August 13, 2024 • 43 mins
Laura and Sarah celebrate back-to-school season with a discussion of all things school-related! They share their own kids' school stages and transitions, and Laura shares a little bit about what it is like to have a college senior (and driving teen with parking permit!). They discuss lunches, back to school shopping, activities, and more. In the Q&A, they discuss the question of when to (and when not to) plan around kids' activities.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician,
writer and course creator. We are two working parents who
love our careers and our families.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
This episode is airing in mid August of twenty twenty four.
This is our annual back to school episode. I believe
we've called it several things, Sarah, how are we over
the past seven years?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Back to school Extravaganza, Bonanza? What else did we do back?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And it does look like we've done a back to
school episode every year for several before Extravaganza and Bonanza,
it was like back to School COVID and then back
to School COVID two point zero or something like that.
And we did do one in twenty nineteen as well,
but I didn't see what that one was called. I
wouldn't be surprised if we recycled Bonanza and Extravaganza, because
I don't remember going back to look in previous years.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, at least it wasn't like back to school Palooza
or something.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I think we've tried that as.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
We saved that for Planner Paluza. Planner Paluza.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, well you know it's uh, you do this for
many years, so we have a upcoming anniversary episode. You
do kind of run through the same titles over and
over and some of the same topics. But back to
school is always an exciting time, and for families with
school age children, it is going to affect all your
(01:53):
household rhythms, schedules. Many people have to completely rework their
schedules at this point. For get kids various places. People
who have jobs that either are flexible where they're changing
some of their hours around to accommodate the school schedules
and activities, or people who don't have a whole lot
of job flexibility need to figure out how that will
all work as well. So it's a big topic and
(02:16):
certainly is for us as well. So Sarah, there is
a little bit of difference though of when people go
to school, When people do go back to school. For me,
this is like what it's back to school? When do
you guys start?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I know, this is a difficult one because I feel
like there's this pressure to get your back to school
content out because some people are very excited to listen
to it in early August because their kids are headed
back to school early, and mine are in that group.
We're not in like the earliest wave. But this year,
our local public actually starts August twelfth, which for South
(02:50):
Florida is actually quite early. Usually when we're like mid August,
and my kids go back somewhere between that and then
the week after, depending on the school in the scenario
as we will discuss. So we're on the pretty early side,
although not the earliest. My dear friend Kelsey, who podcasts
at Girl Nextdoor podcast, her kids go to a public
(03:11):
school in Arizona, and I believe it starts in late July.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Oh my goodness. So they win, they win. We just
keep moving it back and back and back.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Next thing, you know, summer break is starting in a
April or something. I just forget the whole spring break concept.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think they do end early, and they may have
a little bit more of a year round kind of structure,
which is also another school configuration neither Laura nor I
have personal experience with, but is definitely a thing in
some reasons. And so for you guys, back to school
could almost be anytime. Yeah, it could be anytime this
UD we could keep running this episode year round.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah. No, we start September three this year, which is
actually a relatively.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Early start for us.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I'm going to say, because Labor Day happens to be
about as early as Labor Day can be this year,
So it's always the Tuesday after Labor Day, unless we
have a configuration of the major Jewish holidays that bump
up against early September, in which case we have gone
back after the start of Rashashana. So that has pushed
(04:17):
it more to know September eight or nine if it's
been early. But the holidays are later this year, so
Rashashana is in early October, so that doesn't.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Put our start any different. But I feel like you
love when it's late, am I correct? I do.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's just like bonus time because obviously we've had full
time childcare, we have a full time nanny, so it's
not that we're scrambling for coverage for that last time,
and I find that having time into September often allows
us to take some sort of late summer vacation at
a time that is maybe not quite as full in
(04:56):
a lot of places, because many people, as you mentioned,
are going back to school in August twelfth or something
like that, and so I don't know, I like the
idea of still being on summer break into September. We've
got some plans for that this share, which we'll talk
about in future episodes.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
But yeah, it's nine to three this year, Henry is
I think a day or two later. But yeah, we're
headed into it, and for better or for worse, school
schedules will impact our routines. So we're going to discuss
all aspects of this topic in this episode, and hopefully,
(05:34):
even if this is not your first back to school
round with us, or you're back to school round in general,
you'll think of something that will help you make this
transition a little bit more calm and smooth.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I mean, truthfully, I think one of the reasons this
is such a perennial topic is because every year is different,
especially so if you have multiple kids. Because it increases
the likelihood that some going to be having a big
change in any given year. If you've got four different kids,
probably someone is moving from elementary to middle, or middle
(06:07):
to high or whatever. And so I do often feel
to some extent like I am starting from scratch every time.
Obviously this is not our first rodeo, but every combination
is new for us. And every year I start to
feel like, oh, how weird I don't have a kid
in XYZ young child grade. And yeah, newsflash to self,
(06:30):
like that's not going to stop.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, Sara, why don't you talk about your current configuration
because you have some new stuff going on for your
family this year?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, I mean don't we all? So for this year,
we have a first grader, a fifth grader, and a
seventh grader, and I do feel like not having a
kindergarten preschool child, and at our school, what is known
as early childhood is going to feel quite different. In
the Monosaur system, there's one classroom for children ages three
(07:03):
to six, which is like pre K three through kindergarten.
They're actually all together, and so Genevieve's actually been in
the same classroom since I actually think she moved up
in twenty twenty, right before we all left school. I
think it was like January twenty twenty she got to
this new classroom. Then obviously we had a few months off,
(07:24):
but we did restart that fall, and she's been in
that classroom ever since. That's a really really long time.
It hasn't been the same teacher the whole time, but
it was the same teacher for two years and then
another teacher for two years, and so this is going
to be probably like one of the biggest, most seismic
(07:44):
shifts we've had in a while, so that's exciting. Her
new class will be grades one through three altogether, that's
called Lower Elementary. Cameron is in fifth. He really doesn't
He's like the only kid who like this is kind
of like business as usual, same classroom, same teacher, kind
of happy to have somebody that's on autopilot to some extent.
(08:04):
And then Annabelle is actually going to a brand new school,
which was a decision we made last spring for a
few different reasons, and so that is going to have
its own set of logistical challenges, just general feelings of newness,
and we're really looking forward to it. I think her
new school looks very promising and awesome, but obviously that's
(08:25):
going to be an adjustment for all of us. We
actually haven't really had a new school in the mix
for a while either.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Now, how far is that school from your other school?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Well, luckily enough, they're actually very close together, so they're
about there. Will I mean like nine to ten minute
drive apart. We'll see what that looks like on actual
school days. And geographically it works fairly well in that
from her drop off to the other kids school drop
off to my work is kind of one linear path,
so I think it will work out okay, but ask
(08:57):
me in a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, yeah, no, I was just saying like two drop
offs though. I mean, my experience of car lines is
they don't always move at the speed one might wish
that they would move at.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I agree. I'm these are not huge schools, either of them.
I have lots of experiences, obviously with the drop off
situation in the school where they've been, which is quite streamlined.
A lot of times, the best thing to do is
avoid the car line because it's a tiny campus and
you just park, walk your kid in and get out
of there. So at least one out of two is
a known and fairly easy commodity, And I mean the
(09:32):
other one is it's not a thousand kids or anything
like that that are going to be in the middle
school drop off line, so I hope it's decent.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, Well let's fingers crossed for that. Well,
let's take a quick ad break and then we'll come
back with more on back to school.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
All right, Well, you heard a lot about my scenario
for this year. Laura, You, as usual, have a lot
of moving parts. Can you tell our listeners where you
guys are all going to be?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, well, we actually only have one child shifting this year.
We still have four schools for five kids, but the
configuration of who is at which school just changes slightly.
But we are not introducing any new schools or anything
like that, which is kind of fun, so some continuity.
Jasper is going to be in twelfth grade this fall.
