• Make sure you have all medical, dental and vision checkups and immunization records up to date.

• Check your school’s website for the new school year calendar and note all important dates on your own family calendar.

          Look for an upcoming blog post on reasons to keep a master family calendar.

• Go through each child’s wardrobe and donate worn out and outgrown items.  Make a list of items to be purchased.  Go shopping for things together and organize them into their spaces to make outfit planning easy.

          Look for an upcoming blog post on ways to organize your child’s wardrobe for back-to school.

• Make special notes of when the “schedule pick up” and “meet the teacher” events are, and make sure your kids attend them.  This is one easy way to make sure they start out on the right foot.

• Plan a time to tackle shopping for school supplies together, or you may decide to support your school’s PTA by purchasing a kit that contains everything on the list.  Also make sure that backpacks and lunch boxes are “at the ready”.

• Have a discussion with your kids about school lunches.  Set expectations now if you want them to help put lunches together.  It’s always a good plan to pack lunches the night before so that in the morning all they have to do is grab and go.  Stock up on their favorites (sandwich supplies, applesauce pouches, carrot sticks, etc…).

• Set up a homework station in an area of your home with little distraction and easy access to supplies your kids may need while doing school work.  This could be at his or her desk, the kitchen table or the dining room table.

• Decide now what extra curricular activities each child wants to do, and make sure they aren’t “overbooking” themselves.  Complete the registration for sports and lessons they want to do outside of school, and write all important dates on the family calendar.

• Work on mapping out two weeks-worth of family favorite recipes, write or print them on index cards and bind them together with a loose-leaf ring.  Starting out with good meal planning can make a huge difference in keeping family time stress free.