How to keep organised during the school holidays
Staying organised over the summer, (and getting ready for back to school), can be a challenge for many families. Luckily, we’ve created some resources to help take the chaos out of organisation and make back to school prep a breeze.
Here is a selection of our top tips and resources.
Create agendas
Agendas can be a great way to help organise summer holidays (and make sure you’re staying on schedule for back to school). You can create your own agendas to keep on track of what you need to do each week, or month, and more easily prepare for holidays and back to school.
For inspiration, take a look at some of our agendas or school holiday calendars here.
It can also be helpful to create a more general structure for daily activities - not based on specific tasks. This can be a valuable way to keep kids on track and not too far away from the scheduled lifestyle they usually have during school terms. That doesn’t mean you have to plan everything, but it can be helpful to stay consistent (for the most part) on what time you get up, go to sleep, or do different activities during the day. This way, it will be less stressful and less of a shock when they return to a more regimented school schedule.
Visible to do lists
Visible to-do lists are a great way to help kids keep track of their goals and stay organised. Make sure the lists are in a well-frequented location (our favourite locations are on the door to their room or in the kitchen on the fridge). This can help remind kids of what they are setting out to do that day and how they can stay on track to reaching their goals.
Speaking of reaching goals, reward charts can be another great way to help motivate and inspire kids to complete specific tasks or goals. The rewards chart can span any number of categories, from doing household chores, to reading chapters in a book, to finishing a math worksheet. A rewards chart can be a fun way to keep track of children's achievements and gamify things that they may be less excited about (like folding their laundry or cleaning up their room!).
Using organisational tools, such as labelling machines, can help make your household more organised as well as making sure there is structure to back to school. Labelling is a great way to make sure possessions don’t get lost or misplaced. Labelling things clearly can help everyone know where everything should go (which can also make clean up more orderly!).
Luckily, Brother has a whole host of labelling solutions, so whether you are looking to label a notebook or two versus looking to label every ruler, stapler, highlighter, or other piece of school supply that your child has, you should be covered. You can view the range here.
Keep the kids active
Finally, another way to help kids stay focused and organised this summer is… exercise!
While it may seem like it has little to do with structure, organisation, or taking the chaos out of summer, staying active has really beneficial results for kids (and the whole family) that can have positive effects throughout many different aspects of life. Regular exercise can help children to release excess energy and stress, which otherwise would make it harder for them to focus, or may overwhelm them when thinking about back to school.
You can also do plenty of other activities to stay active or even make different games out of it. For example, your children could pick some of the activities from this sheet that you can all do together.
You can download a printable copy of this sheet from the Brother Creative Centre.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is to have fun! Whether it is a learning activity, following a weekly agenda, or doing back to school prep, there are always ways to make even the “boring” activities fun for kids. Think of ways you can frame activities as play or exciting, and don’t forget to stay positive about them yourself.
Need more inspiration?
Take a look at our other Brother x Babysits articles for plenty of ideas for staying on top of this summer holiday and helping kids learn and have fun!
