Back To School Checklist For Parents

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If you have made a decision to send your child back to school, this back to school checklist for parents is for you. To help bring us back to basics, and give a sense of normalcy for the kids and some peace of mind for you, momma. 

Grab your free Back To School Checklist below that has all of the resources mentioned here in this blog post to help keep you organized.

Whether you are going back to school or homeschooling it seems as though the preparation for that first day is a daunting project all on its own. There are so many tasks and preparations to make in order to be completely prepared for back to school and feel good about it.

I took some time to think of every single “back to school to do” task I can think of for you and compiled them all into one easy checklist so that you can make sure you are prepared for another new school year.

This list is particularly geared towards moms sending their children to a public/privcate school away from home. I did not touch on the preparations for homeschooling, although several of these tips will still be relevant for that choice.l 

Schedule Appointments (6 WEEKS BEFORE SCHOOL)

Before you get started on this list, make sure you check out my free printable Summer Bucket List. This huge list was designed to ensure you have PLENTY of memorable and fun times during the summer before you have to start thinking about back to school activities.

SCHEDULE EARLY. Schedule appointments for the doctors, dentist/orthadonist and ophthalmologist in June, so you can get scheduled for July. If you have multiple kids, this will give you the chance to get all of your children to each of their prospective doctors within the given weeks available so you can make sure you dont need any follow up appointments etc.

SUMMER APPOINTMENTS. This can be time consuming and take a lot of your time out of work. You dont want to have to do this during the school year and pull your kids out of class to do this, which can create a rush or stress. Get these over with now so that you can focus on work during the school year and know peacefully that you have taken care of all of your childrens medical needs. 

Save those doctor days for real sick days that your child may get sick and you will have to leave work early to take them to the doctor. 

Appointments to Complete:

• Immunizations and yrly physical appointment and records for school
• Hair cuts
• Dentist and/or Orthondontist
• Eye exam
• Special needs doctors/Medication re-fills

SPECIAL APPOINTMENTS. Any other special appointments relevant to you and your childs situation completed and out of the way so you dont have to think about them during the busy school year. You can focus on them next summer.

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Get Shopping  – (ONE MONTH BEFORE SCHOOL)

LIST. Make a list of everything you will need for each child including clothing, shoes, school supplies, etc. Print out your childs school supplies list form the school website. If you have multiple children, like I do, make a spreadsheet of every item needed with the quantity and name of child so that way you dont get confused about all the double supplies you have to buy. 

ORDER ONLINE. Decide on what you can order online and order as much as you can online. After doing some research, Target and Amazon are the best places to shop online for quality, price, and shipping rates. Below I have linked a few what I consider the BEST quality and best-priced products for stocking up for back to school.

Here are some ideas of items you will want to make sure you get.

• Create a list of clothing you will need. Be sure to include hair accessories, undergarments, and extra shoes of different types. Do this for each child.
• First Day of school outfit
• Picture Day outfit
• Shoes for each season and sports shoes if playing sports
• Backpacks and lunch kits
• Locker Accessories
• School supplies
• Lice prevention

Stock Pile (3 WEEKS BEFORE SCHOOL)

Before you get shopping, make sure you check out this entire list of MUST HAVE back to school necessities that you can easily stock up on by clicking right HERE. This list is the best of the best when it comes to lice prevention, pencils, notebooks and more. I’ve compiled every back to school essential you could possibly grab all in one swoop to make things a little easier and faster for you.

SHOP EARLY. You’ll want to go shopping as early as possible for getting your back to school item. This time of the year the stores get overpicked and super crowded. You don’t want to be scrambling to find that one purple folder with brads and a plastic pocket before they are all completely sold out. 

WHOLESALE STOCKPILE. I recommend going to a membership store like Sam’s Club or Costco and stocking up on food that will last your family a month. The first month of school is always the businest and the most overwhelming until things settle down into a good groove.  The last thing you want to do is worry that you don’t have anything to pack in your kids lunch boxes in the middle of a crazy week. 

Stock up on:

• Extra school supplies to keep at home for homework and projects
• Non-perishable, healthy snacks for afterschool and lunch kits
• Essential items such as ziplock baggies, meal prepping containers, waterbottles, etc.
• Lice prevention products

Preparation (1 WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL)

• Label all belongings going to school (lunchkits, jackets, backpacks, pencil bag, etc.)
• Create your school paperwork folder/station and a designated homework station. 
• Gather all school emails, flyers, handouts and information provided by the teachers such as calendars, schedules and lists. Keep all in one folder for convenience. 
• Copy the school calendar important dates and events into your family calendar/planner
• If a teacher has given out their phone number, email or provided an app to use to keep in touch, enter all of that information into your phone as soon as possible. 
• Make sure you are signed up for your school’s Parent Access Portal so you can easily check your childs progress, grades, attendance and any other special instructions from the school.
• Set up your childs lunch account if that needs to be done online and add money to the account.
• Find out when your meet the teacher date is fro your school website and schedule to go plus ask if you can bring your school supplies then and drop them off
• Finish all summer projects that you wanted to complete before the first day of school such as cleaning out and reorganizing your childs clothing and bedroom, repainting their bathrooms, getting more organized in the home etc.
• If your child had any summer homework or projects, make sure they are finished by this week and packed into their bags (reading assignments, math packets, etc.)
• Decide if you are going to be a volunteer or a room mom THIS week. Will it fit into your schedule? Don’t over commit yourself. If you have any doubt that you can’t be held responsible for school parties and field trips, do not sign up. If being a room mom is your forte and you take it on year after year, this is your time to shine and get in line! Sign up at Meet The Teacher night.

KEEPSAKES. Every summer, I go through all of my kid’s “keepsake” items that we saved throughout the previous school year and I file them in their School Boxes into the prospective folder for that grade year. 

