Dogs Don't Eat Pizza

Have your kids started school yet? Mine started school – you won’t believe it – the first week of August! I have a few tricks I use to make sure the first day (and all other days!) go smoothly! Here are my favorite back-to-school tips for today’s Friday Five!

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1. I get up at least 15 minutes before I wake the kids.

It’s painful sometimes, but I try to get up at least 15 minutes before I wake the kids for school.

That 15 minutes allows me to get up and moving, get dressed, take the dogs out and feed them, and start getting lunch stuff out. It’s a productive part of the morning with no one up yet to distract me.

2. Make packing lunches easy.

I try to streamline the lunch-packing process as much as possible, even though my kids don’t always eat the same things.

I use these bento boxes to pack the kids’ lunches. I love that they are environmentally friendly because they are reusable (I’ve had ours for three years!), and they make packing lunch easier because there’s a place for everything!

3. Freeze water bottles.

I freeze the kids’ water bottles for their lunches the night before. We use these water bottles:

I fill them almost full – leave about an inch of space at the top – then freeze the night before. They thaw by the time the kids eat lunch. Not only does it give them cold water for lunch, but it keeps their lunch cool, too!

4. Pre-order school supplies.

OK, I admit that I used to be the parent who loved shopping for school supplies! I loved all the colors and styles of notebooks, pencil boxes, and folders. But as my kids have gotten older and seem to care less about what color folders they have, it’s easier to just pre-order our supplies through the schools.

Our schools offer the option to pre-order a box of supplies – it’s delivered to you or to the school and the box contains everything your child needs. Plus, it’s usually cheaper than buying it all separately.

*UPDATE: I didn’t order school supplies this year and it actually was less expensive! My kids had a lot of the same things they needed last year, so we didn’t need to buy them twice. That, plus sales at the stores, meant we saved money by NOT pre-ordering. (Also, I heard that, at least at my daughter’s school, the pick up process for the supplies was a bit disorganized!) Moral of the story: do what is most efficient and less expensive.

And my favorite back-to-school (and, really, any day) tip…

5. Make coffee the night before!

If you asked me what my favorite invention is, I might say that it’s a coffee maker with an auto- timer!

At night, I clean the coffee pot and set up the coffee for morning. Then I set the timer and turn it on. Magically, when I wake up the next morning, there is coffee ready for me! (Insert angels singing here…) Best. Invention. Ever.

When do your kids start school? What’s your favorite back-to-school tip? I’d love to know – leave a comment and share!