The only thing better than your first child starting kindergarten is when your last child starts kindergarten. Goodbye pre-school and daycare costs! Hello dance class, piano, soccer, art class, summer camp, PTA, Boosters, Room Parents, and school events every week. Guess we won’t really be saving any money or time. Oh well. On to the next stage of parenthood!

This year, I have a daughter in kindergarten and one in 3rd grade. Getting 2 little girls ready and out the door on time is no easy feat. But there are some ways that make it run a little smoother.

1. Drop Off & Pick-Up Zone
   The girls come home from school and their backpacks go to the drop off zone- which is simply the top of a living room storage cabinet at their height. Here they pull out their folders full of homework and school notices and put their lunch bags in the kitchen. In the morning, the folder and lunch bag go right back in the backpacks in what is now the Pick-Up Zone. Anything else that needs to go out the door also goes here from library books that need to be returned to dry cleaning to take in. No more searching for missing backpacks if the only place it goes is in the Drop Off Zone where it patiently waits to be become the Pick-Up Zone.
2. Think and Plan Ahead
   If you are able to do things the night before, do as much as you can from preparing their lunches to getting your own things ready for work. If you have kids that won’t settle down and go to bed- have them pick out their outfits for the next day, get their backpacks ready, or make some of their lunch. They’ll either do the work and make your morning easier- or suddenly feel too tired to help and go to bed which was what you wanted.
3. Use Timers & Alarms
   I use alarms and timers to keep us on track. They are scheduled on my phone to go off on school days. When the 1st alarm goes off at 7:55am, the girls know it is time to clear their breakfast dishes and start getting ready. When the 2nd alarm goes off at 8:00am, at least one of them better be out of the bathroom. When the 8:15am alarm goes off- I should be finishing up their hair. I don’t think I could get them out the door on time without all these alarms to keep pushing us onward.
4. The Daily Breakdown- Dry Erase Board 
   I use a calendar that syncs with my computer and phone as my calendar, but I also use a dry erase board to write down what is happening that day that pertains to the whole family so we are on the same page. I write it out at night and put it on the kitchen counter. It only takes a minute or two. Writing down what is going to happen the next day really helps me focus and be better prepared. My husband and kids can see that it is early dismissal today, dance class at 4pm or that we need to go to Costco that day. Then we erase as things happen until the day is complete and the board is clear. Whew!

Just getting your kids off to school on time 180 days a year is a major accomplishment. Hopefully these tips will help you win some of those battles even if when the dust clears, you feel utterly exhausted, and realize it is only 8:30am and you still need to go to work. I remind myself that one day my kids won’t need my help and I’ll miss these crazy mornings.

I have organized a lot of things in 16 years, but it wasn’t until my daughter started kindergarten that I found a whole new area to organize. Volunteers. Every school needs volunteers, but getting them and keeping them seems to be a constant problem. As a new “kinder parent” I had no idea what the events were. Event chairs would desperately ask for general volunteers- but I didn’t know what they needed and if I was the right person to help. I needed more information to make better volunteering decisions. I thought the school needed a better system for volunteers- and guess what that means. That means I just volunteered to do it! So three years ago, I created a job that didn’t exist at the school and became the parent Volunteer Coordinator and the learning curve began.

Here are some of the things that worked:

1. Volunteer Sign Up Sheet– I created a form to go home at the start of the school year that lists all the skills we might need during the year from “Work a game or craft booth” to “Make signs or posters,” leaving a space for parents to fill in additional skills they think might be useful. The 2nd time around, we changed the form to put everything in categories like “At School Ongoing Opportunities” and “One-Time Opportunities-Fall” and included all dates of events to help people plan.
2. Database– Everything from the sign up sheet is entered into our volunteer “database” which is a just a Google Spreadsheet. But is serves our purposes perfectly. Other people can input with me at the same time. A simple filter makes it easy to see all the volunteers from one classroom or all the volunteers who said they could help with a particular event. Then I can quickly copy the relevant email addresses and contact those parents with special requests or invitations to sign up.
3. Events from A-Z– Does your school have a bunch of events through the year like Harvest Festival, Jog-a-Thon, or Book Fairs? Make a handy reference guide that lists what and when each event is and what kind of volunteer help is needed. New parents have no idea what events are ahead of time so help them understand.
4. Volunteer Spot– On-line sign-ups make it so much easier! Create an event, pick a date, and decide how many volunteers you need to do specific things at specific times.  Send the link out to the whole school so parents can sign up on their smartphones and computers. They can easily click to “Sell pizza from 6:00-6:30pm”. They get automatic reminders and the coordinator gets to print out a wonderful sign in sheet for the event. Volunteer Spot is free and some schools can get a PTA discount code that upgrades to even more features for free.
5. Sign Up Genius– this is another free sign up program. While I do like SignUpGenius, I think it is better for smaller things like classrooms as opposed to large school functions. My younger daughter’s preschool uses it and it works great for a smaller group.
6. Volunteer Check-In Table– Every large event with lots of volunteers needs a Volunteer Check-In Table. This is where the sign in sheets you printed from VolunteerSpot go so you can make sure your volunteers are there. Have name tags or even better- volunteer lanyards with name tags. Resist the urge to type up nice name tags ahead of time. It creates extra work twice- once to create and print them and then again to hunt for the right name tag. Just have Sharpies and blank name tags and let the volunteers write their names.  You can also have a board that lists where you still need volunteer help at that time. Sometimes people who did not sign up ahead of time drop by to ask what help is needed. This table is command central for an event.
7. Give Each Grade Spots to Fill– Even with VolunteerSpot and volunteer forms, it is still very hard to get all the volunteers needed for a large school event. When you send out a request for volunteers and need 250 spots filled- it seems overwhelming to anyone looking at the sign up. This year, I tried breaking down our first large event and assigning each grade specific booths they were in charge of volunteering for. The size of each grade determined how many spots they would be asked to fill to keep things fair and even. Each grade got their own sign up and a more manageable request to fulfill. It worked really well!
8. Volunteer Captains– I realized that while I knew parents in my grade and their skills, it was too hard for me to know everyone in the school. I asked a parent from each grade to be the Volunteer Captain of their grade so they could work with me and get to know the parents and skills in their grades. From entering the volunteer sign up sheets in the database to working the Volunteer Check-in Table, we now have a great committee of parents focused on volunteers.
9. High School Student Volunteers– Check and see if your local high school requires their students to get service hours. Your school event might be the perfect place for some additional help from older students. Just make sure you train them.
10. Thank yous– The most important thing you can do to get repeat volunteers is to thank them and make them feel appreciated. Whether you have contests to motivate them, add their names to an honor roll, or simply say “Thank You for helping”-  everyone wants to feel appreciated.

Being specific is necessary for successful volunteer recruiting. The more information you can provide about the what, when, where, and how helps busy parents be able to say yes. Planning and organization are crucial to make sure you are not lacking a large amount of volunteers needed to run an event- or turning away people who want to help. I’m still relatively new to this, but the changes we have made at the school have led to more volunteers, smoother events, and a greater sense of community and appreciation. We are still learning though! What volunteer strategies work for your school?

The definition of a co-op is “a cooperative society, business, or enterprise”. They are such a good idea- I am surprised more people don’t try them. Over the holidays, I organized a little child-care co-op among some friends. Four families participated. Each family took everyone’s kids for a day- about 4 or 5 hours, and in return, they got 3 free days to either work, catch up on things, or catch a movie. The kids had a blast playing at a different house each day with different toys and activities. The parents had glorious time to themselves knowing their kids were well cared for and having fun- and it didn’t cost anything! Even the one day we had to watch all 7 kids in our co-op was easier than I expected. Suddenly the two week vacation was over and we never had to wonder what to do to occupy the kids.

Here are some other easy ways to try a co-op:

1. Carpooling– Parents taking turns transporting a group of kids somewhere or co-workers taking turns driving each other is probably the most common type of co-op.
2. Date Nights– You watch my kids one night and I’ll watch your kids another night. The kids get a play date, and you can save the babysitter money for a nice dinner and movie.
3. Dinner– You make a double or triple batch of dinner and share with someone else. They do the same thing. The more people involved in this co-op, the less nights you have to cook dinner and the more new foods you will likely get to try.
4. Chores– You come help me clean out my cabinets and I’ll do the same for you. Chores are more bearable when you do them with someone, and for some reason, it is easier to clean someone else’s house than our own!
5. Organize– Help me tackle my garage and I’ll help you do the same. Some jobs might be too big or overwhelming to do ourselves, but become possible if we get some help.

There are so many ways a co-op can help make a person’s life a little easier and save money. Gather a few people you know and trust and set a few ground rules. Make sure the give and take is even and enjoy a new way to get things done!