(10:28):
Sam is going to be in ninth grade, so he
will be joining him at the high school. Ruth is
going to be in seventh grade, Alex will be in
fourth grade, and Henry will be doing his last year
of preschool. So it is still a lot of different schools,
but the big change for us is that, well, we're
(10:52):
doing drop off discussion later, but all our schools start
times changed because, as longtime listeners know, we've covered this topic,
there's been some considerable research that having high schools start
ridiculously early in the morning does nobody any favors. I mean,
(11:12):
it may be more convenient for the adults who work there,
but for the children who are adolescents, the way their
bodies work, it's very hard for them to be up
and moving. And so there's some reasonable evidence that kids
do better in school, they have higher graduation rates, there's
fewer disciplinary issues and all that if high school starts
a little bit later. So our district adopted that, but
(11:36):
of course that changes everything in terms of the buses
and the times that the other schools have to start,
and so yeah, we'll be having.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
To deal with that.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
But the last year of preschool thing is kind of
fun because we've had a kid at this particular preschool
since twenty eleven with only one year off.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Wow, So it's an end of an era for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
For sure, they're going to really miss you guys. That's
so sad.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It is a little sad.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I was doing the paperwork for Henry's like setting in
all the medical forms and whatever else, the textbook form
you have to sign so that the state can provide
textbooks to private schools and whatever else, and it was
just like, this is the last time I'm signing this form.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Wow, end of an era. Indeed, Well, I'm excited that
we'll have a lot to talk about in next year's episode.
Maybe you'll be crying while we recorded. I don't know,
so since you are, we're not going to devote the
entire episode to this, but I'm sure we have listeners
with kids in a similar age bracket, And I'm just
wondering how you're feeling staring down having a senior, and
(12:48):
I don't know, like whether you've already started thinking about
that and how you're supporting him. We're not going to
talk about the college process in detail today because spoiler alert,
we have an episode coming up that will be on
that topic. But I don't know, give us a little
teaser of what that's been like or what you anticipate.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, I mean, well, I'm just playing a supportive role
because my son, Jasper is close to being an adult
and needs to do his own. You know, the college
application process is kind of your first big adult thing
that you are doing. I can tell you that it's
different from when we are apply to me. For one thing,
it's all digital, which is not surprising, but that changed
(13:26):
at some point between when you and I went to
school and now that the kids these days are applying,
the common application is a much bigger thing now, like
the number of places that take it, either as is
or with a small supplemental individual application process. The common
app opens like August first. We're recording this right at
(13:47):
the beginning of August, and so today he's getting together
with a friend to go through and manage their common
app stuff, to gather checking how each of them are
doing it.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
And I happen to know he's.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Got everything mostly put together, accept the teacher recommendations which
he put in his requests for and all that. Obviously
they probably weren't doing all of it in August, so
he may have to wait till the start of the
school year to collect those. But yeah, I mean, I
am excited for him. As a practical matter, one of
(14:18):
our state universities has rolling in missions, and so he's
just going to get his application into that as soon
as possible, hopefully get a decision within a few weeks
of that submission. Fingers crossed that would work out. But
then that will just make senior year a lot less
tense in the sense that he is welcome to apply
anywhere else that he wishes to.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
But having that.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Hopeful admission in hand will mean that whatever else happens,
we have a good option. And that is great because
I think senior year winds up getting consumed often by
this whole college thing, and it's still a wonderful year
and it's own right that shouldn't be written off.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
So that's my take.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
That is so true, and I like that the idea
of taking the heat off that first admission. I still remember,
like my first med school admission, my first It's true
because you're like, okay, all right, Like whatever else happens,
we're good. Like that's it's very important, and that would
be wonderful for him. So rooting for that to work out,
all right, Well, we're going to dive into drop off
and pick up. I know this sounds dry, and yet
(15:26):
I feel like when I listen to other people's logistical discussions,
I often get ideas or I'll be like, oh, you
can do that, and so we're going to go there.
I guess, do you want to go first?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, you can go, you can go. I'm men go.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Okay, Well, mine's less exciting because you have some drivers
and I do not. So I will just note that
we plan on Josh and I doing the bulk of
the morning driving. I will likely drive on the days
that I have clinical patients because I do believe that
I can get there. I mean, it's just a good
location for me to be able to drop off both
(15:58):
kids on my way, and I'd rather have those child
care hours for later since my kids are doing so
many evening activities. I actually think our nanny may prefer
this as well. I think she's gotten used to not
coming in super early. I make her extra coffee.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
When she does.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
But the schedule works for her as well. And so
that'll be three to four days of me driving and
one to two days of Josh driving. He's a little
bit more flexible one day of the week, and we'll
see if we can make it work. Probably on a
rare occasion, if both of us are early er, one
of us is out of town or something like that,
then she would step in, come in a little bit
earlier and then the afternoon will generally be her picking
(16:37):
up similar to the drop off, it'll kind of be
going from one school to another. And the only challenge
that I see here is that I think our mornings
are going to have to start significantly earlier than they
did last year. We could get away with leaving at
seven to forty five last year and kind of be okay.
It actually wasn't ideal for me from a work perspective,
like I'd be kind of like right on the borderline
(17:00):
of like my first patient's already roomed and I'm rushing
in there, and I don't love that. I like to
be like, oh, and I'm like very very like to
run on time. So if my patient's ready at eight thirty,
I want to be in the room at eight thirty one,
not eight thirty seven. So I anticipate we're gonna have
to leave more like seven twenty five, maybe even seven
twenty for this to be realistic with the double drop off,
(17:21):
And so I think this is going to be rough
for the kids and for me a little bit because
I love to run in the morning, and that means
that a lot of times I'm bursting through the door
at seven and that probably isn't gonna work. So I'm
gonna have to really work backwards and think about this.
And really this all goes back to bedtime, because you
have to get enough sleep if you're going to get
enough up earlier for the kids. And yet we have
(17:44):
the challenge of some later evening activities as we'll talk about.
So yeah, I mean, I think there's going to be
a learning curve. Now, do the schools the two schools
start at enough different times that it works to have
the two drop offs, because that's of course always the issue.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
If you've got like two schools that start at nine
o'clock or something like that, Yeah, then you have a problem.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
They do, And we know other families with the same
exact combination of schools who I've done this before, because
it's not terribly uncommon, especially because the younger kids school
only goes to eighth grade and the other school goes
to twelfth grade. So it's kind of a done thing.
And there's enough of a range for Genevieve and Cameron
that I think will be okay. Annabel is the one
(18:23):
that's going to have the more strict but she's going
to be first.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
She's the first.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, so of the other twour slightly later, it's not
the end of the world. Then, okay, all right, got it?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Got it? So what about you guys? You have a driver.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I do have a driver, and more importantly a parking pass,
because having your license does nothing if there's nowhere to
leave your car during the day, and it's you know,
sometimes I find I.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Love where I live.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But there are also all the neighborhoods around the high
school have giant no parking anytime signs on the street
that they have I guess forgot their own on street
parking privileges to make sure that no student would ever
dare park in front of their house, which is just nuts,
(19:08):
but anyway, so it coast. We did manage to get
a parking spot at the high school. So the plan
is that Jasper and Sam will drive there to gather
in the morning. I think the coming home will be
a little bit more unclear. Jasper obviously will drive himself
(19:30):
because he has the car there, but Sam has different
activities than Jasper does, so we'll just sort of take
that day by day and make sure that the two
of them touch base at some point. If there is
any lack of clarity, about who is coming home when
the high school is actually going to be starting at
eight thirty this year, so that will be significantly later
(19:52):
than the seven.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Thirty start last year.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So last year Jasper would take off usually with Michael,
at seven o'clock to get there. This year, that will
not be happening. Obviously, nobody needs to leave for seven
o'clock for the high school, so I assume that he
and Sam will leave around eight o'clock, which is obviously
a much later time. They probably won't have to get
up till seven thirty around then, which of course means
(20:15):
they'll want to stay up later, which we'll figure out
how that gets managed. The middle school, sadly enough, moved
earlier because you have only one set of buses and
bus drivers, and so things had to move around. Now
it didn't move by much. It used to start at
eight fifteen, and now it starts at eight. However, Ruth
(20:39):
has been playing in the jazz band, which historically has
met before school, so.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
We shall see.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I assume one of us is going to be driving
her a lot of mornings, and that means that we'll
be getting up not too much later than we had
been before, given that the times have moved. It's just
you know, different kids and different things. The elementary school
now doesn't start till nine ten, which is again it's
(21:06):
the buses.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
But I hope that I think we will offer early
care for family set. Do they offer early care for
families that need it?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
There is there is before care and after care that
I believe you can get on the list for and
pay for. We have never done that, so I don't
know how competitive it is to get into it, but yeah,
because nine ten is just ridiculous. Like I mean, if
you get your kid on the bus at eight forty,
I mean I guess that you could then take off
(21:38):
after that. But anyway, we'll probably be our nanny will
likely be driving Alex and Henry to school in the
morning because Henry has to get driven.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
His school will start at nine, but he's going full
day this year.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
He's going nine to three, so that'll be a change
for him. And then the reverse, I say, you know,
somebody will pick up henrye. We'll do some pickups of Ruth.
