Hey everyone! This article on creating an after school system is also a podcast episode found on Parenting in Real Life which can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts.
The chaotic hours
One of the craziest parts of the day for our family is usually between 4pm and 6pm. It’s the chaos of kids coming home and wanting to eat everything in sight AND cooking dinner AND getting homework done AND after school activities.
I’ve come up with an after school system that has been working well for us and as always, I’d love to hear what you do too! Make sure to head over to instagram at alexistannerlane to let me know!
Make it kid time
I spend from about 1:30pm to 4pm working on things around the house and working on my business. I find that if I’m trying to wrap things up as the kids come inside, it doesn’t go well. They want to show me all their papers from school and tell me about their day, but if I’m on my computer, I miss it and they run out the door to play. Or I get frustrated that I still have things to try to finish up. So set an alarm and wrap things up before kids walk through the door so you’re ready for them.
Snack time
My kids are usually starving when they get home from school, but 4pm is getting close to dinner so I have them get a snack right when they get home and then the kitchen is closed before dinner. I try to be as strict as possible with this, but realistically with 5 kids, there’s usually a kid or two that sneaks a snack later that I miss. We even have a lock on our pantry! But for the most part, I like them to grab a quick snack right when they get home.
Set expectations
One of the most important things in an after school system is setting expectations. My kids know they can’t come home, throw their backpacks on the floor, then run out the door to play (but sometimes they run out anyway and I have to call them back in). They each have things they need to do before play time. I like to keep it reasonable and only require 30 minutes. This is how I break it up:
- 10 minutes of reading: Our school asks us to do 20 minutes of reading and my older girls do because they do reading before bed, but my son is also practicing Chinese and can’t read on his own quite yet, so we’re sticking to 10 minutes and I feel great about it. Because he’s just learning how to read, if we spend much more time than this, he starts to get a bit crazy.
- 10 minutes of music practice (or Chinese): My 1st grader isn’t doing music yet so he practices his Chinese vocabulary, but my daughters are a bit older and are doing music lessons so they practice. Again, more than 10 minutes is probably better, but this is how things are right now. Sometimes they’ll practice a little more on their own if they’re enjoying the songs.
- 10 minutes of playing with the dog: This is so she can get some energy out and attention too. Usually our dog is super excited to see the kids when they get home so this let’s them play with her before they go outside.
We set timers and rotate as needed. If your kids are a bit older and more responsible, they can also do some of these things in the morning. My daughters will often do their music practice in the morning. I use the morning time to exercise so I can’t be checking up on them which is why my 1st grader has to do everything after school. Set an after school system that works best for your family.
Plan easy meals
My favorite meals to plan are ones in the crockpot that I can prep in the morning and then don’t really have to do anything for before we eat. But not all the recipes I have are crockpot meals.
So Alan and I recently came up with a list of 20 some odd different meals that MOST our whole family likes – you can’t please everyone. These are recipes I’ve made often and are less stress. I love making new recipes, but this just isn’t the season right now.
I keep a list on my phone so when I’m meal planning each week, I can look through my list and quickly pick out our meals. It saves me time when planning and time when cooking.
Meal planning is key to saving time! I sit down every week on Thursdays and plan out dinners for the following week. I also order my groceries online and go pick them up the following day. Walmart is free and Smiths (Kroger) is free right now. I prefer Smiths. I also go to their website and can see what I purchased the week before and click on each item that I need again and it adds it to my cart. It’s a total time saver!
Here’s my list of go to meals. I’ve linked to the recipes I use. A few that aren’t linked are family recipes that are in my cookbooks, but I’m sure there’s something similar on Pinterest if you want to for search it.
Tacos
Spaghetti
Chicken, potatoes, and green beans
Salmon with honey mustard sauce
Swedish Meatballs – double and freeze for another week
Enchiladas – double and freeze
Chicken Pot Pie – double and freeze the filling (for a quick prep tip, use pre-made pie crust)
Sloppy Joe Pizza
Chili and cornbread
Skinny Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo
Skillet Sausage and Zucchini (we add whole wheat noodles)
Baked potato bar
Breakfast for dinner on Saturdays (this is always a family favorite)
Sundays I do fancier meals that take a little more time since I usually have more time.
I hope that helps your afternoon go a bit more smoothly if it’s been chaotic. And maybe your afternoons might look a bit differently because you’re doing distance learning, but I believe in schedules and plans and I know kids usually thrive on them too. So if life is feeling crazy, try coming up with an after school system (or after online learning system) that fits your family and see if that helps takes some of the chaos out of your day.
What’s your go to dinner recipe?