5 Tips How to Enjoy the Back-to-School Season

Note: this post is compensated and part of Splash Creative Media campaign on behalf of eBay.

Back-to-school stress? You bet!

Back-to-school time can be very stressful, I get it. My children started in the new school this spring and while they were in the new school for a few months, it almost feels like they are starting in a new school. They have forgotten some of the Swedish they learned earlier this year, and will also be transferring to new classes with new teachers and new classmates. So on the top of the normal back to school stress.. I am dealing with the language barrier, new school and new culture stress.

Thanks for asking, I’m actually doing pretty well. We are focusing on enjoying the last days of summer and making school start fun.

5 tips how to enjoy the back-to-school season

1. Plan school lunches
Have a brainstorming session and recipe hunt with your kids to think of new lunch ideas for the school year. Practice some lunches – and if your child is old enough, teach her/him to make her own lunch. My kids love being in charge and the responsibility they have, and I love the less stress for me.

2. Personalize and add name tag
Have a name tag session! Let your kids help you to add stickers, labels, write their name with a Sharpie.. you name it (pun intended). Kids will love creating name tags for their school supplies and making them more personalized at the same time.

3. Eat breakfast out
Ok, not everyday! But make the back-to-school time special by treating kids to a special breakfast out on a school morning. My oldest one went to a different school than my youngest two last year, and we had a good 30 minutes in between dropping the big sister each morning. Some of our fondest memories from last fall are the times we sneaked into a coffee shop before school to eat muffins. Also.. my biggest stress was not having a bad hair day, so it did make the morning less stressful.

4. Get good tunes
School drop off time and carpool is soooo much nicer when you all agree on the music. Create a playlist together with all of the best songs of the summer, especially the ones with memories, and enjoy the music together on the school mornings and afternoons. Who says carpooling could NOT be fun?

5. Shop online & spend more time together
While I love how much money I can save by shopping online, and especially on eBay, the even better part is that I won’t have to go shopping with three kids to buy everything we need for back to school. No tantrums, no meltdowns, and we save money and time when shopping online, and can get an extra rounds of mini-golf and ice cream instead.

eBay Back-to-School Twitter Party

Want to chat more about taking the stress out of this hectic back to school season with other moms and eBay? Join the twitter party! Details below.

Date and time: August 14, 12-2pm PST
Location: www.ebay.com/schoolparty #ebayschool (Please note, you MUST tweet from this link in order to be eligible to win prizes.)
RSVP location: www.ebay.com/schoolparty (Please note: You MUST have RSVPd here in order to be eligible to win prizes.)

MORE PRIZES:
eBay Facebook Instant Win Game – 8/1-8/31 – Play the eBay What’s In Your Backpack Instant Win Game for a chance to win a $50 eBay Gift Card to do some back to school shopping. Hurry, sweeps ends August 31, 2012! Enter here

Disclosure: I am being compensated for this Splash Creative Media campaign on behalf of eBay, all of my opinions are my own, and I have been using eBay for children’s product shopping for about ten years.