Four Back-to-School Tips for a Hassle-Free Fall

Somebody once wisely observed, “Anyone who thinks that the art of conversation is dead ought to tell a child to go to bed.” If this seems like an all-to-familiar scene in your house, especially as your family settles into a new schedule for fall, you’re probably in good company. Switching from a carefree, summer schedule to the fall’s back-to-school-routine can definitely be a challenge. To help you and your family ease into a new routine, we spoke with Christina Regnier, sales director at Garden of the Gods Club, about how her young family makes the transition gracefully. Successfully juggling a busy fall schedule takes a bit of planning, patience, and poise. Below are Christina’s tips for doing just this.

GGC’s Director of Sales, Christina Regnier, and her daughters

1. Take advantage of technology to help stay organized. Juggling the schedules of multiple family members can be daunting to even the most organized of people. With the advance of technology, however, managing multiple schedules is much easier. “As my family heads into the back-to-school routine, I like to organize everything ahead of time with Google Calendars,” Christina said. “These are great because I can create individual calendars for specific activities or people, and each calendar will feed into my work calendar,” she continued. “For example, I will make a calendar that only includes my daughter’s activity schedule, carpool dates, etc. I give certain people access to individual calendars so that everybody involved is on the same page,” she explained. “This is just one calendar of many that feeds into a master calendar. This really helps me stay organized.” There are endless ways to use technology to help you get organized, so consider finding a method that works with your schedule and personality.

2. Shop for school clothes online. “One way that I stay on top of purchasing clothes for a quickly-growing child is to shop online. My daughter has to wear a school uniform, so I’ll often purchase school clothes early in the summer,” Christina said. “Sometimes I also purchase school clothes in the off-season by anticipating what size my daughter will be during the next school year,” she said. “School uniforms tend to sell out quickly, so purchasing them online is a great alternative.” Whether or not your child must wear a school uniform, shopping online can save you time and energy, and that’s energy that you can put into enjoying the back-to-school routine.

3. Set clear expectations and involve your children in decision-making. Allowing children to help make certain decisions not only teaches them about good decision-making, but it also encourages them to take ownership over their day. “I set clear expectations about the items for which my daughter is responsible in the morning. I also let her help decide what she is going to eat for lunch each day,” Christina said. “That way I know she’s getting something healthy that she enjoys and that she’s not going to just throw her lunch away while she’s at school,” she explained. “We also do a lot of preparation at night to keep the mornings as peaceful as possible. We lay out clothes and any other important items for the next day ahead of time.”

4. Make room in your schedule for fun. To make transitioning into a new routine easier, plan some fun into your schedule.  “We like to loosely “plan” some time to recharge on our weekends. We try to fit in activities that we all decide on together,” Christina said. “We try to do things that get the kids out of the house and away from computers and TV. There are a lot of beautiful nature trails close to where I live.”

This year, you can make the transition to fall a smooth one. Experiment with ways of keeping your family organized to find one that works for you. We hope that these tips are helpful, and that you and your family have a wonderful back-to-school season!