For fellow Alabamians and many across the south United States, school begins within the next few weeks. I’m spending some time now preparing in order to be back to school ready. Read along for some quick tips for how to ready yourself and your family for the upcoming school year.

Out with the Old

A couple of weeks before school begins is a great time to go through your children’s closets and see what items no longer fit or have been stained or torn. Get rid of any of these items that are taking up precious space. Determine what needs to be donated and what needs to simply be thrown away.

Take inventory of what materials and supplies you have available at home. Do you have left over school supplies from last year? Will last year’s backpack still be a good choice for this year? From your assessment, create a list of what is missing for the upcoming school year.

Plan for the New

Once your children’s closets and backpacks have been cleaned out, determine what your needs are. Does your son need more pants? Has your daughter’s shoe size grown? Make a list of all needed items for the school year. Include school supply lists to your master list of needed items. Now, shop! Look for some great deals. Like to Know It has some amazing influencers to follow that will show you wonderful deals to check out.

I found a few clothing deals for my kiddos and linked them up here. You can also check out my Liketoknow.it images on the right sidebar of my blog.

In addition to clothing items, school supplies such as: colored pencils, binders, and pronged folders will all be on sale at area grocery and box stores. Publix usually does a great job of running Buy One, Get One sales on school supplies in the weeks leading up to school. I am so excited because I was recently able to purchase the Bentgo Kids lunchbox I have had my eye on for a while from Amazon during its Prime Day sales.

Establish or Reestablish Routines

Lastly, think through what your school days will look like: nightly routines, morning drop off, and lunch plans. As I shared in an older post, I had the privilege of sitting in an Organized Mom small group led by one of the children’s ministers at our previous church. This woman is amazing! She shared so much wisdom for back to school routines. Her guidance on preparing for each school week and how my morning ride to school should look like still has a positive influence on my family’s lives.

What did I learn? 1. Prepare your family’s outfits the weekend BEFORE the upcoming school week. Iron each day’s outfit if necessary and place with the appropriate shoes, underwear, and socks together or in a hanging organizational bin such as this one. (*As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a commission off any viable links.*) 2. Prepare lunches the night before or get one of your kids to help prepare lunches. The last semester of last year, I worked in long-term substitute positions and my daughter would make our lunches every morning. This act of service was greatly appreciated! 3. Rides to school should include NO LECTURES. Proper preparation before the school week helps to avoid running late to school. Not being in a rush, reduces the chances of frustration and parental lectures. Play worship music and pray together. 4. Don’t bail your kids out. This one was and is a challenge but man, it has some good fundamental lessons for kids. Your kid left their lunch at home? Don’t deliver it. Homework come up missing from their backpack? Don’t go searching for it. Sometimes our children need to fail in order to learn how to thrive on their own.

Now You’re Ready!

Taking some time to purge the old, plan for the new, and establish positive routines will have you and your family back to school ready!