing teeth, hair and eating breakfast.

Make checklists and stick them up in a high-traffic area so that the older children can monitor their own progress, and have rewards for being on time before a designated time (which could be around 10 minutes before you have to leave). For pre-readers, draw pictures or take photos of them doing the task and stick them next to the words. If you struggle to stay on task yourself, make up a checklist for you, too.

Habit 4. Use a calendar religiously. Everyone needs to check it before bed and when they start the day. Make sure you put everything on it, including sports schedules and similar date-related timetables. Using colours makes things easier to identify. You can colour-code by activity (ie, work blue, sport orange, doctor red) or by person (mum yellow, dad blue, kids green, red and pink). By person usually works best in my opinion, but use what works for your family.

Habit 5. Keep up with your washing. Wash a load a day, and finish your washing all the way every day (ie, folded AND put away, not just taken off the line and piled on the spare bed for everyone to pick through when they need clean clothes!). Having all clothes available at the time of your before-bed routine makes setting up for the next day a lot faster, and it means at least the older kids can do most of it without your assistance.

If you work on instilling these habits you won't need to make all those resolutions next year because being organised for childcare, kindy and school will be second nature by then!

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