I'm not sure how this because we'll have the childcare,
I think, and then Alex will see maybe he'll take
the bus home, maybe he'll get picked up unclear.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Bus tends to.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Be a bit of a unknown craziness chaotic and he
doesn't always do well with a slightly more chaotic backgrounds.
But and then yeah, the older kid's getting home either bus,
activity bus.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love the activity bus. The activity bus is amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You know, our district has at least in the past
had two runs of buses in post school time for
the middle school in high school. And it just takes
you home so the kid can stay after for an activity.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
That is amazing. Does the activity bus go to like
every stop the regular bus goes to or is it like.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
It does not?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
However ours does like the stop that is the activity
bus made is the same one that the regular bus
would make. Amazing, And my general sense is that it
operated slightly more like a taxi service if there weren't
that many kids on it, so that the driver was
willing to drop you off kind of wherever you asked
(23:06):
on his route, So if you passed near your house,
he's not going to make you go like three blocks
away to be dropped off.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
That is amazing. That is great, And I mean I
feel like bussing must have come a while. I mean,
can't you like track the buses now on apps and stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I think, well, you probably can't.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well we know, Okay, so I got the bus app
and it was never updated, like, it was never quite right,
like it would say, my bus is on time, and
I'm like sitting there waiting for Alex. It's clearly ten
minutes late. So it was like not in real time
being updated. That said, I mean, my older kids have
devices on them that have more real time data, so
(23:47):
if I'm trying to figure out where on Earth they are,
that's obviously a more direct way.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Of doing it.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Well, that's very odd that you can track your Uber
Eats delivery but not your school bus.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Not your kid's bus.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I'm sure, yeah, I don't know, probably is a way
to do it, but yeah, yeah, too funny.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
All right, Well should we take a quick break before
we go to lunches?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
All right, one more quick ad break.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
All right, Well we are back talking all things back
to school, a perennial favorite topic. So many logistics as
we figure out, especially with larger families with lots of
school aged kids, figuring out how everything works.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Let's talk about lunch, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I know, I'm like, I know, we've had this discussion before,
and yet every year I sort of have to think
about it. And this year we have some new stuff,
which is that everyone gets included lunch at out of
our schools. So that's great, one less lunch to deal with.
Except she was the only kid that was packing her
own lunch consistently. So actually that doesn't really change, but
doesn't no wins there, correct. Yeah, see us like changing
(25:01):
very much. I just like being super super simple, like
our nannie does help pack lunch generally Tuesday through Friday,
and my classic Monday lunch is to just put one
of the Trader Joe's pre done salads in the bag
and a couple snacks and call it today. My kids
are not super picky, so they will actually happily eat
like Caesar salad with chicken from Trader Joe's, and it's
(25:22):
like done.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It's pressing the easy button. So you just pick those
up when you do, like your Saturday shopping trip.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I usually shop on Sunday, so that's exactly, and then
I get usually get a couple for me too, so
that's often like my Monday and Wednesday work lunch as well,
and just anything I don't have to think about it.
If I like it, then we're good. I could see
them getting tired of it. But I'm sure Trader Joe's
has some other pre made standbys that we could pivot to.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yes, exactly, you'll never run out of TJ's pre made
lunch phenomenon. And I hear you have a water bottle hack.
Modern children like to be hydrated, So where are you
getting your water bottles these days?
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Oh geez, Well, we also have the best spoke water
bottle collection of one child, including the limited edition Olivia
Rodrigo Stanley that we had to enter a lottery to
purchase and it has its own little shrine and it's adorable.
But I also have a hot tip, which is that
ross Like the discount store has really good water bottles,
(26:18):
Like I feel like they must be last seasons designer
water bottles, but like, who cares? So we got we
got like a nice like Columbia one and an Adida's one,
and they look nice and they were like half the
price that you would normally pay for these things, because
water bottles have gotten quite trendy and expensive.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, there's a huge problem here, like with the idea
of a reusable water bottle that you're buying to be
more sustainable, but you buy a new one every time
there's a.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Like the trend changes. I mean, anyway, it's.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Probably slightly better than having a disposable water But I
refill my disposable water bottles like I just rints them
out and reuse them like for weeks on end.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
So not entirely sure, that's like my grocery bag thing.
I'm like, I just used the paper ones like thirty
times and then yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Exactly, like yeah, you know, hot tip. Many disposable items
are not quite as disposable as we are often led
to believe. I say, my older three will keep buying.
This is not necessarily as economical an option as I
remember from like my days of buying school lunch, I
mean partly just inflation of thirty years. But you know,
they have more options, like the high school cafeteria has
(27:30):
all sorts of a La Karte options, like much like
going to a corporate cafeteria, So I have not limited that.
I feel like, if you are choosing healthy things, I'm
not going to sit here and micro manage your lunch choices.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
But I do know that Jasper buys the.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Very expensive strawberry cut up fruit every day, and much
as in the airport, that tends to be the most
expensive produce option. So Alex and Henry are going to
need lunches. We're going to have to figure out how
to do that. Alex theoretically is making his own lunch,
being older than eight years old. However, he does need
(28:07):
a lot of supervision, as he will literally just put
one sleeve of crackers in a bag and call it
a day.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
So what, I.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Think that's so funny and also like, I mean, not
the best, not the worst. Maybe you know, it's like,
can you at least throw a yogurt in there?
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Some cheese to go with those crackers's and crackers like
cheese and crackers and raisins. I mean, yes, Grace, it's
like a hiking thing that you'd bring with you. But
I guess that's totally fine.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
With his lunch as being very repetitive. Could you do
like all the whole week at once, like put five
assembled bags like in the fridge?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, I mean we could, you know, he could totally
do that. Well, I'll bring it up with him. I mean,
I it doesn't take that much time, given how modular
it is like to throw a pre like a cheese stick,
a sleeve of crackers, a thing of raisins like a
yogurt in a bag is not a huge thing.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That's also not the worst lunch, by the way. I mean,
he's got like a lot of food groups. There's at
least some protein in there. And raisins are fruit reasons
are fruit there just dried fruit. And we also do
apple sauce packets sometimes, you know, as a way to
get a little bit of extra fruit type substance into
the child. Henry, I mean, I would like to figure
(29:28):
out something I was a little healthier because he will
eat food.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
But yeah, I don't know. I mean, the problem of
being the kid behind the kid that has some more
limitations is that you wind up pretty much eating the
same thing because people just make the same stuff for
the two of them. We'll see, we'll see how this
all turns out. How about back to school stopping You
guys have already been doing that. I assume, given that
we're recording this shortly before you guys go back to school, we've.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Done a lot of it. I mean I do a
lot of it online, and the kids are more likely
to just send me a link to something they want,
and if it seems reasonable, I can check it off
the list. I did make a big master list of
all the stuff that we needed and that was helpful.
