Back to School Tips Featured on ABC13
I am thrilled to share Back To School Success Strategies with our Houston community!
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8762205
I am thrilled to share Back To School Success Strategies with our Houston community!
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8762205
Back to school! Its that time of year that makes moms happy and sad; happy to start new routines and sad about the energy and organization it can take to get your family going. Throughout the month of August we are featuring organized moms who will help get you started back to school with the toughest tasks.
Moms are challenged by making lunch nutritious, easy to make, and enjoyable for their kids. Here are some solutions for you.
Lunch-making blues….
I dread making those lunches every morning as much as my boys dread returning to school. Alternating PB&J and salami sandwiches weekly gets monotonous quickly—for the mom making the lunch and for the kids eating it! Last year, I surfed the web and collected some great new ideas to make lunches a little more exciting. Following are some hits with my kids:
Instead of a sandwich, I had the deli counter cut lunch meat in one thick slice, which I then cubed and packed with cubed cheese, toothpicks, and crackers. (Toothpicks are huge with my kids—maybe because I have three boys—they love when I condone the stabbing of anything) Wraps are another hit—the same ingredients as a boring sandwich, but wrapped in a tortilla—I spread cream cheese or Laughing Cow Swiss, then the lunchmeat, shredded cheese and “salad” (my boys’ term for lettuce, spinach, etc). I am sure the “salad” gets brushed off immediately at school, but I try!
Also, varying the bread on a basic sandwich was a hit. We used thin bagels, English muffins, and even corn muffins.
Other main dishes include hummus with pita chips and carrots, cold pizza, cold pepperoni rolls, and leftover meatballs (again with toothpicks). If you have a thermos, baked potatoes, soup, or any pasta can be a great change on a cooler day.
Some extras that were a hit last year: beef jerky, peanut butter crackers, chips and dip, veggies and ranch, pretzels with the new individual cream cheese packets, yogurt with granola, trail mix, popcorn, and zucchini chocolate chip muffins (I have a great recipe for these—my kids have yet to discover there is a vegetable in there!)
Of course, I always add a fruit and small treat to brighten their day.
Shawna McGrath is a stay at home mom of three boys, part time Math and English tutor, and enjoys believing her kids eat all the food in their lunch, not just the cookies.
Pictured above is the all new Rubbermaid lunch kit named LunchBlox. As a mom and Gigi (grandmother), I love the gift of LuncBlox from Rubbermaid! As an organizer, lots of rectangular containers in bright colors make a difference. Little separate compartments for different items and an ice block to keep it all cold make it easy to keep lunch together and make it the night before. It’s also BPA free and dish washer safe. All of Shawna’s suggestions will fit in the new LunchBlox. Making lunch will be so much more fun, nutritious and enjoyable now! What lunch will you pack in your LunchBlox?
Certified Professional Organizer Ellen Delap is a fan of all sorts of containers!
Back to school time brings backpacks by the back door, papers flying in from kids, and upcoming activities, back to school night and more. Create a command center and landing strip that helps you control the information and stuff.
Do you have a family command center idea to share? What works for you?
Need more ideas? Visit my pinterest board Back to School. http://pinterest.com/EllenDelap/back-to-school/
Back to school! Its that time of year that makes moms happy and sad; happy to start new routines and sad about the energy and organization it can take to get your family going. Throughout the month of August we are featuring organized moms who will help get you started back to school with the toughest tasks.
Moms are challenged to get everyone out the door on time with a smile. These ideas can get everyone’s day started off right.
Morning school routine
The most important thing I do to make school mornings run smoothly is to do ALMOST everything the night before. My goal is for everything to be done except for obviously breakfast, getting dressed, and brushing teeth. Here are some of the things I do the night before that make our mornings more manageable:
* Unload the dishwasher – I loathe spending extra time in the kitchen late at night when it feels like I’ve been in there ALL DAY, but it’s so worth it to start the morning with a clean kitchen. The breakfast dishes are a quick rinse and load and then I’ve got a clean kitchen again.
* Pack lunches, fruit break, water bottles – another kitchen chore that I despise doing at night, BUT it’s even worse to deal with the next morning, so I make myself get it done!
* Set out backpacks, shoes, and any other items that are going to school that day
* Lay school clothes out as I’m tucking kids in at night
When I slack off and don’t do one or more of these chores the night before, the result is a scattered, hectic morning – not a good start to the day!
Another trick that works for me is to require that the kids eat, dress, put on shoes, and brush teeth and hair before they watch any cartoons. They are motivated to get these small chores done and they enjoy having 10 minutes or so of TV time before we head to school.
