As I mentioned in a recent post, 2014 holds lots of new things for our family with regards to school. Our youngest is starting school, our daughter in year five is changing schools and our second eldest is starting secondary school.
It will be an exciting time for us. There will be some nerves and some anxiousness as the starting days draw closer, but all of them are excited about their new educational adventures. These are some of the things we are doing to prepare ourselves for term one:
- Keep the focus low key. We have the starting dates on the calendar so we all know when everyone is starting, but I am not making a big fuss of it. We will only begin a countdown for the youngest one a few days out.
- We are going to be making practice runs on public transport, so those who will be traveling by train this year are confident about how to get to school and how to use Melbourne’s public transport system.
- Reading the set novels for the year. With plenty of time on their hands it is a perfect time to read the books set for this year.
- Covering text books with clear contact – this reminds me of my school days!
- Organising and labelling their school gear. I have handed over this task completely to the older three kids.
- Buying the final uniform items. A few pieces weren’t available in the sizes we needed, so we have a few items to pick up next week.
- Menu planning so the evening meals will be sorted for the first month we are back at school.
- Creating a new visual chart for the prep child, like his preschool one, but fitting with what he needs to do for school mornings.
- Winding back bed time to gradually get closer to school term time and then waking a little earlier hopefully too!
- Enjoying walks together after dinner while we have no after school activities to worry about.
- Celebrating our youngest’s birthday!
New school start resources
Over the year’s on the blog I have shared tips and learnings about starting kids at school:
First Day Of School – Getting Ready – tips for getting ready for the first day of school for a first timer child (and mum too!)
Learnings From The First Year Of School – written after our fourth child’s first year of school, I share my thoughts on starting age, phonics and routines.
10 Things I Have Learnt About Year 7 And Year 7 Boys This Year – My reflections on having our first son start secondary school. It was a year where I felt the learning curve was just as big for me as it was for my son.
Children’s Routines – In this post I share free templates of kids schedules you can download and modify for yourselves. They are aimed to encourage preschoolers and primary school kids to get themselves ready in the mornings.
Do you have new starts this year?