Back To School!

Here we go again!  We’ve circled forward to the next school year and all of the new expectations that come along with it.  We have to move away from those lazy summer days where structure and organization are less of a priority over relaxing, spending time together and just being.  As we work on that transition, we thought we would share some ideas and resources that might help to make things a little easier.  From starting a new schedule to busier evenings, the school year brings on it’s own set of challenges.  So, before you get started consider what is most important to your family and start to arrange plans and decisions around those priorities.  Making kids lunches may be a priority for some families but other families may find that having things well organized or having downtime is what they would prefer to focus on because that is what resonates with their family the most.  When reading through our ideas below, remember those priorities that matter most to you and take ideas accordingly.

    Schedule and Structure

One of the best ways to regulate ourselves is to regulate our days and how we spend them.  Some people need a more clear and precise plan while others may flourish with a more open plan that is more flexible.  The hardest part can be when each family member needs something different and you are working with a fixed school and work schedule.  How much sleep, how many times someone needs to eat in a day, and how they regroup after a busy day looks different for each person and generally it is usually best to allow each person to follow the pattern that tends to be best for them. 

Have a discussion with or just take some time to observe how each of the people in your home structure their own day when they have time to do what they intuitively need.  Include yourself in this observation as well!..This can be a great benefit to slower summers where structure is generally less.  You can really start to see how each person in your house designs a natural structure for themselves.  Now, not every structure is useful!  However, if you observe the patterns and notice what benefits or works against, it will be easier to help each child establish a routine that may challenge them some,  but also honors their natural tendencies when possible.  And let’s be real, there are also days where one person's needs or the outside schedule will have to dictate how the day goes for everyone and that is fine too. 

Life is a steady juggling act and some days things will fall in our favor and sometimes they won’t, but trying to be prepared is the best way we can adjust to changing dynamics.   

Here are some simple ideas:

• Add a Buffer! Work in a 15-minute buffer in the mornings by waking up a little earlier than needed.  This allows for a more relaxed morning without starting the day off rushing. 

• Prep Ahead! Prep clothes and bags and food the night before.  This requires less thinking in the mornings when brains are still trying to get moving!  If you can’t prep food ahead, then set up your prep station before you go to bed to reduce tasks in the morning.

• Drink Water!  One of the best ways to wake up the body is by drinking a cup of warm or room temperature water after cleansing your mouth in the morning.  We are naturally a bit dehydrated when we wake as we haven’t had liquid for at least 8 hours usually.  Hydrating will wake up the brain, the cells, and get digestion going making for a smoother morning.

• Sleep is Important! For Everyone.  It is so easy to allow the constant demands to interrupt our natural needs and sleep tends to be the one most impacted.  For both developing brains and mature brains alike, cognitive, physical, and mental health require sleep to recuperate and rejuvenate so we are able to function at our best the next day.  Try not to cut sleep short to meet other demands.  Consider observing what is impeding sleep schedules and what you may be able to do to make some adjustments.  If it feels that things are out of your control, there is always an aspect that we can dictate but may take setting hard boundaries or having hard conversations.  Your family’s health is worth it.

 Preparing Food: Lunch, Dinner and Beyond

This can be one of the most challenging aspects of life, especially for those that just don’t have the desire,  knack or knowledge for regular cooking and time continues to be a constant stressor for most families.  So, we do the best we can.  For some, the best is using a meal prep service that guarantees some fresh meals each week, others meal prep on their own, and some need more convenient food options because neither of these feel accessible for many reasons.  In general, eating fresh recently cooked food is ideal for our digestive system, however, this is not always feasible either.  So, let’s put together some simple ideas together to help guide you on the path to least resistance.

• When using convenience foods, consider that everything on the label must be a whole food, pronounceable, and the total ingredients should be 5 or less outside of things like salsa where there could be several vegetables listed independently.  I learned of this concept from the creator of “100 days of Real food”.  This family challenged themselves to eat less processed foods by following the above rules to see if they could eat more whole foods and less junk on a budget.  She has an abundance of easy recipes for packing school lunch and simple, healthy dinners listed here:  www.100daysofrealfood.com

• Keep it simple!  Life has become complicated enough so allow meals and food selection to be clear and easy.  Every meal should have fiber, protein, and some fat making fiber an important goal as most Americans do not eat enough in a day.  Here are some resources for simple one pot meals to make weeknights easier and to step out of the go to recipes if you want a little more variety.  https://www.delish.com/one-pan-recipes/.   

Remember....

• It is easy to add a quick cooked vegetable to any one pan meal or add more veggies or legumes to the dish to make each option more well-rounded and high fiber when needed. 

• Use a high fiber pasta like red lentil or chickpea pasta to give a

  nutritional boost to one pot pasta meals.

• Add avocado/guacamole or hummus to meals to add good quality fats and fiber that can be easy to make yourself.

• Spice up your life!  Use spices in addition to salt and pepper and use them generously to add flavor and interest to whatever foods you are eating.  They add an easy digestive benefit as spices aid in better digestion, reduce inflammation and generally benefit overall health while satisfying your taste buds.

Downtime and Support

Families need time to just be and having a village for support can be a big piece to this. These options may look different for every family but the concept is the same.  We need to time to recuperate and reset and it can feel impossible to do this all on your own.

• Build in regular time for nothing.  In the world we live in this probably sounds crazy, but being productive 24/7 is negatively affecting our health.  The brain needs time to do nothing.  That is it’s best way of staying healthy.  Sleep should offer us some respite, but if we fill every second of the day with productivity or stimulation through screens and activities the brain doesn’t really get a chance to shut off and that can make sleep harder to achieve when it is time.  Consider just sitting outside for a few minutes, wandering through a garden, or sitting in a quiet spot and closing your eyes.  These are gentle actions that require very little processing. They are just you experiencing the world around you for a moment.  Let children space out and stare off into nothing or have creative play with no outside interaction, just them and their imaginations.  Even just a minute of doing this will give a little boost and the brain a little break.

• Ask for Help!  Whether you have family or close friends nearby, a community you are involved in or you just have a small network of friends and neighbors, find some support to help share the burden.  This may be the physical burden of caring for the family to give you a break, or it may be the emotional and cognitive burden of the everyday and just needing someone that relates and understands.  Work with other parents to create a neighborhood group that helps to share some of the tasks of parenting like walking to the bus stop, school pick up and drop off or even making family style meals that you double up and share with each other.  These small reliefs add up to big wins over time and feeling less alone can be the best medicine in busy times.

  
  

  *If you are having a hard time finding the support you need here is a support line specifically for parents feeling stressed and overwhelmed.  Sometime we just need someone to listen and understand and even provide resources when possible.  This national hotline is here for that:  Parents Helping Parents - 1-800-632-8188

School season is quickly approaching and the best we can do is try to organize and prepare. If you can, take some time this weekend to consider what kind of dynamic you would like to create around the new school season and how your family adjusts. It is not always going to be well put together and easy, but with a little intention you can have some power to guide how you move through it together.