It’s summer time – a wonderful time of year – the kids are off from school, you’re getting ready to go on a much needed & well-deserved vacation. It’s outdoor time, party time & picnic time. There is no school and more importantly no homework. There are no after school activities to be shuttling the kids to. You’re relaxed. You finally have time for yourself & your family …right?
Unfortunately not. Somehow once summertime comes we find ourselves busier, more stressed and having more trouble then ever getting things together.
Why? We loose our structure. For 2 short months life changes. For the past 10 months everything was chugging along fine. The kids got where they needed to be, they got out of the house without a lot of visible dirt on their clothes & faces. You packed lunches, got dinner on the table, & in many cases, you managed to work outside the house too. You had a schedule – a routine that worked – maybe not perfectly but at least you knew what to expect & then SUMMER! It happens every year and once you are finally adjusted to summer it is time to head back to school.
Here are some tips to help you wrap up the school year quickly so that you will have more time to enjoy your summer.
Backpack & Lunchboxes: Unpack them now. Decide if they are salvageable for next year and either throw them out or clean them and put them away. Don’t leave them lurking around or that cupcake from the end of the school party will be really gross.
School papers: Most of what your child has done can be thrown out. How many sheets of multiplication facts do you need? What will your child really use or refer to again? If you want to keep a few things pare it down, pack it all up in a big envelope, seal it, label it with your child’s name/age/grade and put it away.
Artwork: Before going through it all decide what you will do with the things you keep. Frame it? Display it? Store it? If you are going to store it, decide where. Then lay everything out. You’ll be able to pick out the gems pretty easily. Allow yourself to discard the rest.
School supplies: Go through all of the used things that come home. Throw out the ones that will never be used again. Be ruthless. If your child is not going to use a pencil with no eraser then throw it out. Then shop early for next years school supplies. It will cost you more to buy it now, before the sales, but will save you a lot of aggravation later. Store the new supplies in the backpack you just cleaned and put away.
Do these things early in the summer that way the stuff won’t be nagging at you all summer long and you eliminate the possibility that summer will end and these things will end up in another pile waiting for you to go through.
by Carrie Greene, ACC, CarrieThru, LLC, ADHD Coaching & Organizing Services.
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