Back to school after the long summer holidays

September is here, and the beginning of the summer seems like an awfully long time ago. We were lucky enough to enjoy two amazing holidays this summer - a last-minute cruise at the beginning of July and then a long delayed trip to Florida and Disney World in late August. In the middle unfortunately I was mostly recovering from Covid so we didn't get up to much!

Because we have such intensive (and of course expensive) holidays away, when we are at home I don't feel the need to take the children out and about too much, or to fill their time with pricey days out and activities. Luckily like me they are quite content to stay at home. Harry has been spending lots of time on Minecraft building all sorts of complicated projects and Mia can occupy herself for hours with her coloured pens and stationery collection. We had a major sort out in Harry's room which took almost a week here and there, and I've also had time to get on with my work when it was available.

But now it's time for us all to get back into a proper routine, in particular with reasonable bedtimes and a reduction in screen time. Mia will be starting at the senior school this year which is quite a change for her. Luckily it's a small school, Harry is already there, and many of the children in her classes will be the ones that she has come up from junior school with. Harry is going into Year 9 and I'm assuming that at some point soon he'll have to make some decisions about which GSCE subjects he wants to take, although he already has a pretty clear idea.

Photo credit Elena Mozhvilo via Unsplash

I'm not looking forward to the return of the school run, which I find quite stressful as it involves driving through the traffic and then finding somewhere to park. I'm also not very fond of making packed lunches. And I miss the children when they are at school, I like having them around to chat to and see what projects they are working on.

Over the weekend I shared some of my September goals, and I enjoy having a few goals to work towards. I've set up a habit tracker with three new daily habits - declutter ten items, do a short tummy exercise routine and write a blog post. So far so good! Although I'm already struggling with the decluttering, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to keep it up!

Fingers crossed it will be a smooth back to school for us all.