How to survive the school run

You’d think that by my fifth year of doing school runs I’d be past the last minute scrabbling around for P.E. kits and water bottles, but it doesn’t seem to work that way, if anything we’re getting more disorganised by the day.

Back in September I promised myself that this year would be different, promised myself that I’d be THAT organised Mum everything else wants to be. I’d be nicely dressed, hair brushed, make up on, smartly dressed children obediently following behind me carrying their own bags, hair in beautiful french braids, skipping together, holding hands. Unfortunately the picture more usually involves me carrying two rucksacks, two water bottles and tripping up over coats no one wants to wear, while the girls walk at a snail’s pace behind me, dropping hair clips and bits of paper as they go. On an especially bad day, we do hair in the car after dropping Zak off. Sometimes we ( and I’m including myself in the ‘we’ ) do skip, but only if we’re running very  late as it’s the easiest way to get Hannah to move a bit faster. To be fair, we’ve never actually been late, but there have been a couple of close calls over the last week or so.

When Zak first started school, I went through a phase of arriving 20 minutes early to get the good car parking spot, but that didn’t last long and really, who wants to spend 20 minutes sat in a freezing cold car in the middle of Winter, by the end of his Year 1 I’d perfected the art of arriving late enough to catch the parking spot of an early bird but still manage to run him into school on time.

There was one lovely year when everyone was at the same school where we parked halfway and scooted up the cycle path straight to the door, it was amazing, no crossing fingers hoping for a good parking spot, no roads to worry about, just a clear path ( let’s forget about the teenagers on giant bikes and three little kids on scooters )

So far this year we haven’t been early enough to scoot and I’ve mostly been playing the dangerous game of arriving just in time and hoping for the best…most of my problems lie in the fact that we have to drive to school and none of my children seem to share my sense of urgency at leaving the house…

However here are my top tips to make life a bit easier, I just need to take my own advice.

Lie out clothes the night before, double check for socks, ties etc.

Pack  for extracurricular activities the night before – do not ever think you might have time in the morning.

Make sandwiches for packed lunches the night before – are you seeing a pattern here?

Keep an umbrella, extra hair clips and bands in the car, in fact keep extra hair clips in your pocket and a brush if you have enough room.

Have waterproof clothes handy by the front door, rain has a strange habit of starting around 8.30am and 3pm. We especially like these from Kozi Kids. Sydney is modelling the Koster Randig Rain Set. It’s perfect for popping over uniform keeping her clean and dry until she gets into the classroom. I especially like the elasticated braces and reflectors which are so handy to have on these cold, dark days.

Reply to party invitations, school letters etc as you receive them.

Keep a stash of craft items around the house for last minute making of firework hats etc.

Do you have any school run tips for me?

We were sent the Kozi Kids Rain Set free of charge