We have uniforms and that's all done. I have to
share that Annifl's school has this very specific dress code
of shorts must be six point five inches or more
(30:18):
in en seam, and I'm like, point five, what's it?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
The point five?
Speaker 3 (30:25):
But you know what, we procure them. They're also a
lot of wear joggers, so that's comfy and nice. And
I will say my one new discovery this year was
the company Primary, which I feel like I've heard about
on other podcasts and stuff, but I had never shopped there.
Genevieve tends to be very picky about uniform bottoms, like
I'll buy her the cute little skirts and she won't
wear them. She'll only want to wear the little cartwheel
bike shorts, and so she's not really supposed to wear
(30:49):
bike shorts. And since she's entering this more official grade level,
I was like, Okay, let's get some actual shorts. And
Primary has like they're like gym shorts. They're not fancy,
but they're like nice like cottony feeling material and stretchy,
and she seemed to tolerate them more than most other
more uniform like pieces. So it's my uniform tip.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, shoes are always the thing, and I just have
the older boys like pick out stuff online and I
buy it and like half a size larger than what
they're wearing. Ruths feet are an unorthodox size, like we
have to uh, you know, and then she finds some
shoes uncomfortable. So it's a bit of a process finding
(31:32):
shoes for her, but it provides an opportunity. You have
a discussion about how we sometimes make do with things
that aren't perfect but are better than what we currently have,
and sometimes, you know, we can always be on the
lookout for better options, but need at least something. Yeah,
we don't have uniforms because obviously we're in public school.
Although I guess some public schools have uniforms, so maybe
(31:54):
that's not the case.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
But we do not.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Jasper will probably be getting some clothes. I noticed one
of his favorite shirts had a giant hole in the
elbow yesterday. But Sam and Alex may mostly he likes
some Oh that what's that? The black dog is like
one of those uh stores that's in like North.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
It's like Martha's Vineyard or Martha's Vineyard.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, so it's like Vineyard Vines but a little bit
less pricey, but similar type style. So he owns a
lot of things from there, and then we just buy
jeans and his size. Sam and Alex may mostly shop
in the hand me downs of the older boy. The
one issue with that is that Alex likes sweatpants mostly,
(32:44):
and sweatpants do not pass down at all.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
That doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
The elastic comes out of the waistband, it gets crusty,
like its county like, it doesn't hold its elasticity, and
they get holes in the knees. So we'll have to
purchase for that. But you know, you win, Sammy loose
and we now have like little boy black dress shoes
in every single size.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
And oh well, we'll do a quick PSA for We
had this as a question a while ago of like
what you need in a school emergency supply kit, things
that you tend to get asked for last minute. So
while you're doing your shopping, you might want to get
some poster board because that often comes up. You could
do yourself a favor and buy a trifold or poster
board or two if a child has some sort of
(33:32):
science project that they are going to need to present.
And we have also found that white t shirts get
requested for various things like that. You know, if they
have a show that they all need to be wearing white,
that's something that may come up.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Or people do taid eye projects or things like that.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
That's fun, all right, Well, yes, stock up the poster awards.
Totally agree. I think we still have a few more.
I'll have to check on my stash. We're going to
do a brief discussion activities because Lauren says.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Say this is gonna be the endless episode.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
No, you wrote something like I cannot deal with activities
yet I'm taking it one weekend time or something like that.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah, but you have become a travel sports parent and
a competitive gymnastics parent.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
That happened. I feel like there's probably a prior episode
where I was like, I'm not going to do this,
and then like we tried it and we liked it,
and the kids liked it, and now we've got for
next year like two sports with like a competition traveling
whatever element and I'm excited about it, for better or
for worse. You know, the funny thing that I always
(34:39):
hear people saying is like it will mess up our
family dinner. But you guys know, I've discussed this. We
don't have a good family like it's never been a
reality for us to do a regular weeknight family dinner,
mostly because Josh is not home reliably and on time
for that, and so we're not actually losing much when
it comes to that timeframe. I'm a little worried because
(35:00):
this year's stuff often goes till eight forty five, which
is like my bedtime. But you know what, again, we
will figure that out. I am happy that my kids
want to do things, and as long as they find
them fun, I am happy to support them in their endeavors.
The end.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
No, I think some wise people have said that for parenting,
you should not say I would never do X, because
your kids are about to never like someone has never
never before, Like they're going to be into whatever it
is that you have said you will never do so.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Within reason, obviously, but you probably want to.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Just figure out who your kids are as people before
you want to impose your philosophies and lifestyle entirely on them.
I think there's nothing wrong with being busy. I think
it's my role as a parent to support my kid's interests.
And I feel actually it would be kind of sad
if a kid really wanted to do stuff and parents said,
absolutely not, because we have to eat dinner at precisely
(36:01):
six pm every single night, Monday through Friday. I mean,
unless you, as a parent, are going to get eg
up everything else in your life to make that happen.
I think having family meals three times a week is great.
Three times a week is habit. Do it Friday, Saturday
and Sunday right or do Tuesday morning breakfast together. Change
your work schedule to make that happen. If family meals
matter to you, and then do Tuesday morning breakfast together
(36:23):
and let the kid be on the team they want
to be on. Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I love it. Well, how about you?
Speaker 3 (36:30):
How about your back to You're just not there yet,
but once school does roll around, do you get a
surge of like back to school liss energy at all?
I do feel like for me it is like a
more productive season. And also I like the shift of
the rhythm from summer for us. I mean, I know
people are like, well, summer's not slower for me, but
for us, it is definitely slower. And then I kind
(36:53):
of like like how it rubs up and changes, Like
I crave those shifts, and so I'm excited for it.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, I mean a lot of the stuff I do
week to week is pretty similar. But I mean, I
am planning to start the actual writing of my next
book in the fall. I've been doing a lot of
research over the summer, so I guess that will be
a shift. And I'm training for a half marathon in
late October, so that's kind of exciting. And yeah, so
(37:20):
you know, I like the back to school energy. I
like buying school supplies, but yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
I mean, the.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Extra stuff does make life more challenging, but I just,
you know, make sure that I have enough time to
work each week.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Take each week at a time.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Don't think I'm necessarily going to set stuff and forget it,
because with five kids, that never happens. But then I'm
going to remember, like, oh, yeah, and summer was a
lot less like that, right, We had weeks where there
was almost zero activities, So I think, you know, I
will keep that in mind during the weeks when I
get a little bit annoyed.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
How much is going on?
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Well, so this has been a lot of back to
school related topics. We have slightly a question related to that. So, Sarah,
how much do you plan family travel around kids' activities
or how much should you plan family vacations, et cetera
around kid activities?
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah, I don't have an answer for this. This is
more a question that I ask on my website, so
and I was interested in people's answers. In fact, we
had one person very adamantly that she really did not
plan unless it was the biggest tournament of the year
or like some incredibly big milestone event of the season.
(38:41):
She prioritized vacations and her kids are like elite level,
like going to be college athletes, kind of like that realm.
So for her to say that meant a lot other
than I joked with my friend that like, well, maybe
consider less talented. We can't afford that kind of lenience.
Now I'm just kidding. I personally don't feel like I
(39:02):
know what my policy yet is, but I will say
that Cameron is for the second year in a row,
missing the first week of soccer practice because we're going
on family trips, so obviously we're not like Diehard must
be at every single thing. And yet at the same time,
if I see a tournament or something on the calendar,
I sort of try not to put other stuff there.
(39:25):
So I don't know, still learning, still figuring that out.
