The school holidays are brilliant for the kids, but they do tend to throw routines out the window. Bedtimes slip, mornings get chaotic, and mealtimes drift — and then suddenly it’s time to get back into the school routine, and everyone (parents included) is dreading the adjustment. The good news is that a few simple changes, started a little before term begins, can make the transition much smoother. Here are some simple ways to get back into the school routine quickly.
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#1. Healthy Kids = Happy Kids (and Parents)
As children head back into the classroom, their bodies and immune systems are working hard to adjust — new routines, new challenges, and often new bugs going around. Keeping kids healthy and settled into a regular school routine is essential for learning, friendships and overall wellbeing. To help the transition go smoothly, reintroduce a reasonable bedtime, wake-up time and mealtimes in the weeks before school starts. This reduces the chances of your child starting the new school year tired or run down.
You May Also Enjoy: 10 Good Tips to Keep Children Healthy During the School Year
#2. School Routine – Repeat, Repeat, Repeat!
Children learn through repetition, and most thrive on order and predictability. Setting a school routine from day one and sticking to it helps avoid the daily scramble in the mornings, after school and at bedtime.
For younger children, a simple visual routine chart can work wonders. Use pictures or short words to lay out the order of things: getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, homework time, screen time and the bedtime routine. Spelling it out this way makes mornings and evenings run more smoothly, and it also helps children learn how to build good habits for themselves.
You May Also Enjoy: Best Ways to Create a Bedtime Routine and Avoid Meltdown and 5 Sleep Routine Tips for Back To School
#3. A Place for Everything
Set up a dedicated spot for bags, coats and shoes, and encourage every member of the family to use their own space. This alone can save a lot of frantic searching on school mornings.
A homework supplies box — stocked with pencils, pens, erasers, colouring pencils and anything else your child might need — is another simple time-saver. In our house, the routine on school days is: come in, have a snack, then homework. Having everything to hand speeds this up and cuts down on arguments, because everyone knows the routine and has what they need within reach.
You could also set up a lunchbox shelf in the fridge and cupboard, so children can help put together their own lunches — non-perishable items the night before, and perishable items quickly in the morning.
#4. Homework Station
Where possible, set up a dedicated homework station and a simple, agreed schedule for using it. This one change can make a real difference to settling back into the school routine quickly.
Get the kids involved in organising the station and agreeing the homework routine together. When children have had a say, things tend to run more smoothly from day one.
You might also enjoy reading How to Keep Kids Focused with a Homework Station
#5. Stock Up the Freezer
If you have some time before school starts, try cooking up a few dinners that can be frozen and defrosted on busy school days. As everyone adjusts to the new routine, having meals ready to go is a lifesaver on the days when work runs late, homework takes longer than expected, or you simply decide a trip to the beach, park or playground on the way home is more important than getting straight to the kitchen.
You May Also Enjoy: 15 Tasty Freezer Dump Meals Guaranteed to Save You Time
#6. If It Can Be Done the Night Before…
We’ve already mentioned a lunchbox station — these are a great way to get children into the habit of preparing their own lunches, which also means they’re more likely to actually eat them. Adding non-perishable items to the lunchbox the night before saves precious minutes on busy school mornings.
You could also set the breakfast table the night before, keep everything easily accessible, and encourage your children to get their own breakfast so mornings run more smoothly.
Laying out clothes the night before, combined with dedicated shelves, hooks or boxes for coats, bags and shoes, means you’ll be back into the school routine faster than you might expect.
You May Also Enjoy: 100 Healthy Lunch Box Ideas Your Kids Will Love and Download Our Free Lunch Box Planner
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it usually take to get back into a school routine?
Every child is different, but starting the wind-down process one to two weeks before school begins — adjusting bedtimes, wake-up times and meals gradually — tends to make the switch far less of a shock than trying to reset everything the night before term starts.
What if my child resists the new routine?
It’s completely normal for children to push back at first, especially after weeks of a more relaxed holiday schedule. Involving them in setting up the routine — choosing their own homework station layout or picking their routine chart pictures, for example — often helps them feel more invested in sticking to it.
Do older children need a routine chart too?
Younger children usually benefit most from a visual chart, but older children can still benefit from an agreed schedule, even if it’s just a shared understanding of when homework, chores and downtime happen. The key is consistency, not the format.
You Might Also Like
- 10 Good Tips to Keep Children Healthy During the School Year
- Best Ways to Create a Bedtime Routine and Avoid Meltdown
- How to Keep Kids Focused with a Homework Station
- 15 Tasty Freezer Dump Meals Guaranteed to Save You Time
- 100 Healthy Lunch Box Ideas Your Kids Will Love
Save These Ideas for Later
Getting back into the school routine is easier with a bit of preparation. Bookmark this page or browse our other back-to-school ideas so you’ve got everything ready when term rolls around.
Do you have your own tips for getting back into the school routine quickly? We’d love to hear them — share them with other parents in the comments below.
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