School holidays can take it out of the fiercest of kids. Late nights, long days, holidays aborad and sleeping in aplenty mean your kids body clocks can often be all over the place – which is not good news the closer you get to day 1 of school.

To help reset routines, prevent the risk of burnout and get the kids back to a sense of normality ready for back to school read our handy guide below.

It’s all in the planning

Get your notebook or laptop out and get planning in advance – work out how many days you have left of the holidays and what you can prioritise first. Whether it’s pulling up bedtimes or earlier morning starts – getting it all written down helps to officiate everything and means you’ll be ready to kick goals come end of January.

Early evening routines and dinners

It’s time to bring back bedtime. Have a good think about how much time you might need to get ready in the morning, including school and work commutes and adjust the bedtimes based on age and timings so they get their solid 8+ hours.

Winding down at bedtime with books and nightlights instead of screens might also help them fall asleep earlier.

We are also big fans of making sure we have dinners planned out for the week in advance, in fact, we try to keep them to the same time each night too so the kids have full bellies at the right time for dinner. Why not stick your plan to the fridge so the kids know what to expect. Adding this level of structure heading into School season might just help the kids focus on their brains back into that routine mindset.

Morning Routines

With your evening timing reset, comes enforcing a bit of a strict morning routine, breakfast, getting dressed, showered and teeth cleaned all in good time, acted in the same order, might take a bit of practice but ensuring it’s all done by the right time ready for the start of school means you will be a pro by the time the school bell starts to ring. So you can be up, and out of the house and might even have time to spare to grab yourself a coffee before that 9am meeting comes around.

Keep weekday schedules but allow for rest and relaxation on weekends

Remember that whilst routines are important during the week to help get your kids back to normality – it’s also totally fine to let them rest on weekends if you need. Whether you’re grabbing their walking shoes for a big beach walk or having a big adventure in the local park – making time for leisure activities should help keep the little ones refreshed and raring to go when it comes to school time.

Try and make sure you make time for family nights

Family time is so crucial for balance and fun – we recommend carving out an evening each week as a family for playing board games or watching a movie together to help you all decompress after a long day of learning or sitting in meetings.