I'm not going to give my definitive answer.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, it hasn't really come up that much for us
because you know, a lot of the activities have been
school based, and so they're probably not going to have
their major thing during the spring break or during the summer,
during Christmas.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
And you know my kids.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
So the one thing we have had this year, Sam
wants to run on the cross country team, and of
course they're doing their ramp up in August, which is
when we are on vacation. But he's going to go
to a couple of the practice that he can, and
I mean, he's a freshman and he hasn't done this before,
so it's not like he's going to be running varsity anyway.
So it's mostly like it's just to try it out.
(40:10):
So we'll see what the policies.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Are on that.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
But I am hoping that for the newbie freshmen joining
the team just for fun. The policies maybe a little
different than the people who are competing for the school
in the various tournaments. So we shall see. But that's
we're not taking our vacation.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
I mean, of all sports, that's one where you could
very easily be handed a training plan and do it
remotely to get ready for your season.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
And perhaps one.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Should do that, Sarah, that would be good, and maybe
a child could do more runs on their own and
not when they are structured from the everyone else doing
them around you.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
But you know we're not all our own people, all right.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Well, Loves of the week, I have to give a
school supply because of course mine is the Cocuyo Campus Notebook. Okay,
that sounds fancy, but they're actually not like I think
they're kind of like the Mead Spiral bound of Japan.
They are like these little kind of like glue bound notebooks,
(41:18):
and they're not terribly expensive. You can actually get them
at like Barnes and Noble. They're way marked up, like
they're way cheaper at Jetpens or maybe even on Amazon.
I don't know, but they're just like great. They're like
sixty or so pages the paper is lovely. They have
a great form of ruling that I really like. They
like lines with like almost like dots in the life.
I can't explain it, but they're great. Annabel requested them specifically.
(41:39):
She's like, I can you get me these for taking
notes because for her school they they're basically on laptops,
So they're like, use whatever paper supplies you feel will
support you, but we are not going to tell you
what to get. So thrilled to outfit her in Cocuyo
campus notebooks. So if you have not tried them, recommend.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I might have to put in an order. I'm always
looking for a good notebook. I like spiral bound with
a harder cover. Myself always cos or not that these
are not that okay, well then maybe not. My love
of the week is unexpected hand me down. So I
was out in the garage like hunting through stuff, and
I found a pair of crocs that fit Henry exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
So that's helpful for.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Going out in the yard to the pool or I
guess walking on the sand to the beach.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So I'm really.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Glad that we have this pair of cracks and I
don't have to buy a pair of sandals for him.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
It's all all good. Sometimes you win. You shopped your garage.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I shopped my garage. I probably need to shop my garage.
Shot my closets for more things I was getting. When
I was getting Alex ready for camp, I found more
pairs of size eight to ten shorts. I'm like, who
even knew we had all these pairs of eight to
ten shorts that still fit? So we packed those with them.
He had extras, didn't have to buy more.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
All good. Well, this has been a best of both worlds.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
We've been talking all things back to school as we
have for lo these many years, as our kids have
on to low these many grades. So who even knows
twenty twenty five back to School Extravaganza what we'll be
talking about. But for now, this is this one and
we will be back next week with more on making
work and life fit together.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
and you can.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us
next time for more on making work and life work together.
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician,
writer and course creator. We are two working parents who
love our careers and our families.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
This episode is airing in mid August of twenty twenty four.
This is our annual back to school episode. I believe
we've called it several things, Sarah, how are we over
the past seven years?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Back to school Extravaganza, Bonanza? What else did we do back?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And it does look like we've done a back to
school episode every year for several before Extravaganza and Bonanza,
it was like back to School COVID and then back
to School COVID two point zero or something like that.
And we did do one in twenty nineteen as well,
but I didn't see what that one was called. I
wouldn't be surprised if we recycled Bonanza and Extravaganza, because
I don't remember going back to look in previous years.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, at least it wasn't like back to school Palooza
or something.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I think we've tried that as.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
We saved that for Planner Paluza. Planner Paluza.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, well you know it's uh, you do this for
many years, so we have a upcoming anniversary episode. You
do kind of run through the same titles over and
over and some of the same topics. But back to
school is always an exciting time, and for families with
school age children, it is going to affect all your
(01:53):
household rhythms, schedules. Many people have to completely rework their
schedules at this point. For get kids various places. People
who have jobs that either are flexible where they're changing
some of their hours around to accommodate the school schedules
and activities, or people who don't have a whole lot
of job flexibility need to figure out how that will
all work as well. So it's a big topic and
(02:16):
certainly is for us as well. So Sarah, there is
a little bit of difference though of when people go
to school, When people do go back to school. For me,
this is like what it's back to school? When do
you guys start?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I know, this is a difficult one because I feel
like there's this pressure to get your back to school
content out because some people are very excited to listen
to it in early August because their kids are headed
back to school early, and mine are in that group.
We're not in like the earliest wave. But this year,
our local public actually starts August twelfth, which for South
(02:50):
Florida is actually quite early. Usually when we're like mid August,
and my kids go back somewhere between that and then
the week after, depending on the school in the scenario
as we will discuss. So we're on the pretty early side,
although not the earliest. My dear friend Kelsey, who podcasts
at Girl Nextdoor podcast, her kids go to a public
(03:11):
school in Arizona, and I believe it starts in late July.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Oh my goodness. So they win, they win. We just
keep moving it back and back and back.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Next thing, you know, summer break is starting in a
April or something. I just forget the whole spring break concept.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think they do end early, and they may have
a little bit more of a year round kind of structure,
which is also another school configuration neither Laura nor I
have personal experience with, but is definitely a thing in
some reasons. And so for you guys, back to school
could almost be anytime. Yeah, it could be anytime this
UD we could keep running this episode year round.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah. No, we start September three this year, which is
actually a relatively.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Early start for us.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I'm going to say, because Labor Day happens to be
about as early as Labor Day can be this year,
So it's always the Tuesday after Labor Day, unless we
have a configuration of the major Jewish holidays that bump
up against early September, in which case we have gone
back after the start of Rashashana. So that has pushed
(04:17):
it more to know September eight or nine if it's
been early. But the holidays are later this year, so
Rashashana is in early October, so that doesn't.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Put our start any different. But I feel like you
love when it's late, am I correct? I do.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's just like bonus time because obviously we've had full
time childcare, we have a full time nanny, so it's
not that we're scrambling for coverage for that last time,
and I find that having time into September often allows
us to take some sort of late summer vacation at
a time that is maybe not quite as full in
(04:56):
a lot of places, because many people, as you mentioned,
are going back to school in August twelfth or something
like that, and so I don't know, I like the
idea of still being on summer break into September. We've
got some plans for that this share, which we'll talk
about in future episodes.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
But yeah, it's nine to three this year, Henry is
I think a day or two later. But yeah, we're
headed into it, and for better or for worse, school
schedules will impact our routines. So we're going to discuss
all aspects of this topic in this episode, and hopefully,
(05:34):
even if this is not your first back to school
round with us, or you're back to school round in general,
you'll think of something that will help you make this
transition a little bit more calm and smooth.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I mean, truthfully, I think one of the reasons this
is such a perennial topic is because every year is different,
especially so if you have multiple kids. Because it increases
the likelihood that some going to be having a big
change in any given year. If you've got four different kids,
probably someone is moving from elementary to middle, or middle
(06:07):
to high or whatever. And so I do often feel
to some extent like I am starting from scratch every time.
Obviously this is not our first rodeo, but every combination
is new for us. And every year I start to
feel like, oh, how weird I don't have a kid
in XYZ young child grade. And yeah, newsflash to self,
(06:30):
like that's not going to stop.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, Sara, why don't you talk about your current configuration
because you have some new stuff going on for your
family this year?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, I mean don't we all? So for this year,
we have a first grader, a fifth grader, and a
seventh grader, and I do feel like not having a
kindergarten preschool child, and at our school, what is known
as early childhood is going to feel quite different. In
the Monosaur system, there's one classroom for children ages three
(07:03):
to six, which is like pre K three through kindergarten.
