Oh my, well ready or not… Knox Chandler starts school in just a couple of weeks. I cannot believe my baby is going to school. As we inch closer to Kinder camp, meet the teacher, and our first day of school, I am getting the home ready for a new year. Purging, donating clothes, throwing away, minimizing… preparation has begun! I started from the ground up last week, painting our baseboards and freshening things up. Call me crazy… but I think feeling “together” starts with the state of your home! This week we purged toys and clothing for donation!
I have a few things I do in the school year that have really made a difference for me and I wanted to share as I am in the thick of getting ready for a new routine to start again!
The first: I started doing a hanging cubby for outfits each day of the week in advance. This helps me know what to prioritize in my laundry. I put things up Sunday, and then if I see I need to wash shorts or socks etc, I can grab them real fast and fill the gaps by Monday afternoon for the rest of the week. This saves me from scrambling through laundry on the morning of and helps with the big picture of chores for the week a bit as I decipher what and when to wash everything. It also gives Knox a sense of freedom to pick his outfit for the day from a predetermined line-up. I mean, I know personally I may have planned a certain outfit for something in my week but when that day comes, I may prefer something a bit comfier or whatever… just different than I had planned. So allowing your kid to pick gives the freedom to choose how they feel that day and what they want to wear. (without coming down in mismatch socks and shoes and pants that don’t fit anymore… speaking from experience lol.)
Lunches were so stressful for me until we really figured out a system. Knox has a box with compartments and he helps me fill them so that he feels a sense of ownership over what he has to eat for lunch that day. He knows he has to have a protein, a veggie, a fruit, a crunchy thing, and a treat of some kind. He helps me pick all these items out at our grocery run for that week, and then he knows for the next two weeks these are his rotating items for lunches. We will typically have a couple options for each category so he can decide! We bought the Pottery Barn Spider Man Lunch Box and Backpack set two years ago and it STILL looks so good. I cannot get myself to buy a new one of either item because it looks so nice still. Knox has gone to school three times a week with them for two years now. I think that says a lot about the quality! So although it feels expensive up front, this proves my point in life to spend extra on the nicer things!
Zara Haul! Who remembers this try-on haul by Knox when he was about to start Pre-School? I could weep. Y’all know how I feel about Zara Baby/Kids. It’s unmatched. Not crazily priced but way better quality than Target. Plus, Rory literally has an entire wardrobe every year because I can pass down nearly every item I buy Knox and then fill in what got ruined from playing hard, etc. I still have pieces originally from Knox that I will pass to Coco, even! Raise your hand if you want a Zara Try-On Haul 2.0 with KC this year! I cannot link Zara, sadly, but we love their jogger pants, tube socks, and basics a lot. But I bought him a really nice knit polo, too! They have fun graphic tees that from $11-$17! This year, Knox sat with me and we chose items together for his closet. It was so fun (but also humbling because I had to be ok with a Pikachu matching set… lol. picking my battles.)
As for Rory, we decided to keep him home one more year! He has one of those summer birthdays that has made it a little difficult to decide what I want to do with him and when to start. He could totally thrive in a school setting right now if we wanted or needed to. But to be honest, I just wasn’t ready to lose that time with him. When Knox started PreSchool, he was 3 but turned 4 just a few months into the year. Rory literally just turned 3 and I felt sad thinking about losing all that time with this age that I had with Knoxy. So, he will start PreSchool next year and we will see about kinder for him either at 5 or waiting until he is 6!
Now… I am ready to buy SCHOOL SUPPLIES! Happy back to school everybody!
