10 Back to School Hacks for Parents

The start of the school year means the return of a regular routine as well as a busier schedule with the addition of homework, extra-curricular activities, and sports. September, especially, can be overwhelming and stressful for many families, including my own, but I have found some back to school hacks that have helped make the transition from summer to school a little bit easier.

1) Prepare breakfast the night before

My daughter does not last on cold cereal alone, so when possible I try to prepare a hearty breakfast beforehand. Whether it is cooking an extra large batch of pancakes on the weekend and freezing them, baking muffins, preparing berries and fruit that can be easily thrown on top of yogurt with granola, or preparing a pot of overnight oatmeal in my slow cooker, knowing I have a plan and have prepared a hearty breakfast saves time and fills bellies with a lot less stress. Websites, such as this one, offer many nutritious and easy-to-make breakfast recipes that can be prepared the night before.

2) Keep sticky notes handy 

School days are busy days and I am constantly saying to myself (or whoever is around to hear me), “Oh, I must remember….” And as soon as I say it, I forget it. Put sticky notes and a pen in your kitchen, on your nightstand, in the family room and anywhere else you’re known to have a brilliant moment that you know will vanish as quick as it came if you don’t write it down. Your memory (or lack there of) will thank you later.

3) If you don’t have a wall calendar – get one!

I don’t know how families survive without an old-fashioned wall calendar. Everyone in my family contributes to our wall calendar with birthday party dates, weekly activity times and anything else that everyone in the family should know about. We have ours hanging on our pantry door – a place everyone goes into and will see.

4) Keep your schedule top of mind

Take a picture of your weekly calendar and set it as your locked picture on your smart phone. It’s a fast and simple way to know what time you have to pick up who where, and a quick way to know what’s going on that week should someone ask you if you’re free.

5) Empty and fill backpacks as soon as you see them

Make looking for notes from the school a priority as soon as everyone gets in the door – either have a central bin and ask the kids to make sure permission slips and school forms that must be signed and returned are put in there on a daily basis or have a daily dumping of the school bag. Then sign the forms and have your kids put them in their bags right away. As this becomes part of your after school/work routine, you may notice less and less forms go missing (unless they get eaten by the school bus on the way home, which often happens in this house). ;) 

6) Google Translate is your friend

My daughter is in French Immersion and although I speak a little French, I cannot speak it well enough to help my daughter with some of her homework. So, I use Google Translate a lot – on my laptop and on my iPhone. So, if you don’t speak or read French (or English or any other language) well enough to keep up with your kids, get the Google Translate app on your phone – you can take pictures of documents and it will translate them for you. Time saver extraordinaire!

7) Schedule date nights (way) in advance

Book a night a month solely for date nights – no matter what. It doesn’t have to be a weekend either. If Tuesdays are better for you than Saturdays, then make Tuesday your date night! The same should also be done for self-care appointments such as massages, beer nights and girls night out – it’s important to step away from the every day and have fun away from the kids, regardless of how busy life is.

8) Batch cook or get an Instant Pot (or both)

Similar to planning and preparing breakfasts in advance, batch cook suppers so you have home cooked meals in the freezer that can easily be thawed and cooked when you need them. Meal preparation places, such as Supperworks make meal planning simple and can ensure you have nutritious meals every day of the week.

Similarly, the addition of an Instant Pot can save you valuable time on weekdays. We have one and I love that it can cook a whole chicken in 45 minutes and hearty soups in 30 minutes. It's my favourite kitchen appliance.

9) Don’t be afraid to set limits and stay within them

It can be easy to say yes to everything and then feel overwhelmed by all the commitments. If you can’t fit parent council meetings into your schedule or can’t make it to a book club meeting during busier times, don’t feel guilty about it. Be honest with yourself and those around you about what you can and cannot do. No one can do it all – and no one is, despite what you may think.

10) Remember Netflix is waiting for you

My favourite day of the week is Friday. It’s an evening of wine and Netflix with my husband. So remember, quiet moments will come and go throughout the school year, and they are there waiting for you despite the chaos and stress that comes along with the return of another school year.

What are some of your back to school hacks?

Family Photo Display Ideas

As a family photographer I have no shortage of photos to display on the walls of our home.  When we moved to our home three and a half years ago I was amazed at how much wall space I had to fill and yet I’m now struggling to find space to display my favourite photos of our family. I learned the hard way that framed photos aren’t necessarily the best choice for every room after a few ninja and lightsaber battles resulted in broken glass. I absolutely love printing photos on canvas but because I add so many photos to our “favourites” collection every year I need display options that allow me to switch out photos on a regular basis. I’ve also filled the available wall space which means I’m always on the lookout for creative ways to add photos to every room.

