Back to School Plansby Miriam Caldwell | More from this Blogger 14 Aug 2009 08:50 AM One of the best parts about sending the kids back to school is that it is the prefect time to change your family routine. It is a time that you can recommit yourself and your family to things such as family prayer and scripture study as well as family home evening. Here are some back to school scheduling and planning trips that will prevent the most important things from being lost in the shuffle. First it is important to set aside a specific time each day that you will have family prayer and scripture study. It may be before school or it may be at dinnertime or when your youngest goes to bed. For scripture study try to make sure that everyone is there and participates each day. This may mean that you children have to be home a bit earlier than most people or come home to eat dinner and then go back out, but your family will benefit from the experience. Second it is important to have prayer with your children each morning before they leave for school. If you have children in seminary, and children still in elementary school they may not all wake up at the same time. Instead of interrupting the youngest children's sleep, do a morning family prayer in waves. Kneel and pray with each set of children as you send them off on their day. If you remember to pray for absent family members it can still bring a sense of unity to your day. Third determine how you and your children will handle extracurricular activities and lessons. This is important to decide before they hit high school, so that they will know what to expect. You may want to put a condition on their participation that they must continue to attend mutual on the weeknights as well as church on Sundays. The importance you put on these activities determine how much your children place on them. If you have a child in seminary, then you need to do everything now to help them make it to class each morning. It is difficult to get up by yourself and drive yourself to seminary when it is dark out every morning. If you can get up with your children and encourage them to attend, that will help. It is also important that your teenagers get adequate rest. Do what you can to encourage them to go to bed early and to eat well so that they can make it through the year. Sometimes missing one day to catch up on sleep will prevent them from missing a week or more due to illness. Related Articles:
Learn more about Miriam Caldwell  Miriam is a SAHM mom of three children. She has a daughter who is seven, and two sons, four and two. She loves being a parent and spending time with her children. Relevantlds tags User Comments FUSEingFamilies (10) 05 Sep 2009 11:13 AMHI, Miriam, You made some great suggestions for parents to review. It really is better to make decisions in advance about how you handle a situation before you find yourself in that situation. I posted an article about families and how September is a good time to review your schedule and to make sure that you add your family time to your weekly calendar of events. I invite you to come and meet us at our family community http://fuseathome.ning.com/. You have some great thought to share with other families. Leisa Olson Discuss this article
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