4 Tips for Scheduling School Activities

As the school year starts, you'll likely find yourself a little overwhelmed with everything you have to do. From daily drop off and pick up to weekly after school activities, it seems like you're always running during the school year. Luckily, there are several ways you can organize your day and ensure that everyone gets where they need to be on time.

Have a Master Schedule

Whether you're managing activities for one child or four, it gets a little crazy when you add in your schedule and anyone else's in the house. Having a master schedule is crucial to ensure everyone knows what's happening. Whether you prefer traditional methods, such as a large monthly calendar on the wall, or more modern techniques like a Google calendar, a master schedule is needed. You'll be able to see what each person has going on throughout the week and month. If you choose to use digital options, you can even set up recurring events to make planning easy.

Limit Activities

One of the most difficult, but sometimes most necessary things to do to keep everyone on track is to simply limit the activities your children take part in. Life gets a lot more stressful when every child has something going on three, four, or five times a week. Pick and choose what is most important to your child. This helps both with scheduling and keeping your child interested in the activities they participate in. You don't want them or yourself to get burned out too early in the school year.

Be Flexible

As the school year goes on, you may quickly find that you simply have too much going on. If this is the case, you may need to be flexible. In some cases, you might even have to drop an activity or two. Decide early which activities are most important and which ones can be dropped if need be. It's also important to keep in mind that your child may end up hating some of the activities they originally chose. Decide early whether or not you'll let them drop certain activities they're no longer interested in.

Meal Plan

If you have activities to run to several times a week, you're going to need to invest some time in serious meal planning. Planning out meals in advance allows you to feed your family well, even when your schedule is busy. Consider pre-making meals on the weekend and putting them in the freezer. This way you can offer nutritious meals quickly and easily. Crock pot meals are another great option for families on the go. Sit down and figure out a meal plan including grocery lists weekly or bi-weekly for the best results.

When you're a family on the go, your children get to experience a variety of activities and have so many new and interesting experiences. However, it does take some serious planning and management to keep everyone going without getting burned out. Make sure you keep up on your calendar so you don't miss any activities this year.