How to organise your children’s activities?
Do you need to organize your everyday life? If you haven't done so, click here to receive advice from other organized parents. And don't forget to download the free app Coorganiz, to easily share your calendar, useful documents and the important things to do.
… Ah, the children’s activities!
The annual conundrum comes up next week and you have promised yourself that you are not going through last year’s rigmarole again: too complicated, too far away, no fun… and that’s an understatement, between the badly timed judo class and the dance class that is 30 minutes away by public transport.
Here are few good organisational ideas that are simple to implement to take the weight of the children’s activity timetable off your mind.
Stay local: recognise that there are logistical limits before the worst happens. No, you cannot drive your daughter to dance class on Tuesday evening after work and wait there for an hour until it’s over because it’s too far to drive home again while the class is on. Sophie, who has three children, chooses activities in relation to the travel time: “The result is that my children didn’t give anything up during the year. The journeys are short, so nobody gets fed up!”
Share the load: try to do just one of the trips (there or back again). The Coorganiz App exists to share timetables, with the option of who drops off and who picks up. You, your partner, your mother, a classmate’s parent… there is always an option for reducing the number of trips. And the automatic reminder is there to reduce stress: at the right moment, your partner will be reminded to collect your son after music tonight.
The magic bag: Pauline has a bag for each child and each activity. “I hang the bags in their room and I put the clean clothes into each one directly, along with a little snack. We don’t prepare the football or dance bag the night before or on the way out the door. Everything is always in the bag.”
Motivation: perhaps your children aren’t very enthusiastic? No pressure – sometimes one activity per week is enough, or not even one if there are a lot of things going on in school. Lightening the timetable can also be carried out by being realistic about their enthusiasm as well as what is possible for you. Learning to play the piano is also about doing a little work at home every evening… and even if you get into the habit of cooking dinner to music (with the occasional bum note at first), it’s an activity that you will be doing with your child every single day…
Fun: activities are both opportunities and a cause for celebration, not a chore! “It’s a special moment with each child during a week in which we don’t see each other enough, or always with other members of the family”, confides Marie.
So, don’t get into a tizzy, organise together for the journeys and all of the competitions!
The Coorganiz App is there to help your with shared timetables.
It’s a good start towards better communication!
For other advice and tips about getting the back to school season off on the right foot:
HOW TO GET BACK INTO THE SWING OF THINGS WITHOUT GETTING TIRED