They're actually all together, and so Genevieve's actually been in
the same classroom since I actually think she moved up
in twenty twenty, right before we all left school. I
think it was like January twenty twenty she got to
this new classroom. Then obviously we had a few months off,
(07:24):
but we did restart that fall, and she's been in
that classroom ever since. That's a really really long time.
It hasn't been the same teacher the whole time, but
it was the same teacher for two years and then
another teacher for two years, and so this is going
to be probably like one of the biggest, most seismic
(07:44):
shifts we've had in a while, so that's exciting. Her
new class will be grades one through three altogether, that's
called Lower Elementary. Cameron is in fifth. He really doesn't
He's like the only kid who like this is kind
of like business as usual, same classroom, same teacher, kind
of happy to have somebody that's on autopilot to some extent.
(08:04):
And then Annabelle is actually going to a brand new school,
which was a decision we made last spring for a
few different reasons, and so that is going to have
its own set of logistical challenges, just general feelings of newness,
and we're really looking forward to it. I think her
new school looks very promising and awesome, but obviously that's
(08:25):
going to be an adjustment for all of us. We
actually haven't really had a new school in the mix
for a while either.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Now, how far is that school from your other school?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Well, luckily enough, they're actually very close together, so they're
about there. Will I mean like nine to ten minute
drive apart. We'll see what that looks like on actual
school days. And geographically it works fairly well in that
from her drop off to the other kids school drop
off to my work is kind of one linear path,
so I think it will work out okay, but ask
(08:57):
me in a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, yeah, no, I was just saying like two drop
offs though. I mean, my experience of car lines is
they don't always move at the speed one might wish
that they would move at.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I agree. I'm these are not huge schools, either of them.
I have lots of experiences, obviously with the drop off
situation in the school where they've been, which is quite streamlined.
A lot of times, the best thing to do is
avoid the car line because it's a tiny campus and
you just park, walk your kid in and get out
of there. So at least one out of two is
a known and fairly easy commodity, And I mean the
(09:32):
other one is it's not a thousand kids or anything
like that that are going to be in the middle
school drop off line, so I hope it's decent.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, Well let's fingers crossed for that. Well,
let's take a quick ad break and then we'll come
back with more on back to school.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
All right, Well, you heard a lot about my scenario
for this year. Laura, You, as usual, have a lot
of moving parts. Can you tell our listeners where you
guys are all going to be?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, well, we actually only have one child shifting this year.
We still have four schools for five kids, but the
configuration of who is at which school just changes slightly.
But we are not introducing any new schools or anything
like that, which is kind of fun, so some continuity.
Jasper is going to be in twelfth grade this fall.
(10:28):
Sam is going to be in ninth grade, so he
will be joining him at the high school. Ruth is
going to be in seventh grade, Alex will be in
fourth grade, and Henry will be doing his last year
of preschool. So it is still a lot of different schools,
but the big change for us is that, well, we're
(10:52):
doing drop off discussion later, but all our schools start
times changed because, as longtime listeners know, we've covered this topic,
there's been some considerable research that having high schools start
ridiculously early in the morning does nobody any favors. I mean,
(11:12):
it may be more convenient for the adults who work there,
but for the children who are adolescents, the way their
bodies work, it's very hard for them to be up
and moving. And so there's some reasonable evidence that kids
do better in school, they have higher graduation rates, there's
fewer disciplinary issues and all that if high school starts
a little bit later. So our district adopted that, but
(11:36):
of course that changes everything in terms of the buses
and the times that the other schools have to start,
and so yeah, we'll be having.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
To deal with that.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
But the last year of preschool thing is kind of
fun because we've had a kid at this particular preschool
since twenty eleven with only one year off.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Wow, So it's an end of an era for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
For sure, they're going to really miss you guys. That's
so sad.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It is a little sad.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I was doing the paperwork for Henry's like setting in
all the medical forms and whatever else, the textbook form
you have to sign so that the state can provide
textbooks to private schools and whatever else, and it was
just like, this is the last time I'm signing this form.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Wow, end of an era. Indeed, Well, I'm excited that
we'll have a lot to talk about in next year's episode.
Maybe you'll be crying while we recorded. I don't know,
so since you are, we're not going to devote the
entire episode to this, but I'm sure we have listeners
with kids in a similar age bracket, And I'm just
wondering how you're feeling staring down having a senior, and
(12:48):
I don't know, like whether you've already started thinking about
that and how you're supporting him. We're not going to
talk about the college process in detail today because spoiler alert,
we have an episode coming up that will be on
that topic. But I don't know, give us a little
teaser of what that's been like or what you anticipate.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, I mean, well, I'm just playing a supportive role
because my son, Jasper is close to being an adult
and needs to do his own. You know, the college
application process is kind of your first big adult thing
that you are doing. I can tell you that it's
different from when we are apply to me. For one thing,
it's all digital, which is not surprising, but that changed
(13:26):
at some point between when you and I went to
school and now that the kids these days are applying,
the common application is a much bigger thing now, like
the number of places that take it, either as is
or with a small supplemental individual application process. The common
app opens like August first. We're recording this right at
(13:47):
the beginning of August, and so today he's getting together
with a friend to go through and manage their common
app stuff, to gather checking how each of them are
doing it.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
And I happen to know he's.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Got everything mostly put together, accept the teacher recommendations which
he put in his requests for and all that. Obviously
they probably weren't doing all of it in August, so
he may have to wait till the start of the
school year to collect those. But yeah, I mean, I
am excited for him. As a practical matter, one of
(14:18):
our state universities has rolling in missions, and so he's
just going to get his application into that as soon
as possible, hopefully get a decision within a few weeks
of that submission. Fingers crossed that would work out. But
then that will just make senior year a lot less
tense in the sense that he is welcome to apply
anywhere else that he wishes to.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
But having that.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Hopeful admission in hand will mean that whatever else happens,
we have a good option. And that is great because
I think senior year winds up getting consumed often by
this whole college thing, and it's still a wonderful year
and it's own right that shouldn't be written off.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
So that's my take.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
That is so true, and I like that the idea
of taking the heat off that first admission. I still remember,
like my first med school admission, my first It's true
because you're like, okay, all right, Like whatever else happens,
we're good. Like that's it's very important, and that would
be wonderful for him. So rooting for that to work out,
all right, Well, we're going to dive into drop off
and pick up. I know this sounds dry, and yet
(15:26):
I feel like when I listen to other people's logistical discussions,
I often get ideas or I'll be like, oh, you
can do that, and so we're going to go there.
I guess, do you want to go first?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, you can go, you can go. I'm men go.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Okay, Well, mine's less exciting because you have some drivers
and I do not. So I will just note that
we plan on Josh and I doing the bulk of
the morning driving. I will likely drive on the days
that I have clinical patients because I do believe that
I can get there. I mean, it's just a good
location for me to be able to drop off both
(15:58):
kids on my way, and I'd rather have those child
care hours for later since my kids are doing so
many evening activities. I actually think our nanny may prefer
this as well. I think she's gotten used to not
coming in super early. I make her extra coffee.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
When she does.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
But the schedule works for her as well. And so
that'll be three to four days of me driving and
one to two days of Josh driving. He's a little
bit more flexible one day of the week, and we'll
see if we can make it work. Probably on a
rare occasion, if both of us are early er, one
of us is out of town or something like that,
then she would step in, come in a little bit
earlier and then the afternoon will generally be her picking
(16:37):
up similar to the drop off, it'll kind of be
going from one school to another. And the only challenge
that I see here is that I think our mornings
are going to have to start significantly earlier than they
did last year. We could get away with leaving at
seven to forty five last year and kind of be okay.