Home office

Behind my computer I have a large white magnet board and a plethora of pretty magnets: I hang photos, cards I’ve received, favourite quotes, and special drawings from the kids.  I like being able to change photos with the seasons without having to go through the hassle of finding or hanging frames.

Bathroom

In 3 out of our 4 bathrooms we have photos printed on canvas.  It’s a great spot for beach or vacation photos and I appreciate how durable the canvas is in the damp environment.  If a canvas gets splashed it’s easy to wipe it down and I’m not worried about them falling off the walls and shattering on the file floors.  

Bedrooms

I quickly learned that kid’s interests change as quickly as Canadian weather and so rather than themed bedrooms, I’ve decorated the boys rooms with their favourite photos of themselves.  I chose colourful frames and canvas to hang on their walls and display on their shelves.

Photo ledges

A photo ledge is a great display option when you want to show off a collection of images without having to frame and hang them.  My husband recently installed a photo ledge above our front hall closet, where I have space for 4-5 images at a time.  I plan to use the space to display my seasonal photos and since I placed the photos in white mats it’s easy for me to switch out the images whenever I want.

Kitchen

When we moved into our house I considered storing beautiful bowls and vases above our kitchen cabinets but quickly realized I had no interest in washing and cleaning them on a regular basis to keep them dust free.  I’ve turned the empty space above our cabinets into display for photos and have done the same with high cabinets and dressers in other rooms.  

Sara McConnell is the mom to three boys and an award winning professional photographer specializing in maternity, newborn and family photography. When she's not behind her camera, drinking too much tea, in the pool or at the beach you can find her on Facebook, Instagram and on her website.

Reining in Kid Chaos: Organization Tips for the Busy Family

I have no problem admitting that I am a neat freak.  While having three boys has, shall we say, lowered my tidiness standards, I still love nothing more than a functional organizational system or a good purge.  Working from home means that If the house is in chaos I spend my entire day  cringing as I walk through, around, or over the mess, not to mention the challenges that come along with trying to keep our main floor, where my photography studio is located, tidy and clean for clients.  At the end of the day all I’m trying to do is save my sanity by coming up with solutions to manage our clothes, toys, and “life” so that I can spend more time with my family rather than cleaning up after them.

After 11 years of motherhood I’ve tried many different ways to reign in the kid chaos and I’m happy to share six of my favourites with you!

Storage bags

We have tried plastic bins, plastic drawers, small containers, big containers, and after all of those attempts I finally broke down and invested in several large canvas bags to store our thousands of pieces of Lego.  Our attempts to keep the Lego separated into categories or types was futile: with three kids and friends rummaging through our collection it ended up being more work trying to get the Lego back into it’s separate bins.  What I like about the canvas drawstring bags is that they spread out flat on the floor, which means there’s room for everyone to access the pile of Lego and they can rummage to their heart's content without tripping over bins.  I invested in Swoop bags and have been impressed with their durability.  Similar designs are also available on Etsy and via local businesses.  

Repurposed shoe storage

Shelves that are 12 inches deep are a haven for dust and beanie boos.  My son absolutely adores his stuffed animal collection but I struggled to find a way to store all his little friends.  He was forever misplacing his stuffed toys or pulling out shelves worth of them to find one particular animal.  I ended up hanging a fabric shoe organizer on the front and back of his bedroom door to house all his stuffed animals.  I love that it keeps his toys off the floor and that he can see all of them at a glance.   

Art supplies

Our kitchen table is inevitably littered with scraps of paper, markers, and crayons.  For several years I had a separate bag or plastic container for each type of art supply (markers, crayons, pencil crayons, pencils) but was tired of putting them away at dinner time when I needed to clean off the table.  I recently bought a caddy that matches the colours of our kitchen and purged their collection of dried out markers down so that all the drawing supplies fit into the one container.  Now that the supplies are readily accessible I find that they are using them more often but it’s also easier for them to put them away since there is only one place to storage their drawing tools.  

Treasures

One of our sons is a self-identified crow.  He loves to collect treasures, which means a washing machine full of surprises and a bedroom floor that will fell the toughest of souls who dare try to cross it in the dark.  After several attempts to reign in his collection of bottle caps, acorns, marbles, paper clips, earrings, corks (the list goes on and on), I bought a storage drawer with drawers.  Now he can see his treasures in the clear plastic drawers and we can direct him where to stash his latest find.  It means we’re not always on the hunt for missing items and I haven’t stepped on a bottle cap in months!

Works of art

I have no problem admitting that I don’t want dozens of pieces of paper taped to my kitchen fridge and office walls.  Three creative kids means piles and piles of artwork is produced at home and school and I’ve managed to contain it to their bedrooms, which felt like a parenting coup d’etat.  We purchased magnetic kitchen storage (the kind that holds knives and utensils) for all three boys rooms.  All their artwork is displayed proudly in their rooms and with several rows of magnets, they have plenty of room to show off their creations.  