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This allows me to keep just the really special things like report cards, awards, special grades, notes from teachers etc. all tucked away nicely into one box for each child. Organized of course.

And one day, I hope that it will be like a time capsule to look at when they get older. Maybe even keep the tradition going into their family. Who knows! A mom can dream right.

EXTRA CURRICULARS. Get extra curricular activities secured with athletic gear, musical instruments, and other requirements if your child is participating in the school programs. 

Make sure all of that paper work is turned in for sports, etc.

BACK TO SCHOOL MEALS. Let’s talk easy, back to school meals for a minute. I have a quick win for this. Generate a list of your favoritemeal ideas in no particular order. Braind dump 20 possible meals you could potentially pull from onto a sheet of paper. 

I have a big list here for you inthe trello back to school trello board for you to pull from. 

Dont set yourself up for a strict meal plan. That’s too hard to stick too sometimes and you dont want to add any extra undue stress over meals. Keep a “bucket”  of meal ideas to pick and choose from. Just decide the night before from that list. Pull the meat and preppihg tasks (such as do you need to set the crockpot up before work that day, etc.) and write itn down in your planner what you are having the next day from your meal bucket.

ORDER GROCERIES ONLINE. Once you have a good list of meals, make a grocery list of items you’ll need to purchase to make those meals. Go ahead and order your groceries online and have them delivered or ready for pick up. This way you have automated it and you don’t have to go do it yourself while you are busy taking care of other tasks during your back to school preparation. 

Before and After School Preparation (THE WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL)

TO AND FROM SCHOOL. If you need a specific plan for getting your child to school (like riding the bus, carpooling, etc.) now is the time to set that up as well as your after school plan. 

Will your child need to go to an after school program? Will grandma need to pick your kids up? Do you need to sign your kids up for the bus? Both before and after school? Let them know the plan and get it set in stone now.

STRANGER DANGER. Make sure your child knows the plan for each day as well. Talk about stranger danger. Create a password with your child. You’ll want to teach them that if anyone doesn’t know the password, they should never get in the car, even if they are a good friend of yours. This is teaching them best practices for safety. 

SLEEP/WAKE ROUTINES. Start working on the new bedtime routine. No electronics after 8pm, lights out at 9:30pm. Everyone in their own beds. 

On that same note, start waking them up at the time they would need to get up for school. Do they need to catch the bus at 7am? Wake them up at 6am this entire week to get used to it. 

Wrap It Up (WEEKEND BEFORE SCHOOL)

• Get your “first day of _______ grade” signs printed and framed how you want them.
• Fill out any last-minute registration school forms that need to be turned in. 
• Have bedrooms clean and tidy and all new clothing organized in the closet and drawers. 
• Have a “back to school”  or “end of summer” dinner and celebrate with your family and friends. 
• Start preparing for the first week of meals, the schedule, and other important events. 

The Night Before

• Prepare for the first morning. 
• Decide on breakfast and have it prepped to go. 
• Lay first day outfits out along with everything else for that morning (socks, shoes, jewlery, etc.) 
• Make sure backpacks are packed, everyhing is labled and ready to go by the door. 
• Luches are packed and ready and add a sweet LUNCH NOTE to them. 
• Any last minute to do’s for mom. 
• Get your kids to bed early. 

The First Morning And Week

GET UP EARLY. Wake up before the kids get up. Get yourself ready for the day as soon as you wake up. Be energetic, positive and excited for the kids. You want them to feel good about going to back to school and try to squash those first day jitters. 

BREAKFAST. Eat a good breakfast and pray with your kiddos that morning for a good first day. Ask them how they are feeling and if they want to talk about school. Listen, be attentive and give them your undivided attention.

OUT THE DOOR EARLY. Make sure your kids are up and getting ready for the first day with plenty of time available to get to the school and take pictures. 

There will be a lot of people on the first day, so parking spaces may be limited. You will want to get to the school early. 

PICTURES. Take your pictures! Don’t forget these! They are the most invaluable! You will be so glad you have these when you take those “last day of school “ pictures and you see just how much they have grown in one school year. As soon as you take those first day pictures, create a new photo album in your phone and move those photos over to that album that says “first day of school” so that way they are ready to find on the last day of school.

STRICT AFTER-SCHOOL ROUTINE. During this first week, make sure you have a strict routine down for the minute they walk in the door at home when school is over. Go hard on them this first week. Have a poster board with the rules. The harder you are at first, the easier it will make things on you. 

Create your routine poster board that fits your family schedule and hang it up in your family command center:

• Backpacks, coats and shoes put away, not thrown on couches or beds
• Folders and homework out on the table and ready to complete
• Snack must be approved by mom and eaten before 4:30pm
• Find your chore on the chore chart, complete by 5pm
• Ready to go (said sport) by 5:30pm
• Must shower and have homework finished by 9pm
• 30 minutes of TV 
• Bedtime at 10pm

CONSEQUENCES. Make sure your routine has been discussed thoroughly and consequences known for not following the rules. 

This will make your life so much easier in the afternoons when the entire family is working together in unison to run the household without you having to either do it all yourself or fight with your kids to get it done.

You Did It!

Don’t forget to download your free printable checklist at the top of the post! Having this checklist will give you the peace of mind that you completed every task to get your child back to school in an organized and secure way.

Be sure to pin this blog post to save it for later on your pinterest board so you can come back and revisit the valuable information you read here on the SoCo Blog. When you pin this on pinterest, you are also sharing it even further for other moms to potentially find it and help her get organized as well. Just hover over the photo below until the “pin” button pops up, click on that button and it will take you straight to your pinterest account where you can save this blog post to your boards. 

I hope you have a wonderful school year and that this post helps it go as smoothly as possible.