It actually wasn't ideal for me from a work perspective,
like I'd be kind of like right on the borderline
(17:00):
of like my first patient's already roomed and I'm rushing
in there, and I don't love that. I like to
be like, oh, and I'm like very very like to
run on time. So if my patient's ready at eight thirty,
I want to be in the room at eight thirty one,
not eight thirty seven. So I anticipate we're gonna have
to leave more like seven twenty five, maybe even seven
twenty for this to be realistic with the double drop off,
(17:21):
And so I think this is going to be rough
for the kids and for me a little bit because
I love to run in the morning, and that means
that a lot of times I'm bursting through the door
at seven and that probably isn't gonna work. So I'm
gonna have to really work backwards and think about this.
And really this all goes back to bedtime, because you
have to get enough sleep if you're going to get
enough up earlier for the kids. And yet we have
(17:44):
the challenge of some later evening activities as we'll talk about.
So yeah, I mean, I think there's going to be
a learning curve. Now, do the schools the two schools
start at enough different times that it works to have
the two drop offs, because that's of course always the issue.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
If you've got like two schools that start at nine
o'clock or something like that, Yeah, then you have a problem.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
They do, And we know other families with the same
exact combination of schools who I've done this before, because
it's not terribly uncommon, especially because the younger kids school
only goes to eighth grade and the other school goes
to twelfth grade. So it's kind of a done thing.
And there's enough of a range for Genevieve and Cameron
that I think will be okay. Annabel is the one
(18:23):
that's going to have the more strict but she's going
to be first.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
She's the first.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, so of the other twour slightly later, it's not
the end of the world. Then, okay, all right, got it?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Got it? So what about you guys? You have a driver.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I do have a driver, and more importantly a parking pass,
because having your license does nothing if there's nowhere to
leave your car during the day, and it's you know,
sometimes I find I.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Love where I live.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But there are also all the neighborhoods around the high
school have giant no parking anytime signs on the street
that they have I guess forgot their own on street
parking privileges to make sure that no student would ever
dare park in front of their house, which is just nuts,
(19:08):
but anyway, so it coast. We did manage to get
a parking spot at the high school. So the plan
is that Jasper and Sam will drive there to gather
in the morning. I think the coming home will be
a little bit more unclear. Jasper obviously will drive himself
(19:30):
because he has the car there, but Sam has different
activities than Jasper does, so we'll just sort of take
that day by day and make sure that the two
of them touch base at some point. If there is
any lack of clarity, about who is coming home when
the high school is actually going to be starting at
eight thirty this year, so that will be significantly later
(19:52):
than the seven.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Thirty start last year.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So last year Jasper would take off usually with Michael,
at seven o'clock to get there. This year, that will
not be happening. Obviously, nobody needs to leave for seven
o'clock for the high school, so I assume that he
and Sam will leave around eight o'clock, which is obviously
a much later time. They probably won't have to get
up till seven thirty around then, which of course means
(20:15):
they'll want to stay up later, which we'll figure out
how that gets managed. The middle school, sadly enough, moved
earlier because you have only one set of buses and
bus drivers, and so things had to move around. Now
it didn't move by much. It used to start at
eight fifteen, and now it starts at eight. However, Ruth
(20:39):
has been playing in the jazz band, which historically has
met before school, so.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
We shall see.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I assume one of us is going to be driving
her a lot of mornings, and that means that we'll
be getting up not too much later than we had
been before, given that the times have moved. It's just
you know, different kids and different things. The elementary school
now doesn't start till nine ten, which is again it's
(21:06):
the buses.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
But I hope that I think we will offer early
care for family set. Do they offer early care for
families that need it?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
There is there is before care and after care that
I believe you can get on the list for and
pay for. We have never done that, so I don't
know how competitive it is to get into it, but yeah,
because nine ten is just ridiculous. Like I mean, if
you get your kid on the bus at eight forty,
I mean I guess that you could then take off
(21:38):
after that. But anyway, we'll probably be our nanny will
likely be driving Alex and Henry to school in the
morning because Henry has to get driven.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
His school will start at nine, but he's going full
day this year.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
He's going nine to three, so that'll be a change
for him. And then the reverse, I say, you know,
somebody will pick up henrye. We'll do some pickups of Ruth.
I'm not sure how this because we'll have the childcare,
I think, and then Alex will see maybe he'll take
the bus home, maybe he'll get picked up unclear.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Bus tends to.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Be a bit of a unknown craziness chaotic and he
doesn't always do well with a slightly more chaotic backgrounds.
But and then yeah, the older kid's getting home either bus,
activity bus.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love the activity bus. The activity bus is amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You know, our district has at least in the past
had two runs of buses in post school time for
the middle school in high school. And it just takes
you home so the kid can stay after for an activity.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
That is amazing. Does the activity bus go to like
every stop the regular bus goes to or is it like.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
It does not?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
However ours does like the stop that is the activity
bus made is the same one that the regular bus
would make. Amazing, And my general sense is that it
operated slightly more like a taxi service if there weren't
that many kids on it, so that the driver was
willing to drop you off kind of wherever you asked
(23:06):
on his route, So if you passed near your house,
he's not going to make you go like three blocks
away to be dropped off.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
That is amazing. That is great, And I mean I
feel like bussing must have come a while. I mean,
can't you like track the buses now on apps and stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I think, well, you probably can't.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well we know, Okay, so I got the bus app
and it was never updated, like, it was never quite right,
like it would say, my bus is on time, and
I'm like sitting there waiting for Alex. It's clearly ten
minutes late. So it was like not in real time
being updated. That said, I mean, my older kids have
devices on them that have more real time data, so
(23:47):
if I'm trying to figure out where on Earth they are,
that's obviously a more direct way.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Of doing it.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Well, that's very odd that you can track your Uber
Eats delivery but not your school bus.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Not your kid's bus.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I'm sure, yeah, I don't know, probably is a way
to do it, but yeah, yeah, too funny.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
All right, Well should we take a quick break before
we go to lunches?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
All right, one more quick ad break.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
All right, Well we are back talking all things back
to school, a perennial favorite topic. So many logistics as
we figure out, especially with larger families with lots of
school aged kids, figuring out how everything works.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Let's talk about lunch, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I know, I'm like, I know, we've had this discussion before,
and yet every year I sort of have to think
about it. And this year we have some new stuff,
which is that everyone gets included lunch at out of
our schools. So that's great, one less lunch to deal with.
Except she was the only kid that was packing her
own lunch consistently. So actually that doesn't really change, but
doesn't no wins there, correct. Yeah, see us like changing
(25:01):
very much. I just like being super super simple, like
our nannie does help pack lunch generally Tuesday through Friday,
and my classic Monday lunch is to just put one
of the Trader Joe's pre done salads in the bag
and a couple snacks and call it today. My kids
are not super picky, so they will actually happily eat
like Caesar salad with chicken from Trader Joe's, and it's
(25:22):
like done.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It's pressing the easy button. So you just pick those
up when you do, like your Saturday shopping trip.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I usually shop on Sunday, so that's exactly, and then
I get usually get a couple for me too, so
that's often like my Monday and Wednesday work lunch as well,
and just anything I don't have to think about it.
If I like it, then we're good. I could see
them getting tired of it. But I'm sure Trader Joe's
has some other pre made standbys that we could pivot to.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yes, exactly, you'll never run out of TJ's pre made
lunch phenomenon. And I hear you have a water bottle hack.
Modern children like to be hydrated, So where are you
getting your water bottles these days?
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Oh geez, Well, we also have the best spoke water
bottle collection of one child, including the limited edition Olivia
Rodrigo Stanley that we had to enter a lottery to
purchase and it has its own little shrine and it's adorable.
