Back to School 2012 - Routines

One week until school starts! 

I am so far behind it is unreal.

One thing I have got to get a hold on ASAP is the evening routine and bedtime. I have been trying to reel bedtime back to a reasonable hour for a couple of weeks now, but so far, we have only manged to get it back as far as 9:30/10PM - far too late for primary/elementary school!

So, yesterday, I decided on a shock-to-the-system approach: we got the kids up the same time DH got up for work, and they went to bed at 8:30.  My thinking is to establish 8 PM as the time to get ready for bed, have the boys in bed by 8:30 and lights out no later than 9.  On one child, this worked like a dream (I don't think he even made it to 9),but the other was still awake when I checked in much, much later. I am hoping though, that by being consistent with this evening routine and the earlier AM rising that they will be well adjusted to it by the time school starts next Wednesday. As we get closer to the big day, we'll add in some standard school day responsibilities, like laying out school clothes the night before (for a great article on that, click here).

Of course, this is just part one: we'll need to work on the AM routine for the rest of this week as well. I have to get them used to dressing, eating, washing their faces and brushing their teeth upon rising again (instead of the summer routine of stretching these activities out for oh, 2-3 hours!). As I mentioned last year, I'll do a complete dry run on this with them the day before school, just to ensure we have everything down pat and they will be ready for the bus on time come September 5th!

I am considering printing out this AM routine sheet (found here, along with a couple of other AM tips), writing the "deadline" times next to each item, and posting it in an as-yet-undetermined spot where it can be easily referenced in the mornings:

source

Perhaps the trickiest routine is the academics one: how do you prep for homework? Well, over the summer I did try to stay consistent with a 20 minute daily reading time, but again, this was easier and more successful with one than with the other. So, this week, I want to stretch this into a 1/2 hour, and get the boys writing again as well. Now, to do this, I picked up the Christmas Wish Book and have been getting them to write Birthday and Christmas Wish lists... It has worked like a charm so far as a boy's ability to dream and plan far outweighs his hatred of pencil & paper ;-). For math, we have been playing cards (great for addition) and I have been calling out multiplication table questions when we are driving to and from swimming and other activities. I'd like to bump this up a bit too though... they are not as snappy with the answers as I would like!

Have you begun re-establishing school routines yet? How is it going?