The summer holidays end the same way every year: suddenly. One minute it’s beach days and ice blocks, the next you’re searching the house for a left school shoe at 7.40 am.
Here’s a week-by-week checklist to make the return a bit gentler.
Two weeks before
- Check the uniform: try everything on (kids grow over summer; it’s rude of them). Order anything that doesn’t fit
- Buy the stationery list from the school booklist
- Order name labels, and label everything. Yes, everything
- Check the school shoes, hats and bags
- Put term dates into the family calendar, including pupil-free days, sports carnivals and holidays
One week before
- Plan the first week of lunchboxes and morning tea (our [15-minute lunchbox plan] helps)
- Do a big shop for lunchbox staples: bread, wraps, fruit, snacks, containers
- Bake one batch of something for the freezer: scrolls, muffins or banana bread
- Update school forms, contact details and any health or allergy plans your school asks for
- Start shifting bedtimes back towards school hours, 15 minutes at a time
The weekend before
- Pack the bags and put them by the door
- Set up a spot for school notes, permission slips and library bags
- Plan easy dinners for the first week (everyone’s tired)
- Write the week’s after-school activities on the calendar, so you know who needs to be where
The first week
- Keep dinners simple: freezer meals and family favourites
- Check the school app or newsletter daily; the first week is full of notices
- Ask what they ate, not just what they liked, to fine-tune lunchboxes
- Celebrate Friday. You all made it
Where My Tomte helps
My Tomte puts school terms, activities and everyone’s calendars in one place, plans lunchboxes and morning tea alongside dinner, and writes one shopping list for the lot. Chores and reward tokens help with the new routine, too. (Library bags, sadly, are still your responsibility.)