If you’re like most of my friends, your kids are going back to school soon. If you’re like me however, you’ve still got over a month to find things for them to do. I get a little worried with these super long summer breaks that we have, so I start preparing my kids for school around a month before it starts back. How do you start preparing kids for school? I’ll share my ideas with you today, and I hope you’ll share yours with me.

Preparing Kids For School: My Way

As a working mom, it’s hard to start preparing kids for school when you’re at a full time job all day and you want to be able to have fun with them at night when you get home. If you’re lucky and have a wonderful babysitter (or mom, grandma, or other family member who watches them) then you can send a workbook with them to work on for about an hour or two each day.

For me, the workbooks are great. I have everything organized and together in one convenient place, but if you would prefer to not buy a workbook, you can always find free printables online with a simple google search.

My kids are going into second and fourth grade, so to give them a head start on what they’ll be doing this year, I’ve ordered workbooks for them accordingly. Our goal is to complete 4 worksheets per day, with at least 80% correct, and I give them special treats when they get 100% on all of them.

Now, you might want to know how I get them to do these worksheets. I’ll tell you, it’s not easy. I have struggled with this for a long time. I talked to my sister about it, and she came up with a wonderful idea. Pay them for their work. Now, depending on their age and understanding of money, you can come up with your own price. For my kids, it’s $.25 per worksheet with 80% or more correct answers. This way they have an incentive to do their best possible work… And it only costs me $1.00 per kid per day if they do their best.

So, now that you know my secret for preparing kids for school, can you tell me yours?