4 Quick (Doable Even If You Are Exhausted) Back-To-School To-Do's

School starts in less than two weeks and between work and my general Delta rage funk, I am exhausted. Like, deep down bone weary and struggling to keep my eyes open. Despite being protective of my sleep (I love sleep!) by getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night and using a sleeping mask to obliterate all light, I am still exhausted. I am hearing the same from so many other people too. Right now is a lot.

Given my current state, I am admittedly gritting my teeth a bit about the whole back to school situation. After 18 months of very, very loose scheduling, the idea of back-to-school + travel soccer for both of my kids + starting college applications (!) with Laurel seems like an extra lot. So today I wanted to share four quick back-to-school to-do’s that are totally doable even if you are exhausted. My perspective is most definitely in bare-minimum-but-not-negligent land, also realizing that everything does not need to be absolutely buttoned up on the first day of school. Or even the first week of school! (I’ll share a few next steps at the end of the post.)

1. Sync up your school calendar

Yesterday I decided to look up my district calendar. The impetus was actually to see if preliminary city election day coincided with a school professional development day (it did not) so I could figure out whether I can work the polls. But then I decided to go ahead and plug in no-school days into my calendar because on (many) more than one occasion in my experience as a parent, I have been totally clueless about off days. Ugh.

Hello, this process led me to realize that Labor Day weekend is not a 3-day weekend for my kids this year, it is a 5-day weekend. BWA HA HA HA HA. Better to realize this now than the week of, so I can plan accordingly!

This to-do took about 5-10 minutes yet was highly gratifying. I recommend starting with this one!

2. Check your mask supply (+replenish if necessary)

I’m not sure if our laundry machine is eating masks or they are just getting lost or stuck in pockets, but earlier this week I decided to check our mask supply and was glad I did. Seriously, where did our big backup stash go?!

Our supply to date has included homemade masks + Old Navy cotton masks but I recently heard a colleague rave about Athleta's poly/spandex (with cotton liner) masks so I ordered a couple of sets of adult masks + a kids mask set.

I am grateful that our district issued a mask mandate and now the kids will definitely have a week’s worth at the ready at a time. This to-do took about 10-15 minutes (checking our supply, deciding on colors, ordering).

3. Check that backpacks and lunchboxes are functional

I definitely do not think kids need new gear every year, which also means that I routinely need to check that their existing supplies are holding up. Check backpack for holes and functional straps and that lunchboxes are in reasonable shape.

This to-do took 2-3 minutes. (We still need to empty Violet’s backpack of last spring’s contents, but that will be for another day. HA.)

4. Stock up on lunch and snack supplies

My kids have never bought lunch, despite my wishing they would! I get it though, the lunch window is short and and rushing through eating is not fun. So one priority for us is stocking up on lunch and snack supplies. I usually do curbside grocery pickup or delivery and have just tagged on nonperishable bulk snacks to my groceries this month. I buy big bags and just split into containers or bags since it’s less expensive. In my grocery run the week before school I will add plenty of fruit, protein, grains, etc., to my list. If you need some lunch inspiration, I created the below graphic for a post on 110 Easy + Healthy School Lunch Ideas.

For this to-do I recommend taking 10 minutes to make a list of key lunch and snack items and then buying bulk snacks now, and perishables closer to the start of school.

And that’s it. Minimum effort, maximum reward back-to-school action items!

Additional Back-To-School to’do’s

If you are ahead of the game, other to-do’s involve getting school supplies and checking whether you need a size refresh on clothing and/or shoes. For school supplies, I definitely recommend having your kids do an at-home school supply scavenger hunt FIRST, though, because they probably have some of the recommended supplies in their stash. But really, I personally don’t think it’s the end of the world to not have all of your school supplies at the ready on day 1 of school.

As for clothes and shoes, I think this one can also wait until you get past the immediate chaos since we’ll have at least a couple of weeks of transitional weather where it still feels like summer temperatures and they fit in the clothes they have been wearing all summer!

I am rooting for all of us.

FamilyChristine KohAugust 19, 2021schoolComment