Photo clues

After hearing my preschool son complain “but I don’t know where it goes” in reference to toys he was asked to tidy up, I started printing photos for the fronts of all our toy bins.  Not only can they see which bin they want from our shelves but when it’s time for them to clean up they know where toys belong.

Sara McConnell is the mom to three boys and an award winning professional photographer specializing in maternity, newborn and family photography. When she's not behind her camera, drinking too much tea, in the pool or at the beach you can find her on Facebook, Instagram and on her website.

Take the stress out of food prep with Supperworks

I don't know how meal planning and dinnertime go at your house, but at my house... well, let me just put it this way - it's not my favourite time of day.

Between picky kids, a lack of inspiration for meal planning and hectic weekdays, I resort to cereal or fish sticks and fries far more than I ever would have expected of myself (and like to admit).

I tried the food delivery boxes, and while they were great because it saved me having to come up with the recipes and do the shopping (and I won't lie, throwing out all kinds of food I bought, meant to cook, and instead let go bad), it was still quite a lot of work in terms of prep each day.

I recently got to try Supperworks during a special blogger event and fell a little bit in love, so I thought I'd share a few of my favourite things about the experience.

1) No peeling and chopping

Peeling and chopping isn't hard... but it takes a long time. I loved that as I went up to each station, the only thing I needed to do was take the amount of an ingredient and put it into the containers outlined on the simple instructions.

The green onions were chopped, the garlic was minced, the protein was already portioned out exactly as it needed to be. (Bonus: much less chance of accidentally grating your hand instead of the cheese when a kid walks in shouting a loud question at you when you're not expecting it!)

2) Almost no dishes

The only dishes are the things you need to cook the food and to eat the food. There are no knives and cutting boards, and measuring cups and spoons and mixing bowls. I often feel like a tornado has hit my kitchen after I've spent a few hours cooking and by then I don't feel like CLEANING up the mess I made - I was just so productive in MAKING the food. Supperworks means I don't have to do the dishes after putting together my meals, and I wish I could give the store a big hug  just for that!

3) No thinking required

I think a lot - while I'm working, while I'm trying to make sure our family life stays on track and remember who is supposed to be at what activity when, and what forms I still need to send in to the school, and whether or not I RSVPed to those birthday party invitations.

Having every step of this figured out for me so that I can just walk in and follow simple steps to achieve success - it's just such a nice break for my brain.

4) Portion options

A family sized meal is meant for 4-6 people, and it's quite generous. My kids are pretty good eaters (since last year they all doubled and tripled how much they eat!) so the meal size was great for everyone (with a little bit left over for one extra lunch). If your kids are not big eaters then for a small extra fee you can split all the meals into two, and the stations are set up so you can switch the recipes to instructions for making smaller doubles, and all the tools and containers are readily available for splitting things. These half sized portions now just doubled how many meals you get, and feed a family with no kids or little kids who don't eat very much.

5) You don't even have to assemble it if you don't want to

Supperworks is set up so that you can come in, on your own or with friends, and assemble your meals. I'm planning to gather a group of friends to do this soon in fact, because I think it can be a fun (and so easily justified to those of us who have a hard time taking time for ourselves) night out for friends. But, let's say you don't have the time, or you don't feel like gathering a group of friends and you don't really want to devote the hour or so it would probably take to make the 6-12 meals, you can just pay $25-40 (depending on how many meals you're making) and they'll assemble them for you. And I totally plan to do that if I'm not hanging out with my friends - worth every penny. Or, go in and see what they've pre-prepared and got waiting in the freezer right now.

The food was delicious too - did I mention that? The Flat Irons MELTED in our mouths (my two meat eater kids were ready to battle it out with my husband and I on who got more of it), the coleslaw may be one of my new favourite things ever, and you can mix and match all kinds of extra sides from the freezer at front of the store.

Healthy meals with good variety (including vegetarian options) that are easy for me to prepare was pretty much the most important thing for me to figure out better systems for in our life, because it was dragging me down like nobody's business. I can't wait to stock up our freezer with all kinds of healthy meals that are easy for me to prepare - and I think some of them are even easy enough for my ten year old to prepare too!

Supperworks has a special promotion going on right now called Suppersavers (limited quantities so I wouldn't dally) for a $100 voucher for $50. They are store specific, so pick the best location for you (Kanata, Nepean or Orleans) and grab a voucher - there's no better way to try out Supperworks than with $50 off!

If you have been to Supperworks before, leave a comment below and let us know what you thought, and what your favourite not to be missed meals are!

Thanks again to Supperworks Ottawa for the opportunity to check out how everything works - I'll definitely be back!

* Supperworks provided Kids in the Capital with 2 free meals and the experience of using their service. All thoughts are our own.