Meredith Delap is a stay at home mom of three. She enjoys reading, the beach, and peace and quiet.
Fall is around the corner and now is the time to establish successful strategies and routines. This time of year we are ready to begin again, even more so than at the new year. When families work together new routines, the results can be amazing! Communication is the key. No one likes to be told what to do whether you are an adult, teen or even a young child. Asking questions can make the difference on helping your children be successful in school and working together on solutions for family responsibilities and routines. Here are some questions to help your family get a great start this fall. Host a family meeting to collaborate on this.
What are your personal goals for this next year? Help your child establish a minimum goal for one area by asking what specific actions they will take to accomplish this goal. Ask them how you can help them reach the goal. Share with them one goal you have too and ask for their help.
What is the best way for you to keep up with your calendar, recording your homework and other activities? Families can set up a month at a glance calendar in a prominent place for everyone to see or use a digital calendar and print out the month at a glance. Each child will need their own planner for use at school, either a month at a glance, week at a glance or a spiral notebook to write in all assignments, important dates and other details. Parents need a reliable planner system too.
What is your best way to keep up with papers this fall? Some ideas might be one binder with tabbed slash pockets, one folder for each subject and a homework folder, a small box file, or an accordion file with one pocket for each subject. Remember, paper management is a learned skill and very important to practice.
What ways to study help you learn best? Auditory learners learn well with background music, softly playing in the background. Kinesthetic learners learn well with flashcards, re-writing and movement. Visual learners learn best with color, highlighting and underlining. Minimize distractions by keeping study time out of your child’s room. Check grades weekly online with your students asking them to assess what is working for studying.
Ask all your family members to brainstorm all the stuff that must be done each week, including trash, dinner preparation, dishes, laundry, and more. Then ask each family member which task they can do best or which they prefer. When you work from your strengths and/or work on what you prefer, everyone does a better job. Ask for family members to partner in getting these jobs done too, so that no one person has to work alone. Record their responsibilities on a chart and post this again in a prominent place. Everyone has come together to work together as a team.
Start this year off with a plan for everyone in your family. Keep the strategies going with encouragement and enthusiasm, hosting family meetings to continue this dialogue and communicate about other important family values. Starting new or getting back to routines makes a difference for everyone.
Change is hard! We all like things, places and people to remain status quo. But there are lots of transitions that happen and in the midst of a transition, organizing begins to lag behind sometimes. It might be a move, a new job, the loss of a loved one, addition of a new family member or other change that has occurred. Here are a few tips on smoothing transitions.
It’s almost that time to set your college freshman off! It is a bit scary, a bit exciting and a bit overwhelming for you and for them. It takes time to get ready for freshman year, so now is the time to get started. Here are a few tips for organizing your college freshman.
Do you have ideas to share with new college freshman?
Join me at the Houston Galleria Microsoft Store for Get Organized with Microsoft Outlook!
Overwhelmed by email? Can’t find a contact when you need it? Not sure of meeting dates for work or family activities? We will be sharing tips and tricks to get all of this together in one place, easy to access and making communication easy!
Some tips, tricks and techniques we will be sharing:
Microsoft Galleria Store
May 19 at 2pm
Bring your laptop, slate or windows phone and play along with us. Happy organizing!
For some people, time management is a natural rhythm of the day. For some people, there is no awareness of time, time passing, arriving or leaving on time. The greatest asset for time awareness is a clock! Placing clocks in various spots in your home or office can make a difference. Having an analog clock in view helps you keep track of time and be more productive. Clocks and time management are like peanut butter and jelly.
What places and spaces do you needs clocks in your home?
I am often asked for “my” organizing ideas, including tips, tricks and tools. Here are the top 12 for me!
1. Always shop with a list.
2. Know where an item will be located in your home, before you purchase it.
3. Set up specific spots for specific items, such as only clothes in your master closet or only paper in your office.
4. Commit to tasks and responsibilities only after checking your calendar.
5. Anything that is really going to happen, has to be listed on a date on your calendar.
6. Go through your paper for 5 minutes every day. Spend one hour once a week paying bills and working on admin tasks.
7. Know what papers to keep, and how long to keep them. Ask your accountant or lawyer for your personal dates and details.
8. Always keep a list of tasks, not matter how small the task or how short the list.
9. Use versatile organizing products in many different places, such as the back of the door shoe holder used in the craft room for crafts, toy room for matchbox cars, or back door for bug spray.
10. Find organizing products that you love, that match the decor of the space they will be used, and that have ways to separate and categorize your items.
11. Any big project is best done in baby steps, one hour at a time.
12. Keep it simple sweetie! The simpler, the better!
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