Helping Children Transition Back to School: FREE printable cards

It’s that time of year again. Time to transition into the Back to School routine. Just because we homeschool doesn’t mean we don’t have to make the big Back to School adjustment in our lives. I have found it very important to have a morning routine or we might be in our pajamas at lunch time!

This summer our routine has undergone a big shake-up! With my trip to Cambodia smack in the middle of our summer, our schedule is way off course. I don’t want to slip into my nagging ways so I’ve created a little plan for transitioning into our Back to School schedule. We will begin with reviewing our morning jobs and this year I’m adding nighttime jobs for the children.

Print these FREE cards: My Morning Jobs

Original Post: Back to School with Morning Jobs

Back to School Morning Routine

1.  Revisit our morning jobs

• Over the weekend, I explained to the children that we are going to get ready for Back to School.
• We did a review of our simple morning jobs.

2.  Our morning jobs are posted inside our homeschool closet.

• I do not nag the children.
• I simply remind the children, “Have you done all of your morning jobs?”

3. I reward the children!

• If the children do all of their morning jobs without a reminder from me, they are rewarded with a homeschool dollar.
• Yes, this is a bribe, I mean a reward for positive behavior.
• Yes, this reward works.

4. FREE time!

• When all morning jobs are finished, the children get FREE time!
• They can play with any toys.
• They can watch a movie or one T.V. program.
• When school starts, we will be doing homeschool, rather than having FREE time.

Print this FREE homeschool money: Homeschool Money

Original Post: Positive Reinforcement for Children at home and in the classroom

Print these cards FREE: My Nighttime Jobs

Back to School Nighttime Routine

1.  Introduce bedtime jobs

• I only focused on morning jobs this first week, letting those become an easy routine.
• Next week I’ll introduce nighttime jobs.
• Our nighttime jobs are very similar to our morning jobs.

2. The Nighttime jobs will be posted along side our morning jobs.

• No nagging the children.
• I’ll simply remind the children, “Have you done all of your nightly jobs?”
• The children will check the cards themselves.

3.  Consistent bedtime

• A few weeks before school begins, the children start going to bed a little earlier each night.
• Gradually changing the bedtime is easier than suddenly announcing, “Sunday night you’re going to bed early!”

4. Bedtime books reward

• Daddy reads books to the children every night.
• The children loooooooooove snuggling and reading with Daddy at bedtime.
• If the children do not finish their jobs, they do not get to read with Daddy. (That never happens!)
• The children are also allowed to read books in their beds.
• Reading books with Daddy and in bed gives the children a quiet time to unwind from the day.
• Miss Enigma, age 5, is not reading independently; however, she looks at the pictures in her books and has many of the stories memorized.

The children never complain about going to bed. They are accustom to our bedtime routine and enjoy ending their day with books.

Let me know if you need different job cards. I’ll be happy to make them and post them.

Life with Jeannine