School Bags

We are back to school again and I have decided that school bags are the bane of my existence.

Sebastian has a school bag for his judo kit, a school bag for his swimming kit, a school bag for his games kit, a school bag for his gym kit. He has to remember to bring his spelling and pianos in his book bag on Fridays. Plus he's got to remember his hat, his cap and his blazer.

The school encourages us as parents to let the child to the remembering themselves. I can barely remember my mobile phone when I walk out of the house in the mornings but I was wiling to give it a go.

First, some mothers recommended we send all the bags in on Monday and bring them all back home on Friday. Watching Sebastian try to carry all that was an exercise in the ridiculous. Besides, it made the laundry pile for the weekend nearly insurmountable. And I had to do all the laundry over the weekend to have all the bags ready again on Monday morning. Not going to happen in our house!

So I made up a little chart of what needs to go and when. This works most mornings.

Then the school encouraged us to let the children pack the bags themselves.

That's all a bit much and pushed me over the edge. My husband and I have trouble remembering that black shorts are required for ballet and red socks are required for games. Now I find myself making up charts for the contents of each bag.

My refrigerator is covered with charts of what happens when and what we need. My head is going to explode.

Thank goodness for big refrigerators!