But I also have a hot tip, which is that
ross Like the discount store has really good water bottles,
(26:18):
Like I feel like they must be last seasons designer
water bottles, but like, who cares? So we got we
got like a nice like Columbia one and an Adida's one,
and they look nice and they were like half the
price that you would normally pay for these things, because
water bottles have gotten quite trendy and expensive.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, there's a huge problem here, like with the idea
of a reusable water bottle that you're buying to be
more sustainable, but you buy a new one every time
there's a.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Like the trend changes. I mean, anyway, it's.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Probably slightly better than having a disposable water But I
refill my disposable water bottles like I just rints them
out and reuse them like for weeks on end.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
So not entirely sure, that's like my grocery bag thing.
I'm like, I just used the paper ones like thirty
times and then yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Exactly, like yeah, you know, hot tip. Many disposable items
are not quite as disposable as we are often led
to believe. I say, my older three will keep buying.
This is not necessarily as economical an option as I
remember from like my days of buying school lunch, I
mean partly just inflation of thirty years. But you know,
they have more options, like the high school cafeteria has
(27:30):
all sorts of a La Karte options, like much like
going to a corporate cafeteria, So I have not limited that.
I feel like, if you are choosing healthy things, I'm
not going to sit here and micro manage your lunch choices.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
But I do know that Jasper buys the.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Very expensive strawberry cut up fruit every day, and much
as in the airport, that tends to be the most
expensive produce option. So Alex and Henry are going to
need lunches. We're going to have to figure out how
to do that. Alex theoretically is making his own lunch,
being older than eight years old. However, he does need
(28:07):
a lot of supervision, as he will literally just put
one sleeve of crackers in a bag and call it
a day.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
So what, I.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Think that's so funny and also like, I mean, not
the best, not the worst. Maybe you know, it's like,
can you at least throw a yogurt in there?
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Some cheese to go with those crackers's and crackers like
cheese and crackers and raisins. I mean, yes, Grace, it's
like a hiking thing that you'd bring with you. But
I guess that's totally fine.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
With his lunch as being very repetitive. Could you do
like all the whole week at once, like put five
assembled bags like in the fridge?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, I mean we could, you know, he could totally
do that. Well, I'll bring it up with him. I mean,
I it doesn't take that much time, given how modular
it is like to throw a pre like a cheese stick,
a sleeve of crackers, a thing of raisins like a
yogurt in a bag is not a huge thing.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That's also not the worst lunch, by the way. I mean,
he's got like a lot of food groups. There's at
least some protein in there. And raisins are fruit reasons
are fruit there just dried fruit. And we also do
apple sauce packets sometimes, you know, as a way to
get a little bit of extra fruit type substance into
the child. Henry, I mean, I would like to figure
(29:28):
out something I was a little healthier because he will
eat food.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
But yeah, I don't know. I mean, the problem of
being the kid behind the kid that has some more
limitations is that you wind up pretty much eating the
same thing because people just make the same stuff for
the two of them. We'll see, we'll see how this
all turns out. How about back to school stopping You
guys have already been doing that. I assume, given that
we're recording this shortly before you guys go back to school, we've.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Done a lot of it. I mean I do a
lot of it online, and the kids are more likely
to just send me a link to something they want,
and if it seems reasonable, I can check it off
the list. I did make a big master list of
all the stuff that we needed and that was helpful.
We have uniforms and that's all done. I have to
share that Annifl's school has this very specific dress code
of shorts must be six point five inches or more
(30:18):
in en seam, and I'm like, point five, what's it?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
The point five?
Speaker 3 (30:25):
But you know what, we procure them. They're also a
lot of wear joggers, so that's comfy and nice. And
I will say my one new discovery this year was
the company Primary, which I feel like I've heard about
on other podcasts and stuff, but I had never shopped there.
Genevieve tends to be very picky about uniform bottoms, like
I'll buy her the cute little skirts and she won't
wear them. She'll only want to wear the little cartwheel
bike shorts, and so she's not really supposed to wear
(30:49):
bike shorts. And since she's entering this more official grade level,
I was like, Okay, let's get some actual shorts. And
Primary has like they're like gym shorts. They're not fancy,
but they're like nice like cottony feeling material and stretchy,
and she seemed to tolerate them more than most other
more uniform like pieces. So it's my uniform tip.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, shoes are always the thing, and I just have
the older boys like pick out stuff online and I
buy it and like half a size larger than what
they're wearing. Ruths feet are an unorthodox size, like we
have to uh, you know, and then she finds some
shoes uncomfortable. So it's a bit of a process finding
(31:32):
shoes for her, but it provides an opportunity. You have
a discussion about how we sometimes make do with things
that aren't perfect but are better than what we currently have,
and sometimes, you know, we can always be on the
lookout for better options, but need at least something. Yeah,
we don't have uniforms because obviously we're in public school.
Although I guess some public schools have uniforms, so maybe
(31:54):
that's not the case.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
But we do not.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Jasper will probably be getting some clothes. I noticed one
of his favorite shirts had a giant hole in the
elbow yesterday. But Sam and Alex may mostly he likes
some Oh that what's that? The black dog is like
one of those uh stores that's in like North.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
It's like Martha's Vineyard or Martha's Vineyard.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, so it's like Vineyard Vines but a little bit
less pricey, but similar type style. So he owns a
lot of things from there, and then we just buy
jeans and his size. Sam and Alex may mostly shop
in the hand me downs of the older boy. The
one issue with that is that Alex likes sweatpants mostly,
(32:44):
and sweatpants do not pass down at all.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
That doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
The elastic comes out of the waistband, it gets crusty,
like its county like, it doesn't hold its elasticity, and
they get holes in the knees. So we'll have to
purchase for that. But you know, you win, Sammy loose
and we now have like little boy black dress shoes
in every single size.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
And oh well, we'll do a quick PSA for We
had this as a question a while ago of like
what you need in a school emergency supply kit, things
that you tend to get asked for last minute. So
while you're doing your shopping, you might want to get
some poster board because that often comes up. You could
do yourself a favor and buy a trifold or poster
board or two if a child has some sort of
(33:32):
science project that they are going to need to present.
And we have also found that white t shirts get
requested for various things like that. You know, if they
have a show that they all need to be wearing white,
that's something that may come up.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Or people do taid eye projects or things like that.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
That's fun, all right, Well, yes, stock up the poster awards.
Totally agree. I think we still have a few more.
I'll have to check on my stash. We're going to
do a brief discussion activities because Lauren says.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Say this is gonna be the endless episode.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
No, you wrote something like I cannot deal with activities
yet I'm taking it one weekend time or something like that.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah, but you have become a travel sports parent and
a competitive gymnastics parent.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
That happened. I feel like there's probably a prior episode
where I was like, I'm not going to do this,
and then like we tried it and we liked it,
and the kids liked it, and now we've got for
next year like two sports with like a competition traveling
whatever element and I'm excited about it, for better or
for worse. You know, the funny thing that I always
(34:39):
hear people saying is like it will mess up our
family dinner. But you guys know, I've discussed this. We
don't have a good family like it's never been a
reality for us to do a regular weeknight family dinner,
mostly because Josh is not home reliably and on time
for that, and so we're not actually losing much when
it comes to that timeframe. I'm a little worried because
(35:00):
this year's stuff often goes till eight forty five, which
is like my bedtime. But you know what, again, we
will figure that out. I am happy that my kids
want to do things, and as long as they find
them fun, I am happy to support them in their endeavors.
The end.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
No, I think some wise people have said that for parenting,
you should not say I would never do X, because
your kids are about to never like someone has never
never before, Like they're going to be into whatever it
is that you have said you will never do so.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Within reason, obviously, but you probably want to.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Just figure out who your kids are as people before
you want to impose your philosophies and lifestyle entirely on them.
I think there's nothing wrong with being busy. I think
it's my role as a parent to support my kid's interests.
And I feel actually it would be kind of sad
if a kid really wanted to do stuff and parents said,
absolutely not, because we have to eat dinner at precisely
(36:01):
six pm every single night, Monday through Friday. I mean,
unless you, as a parent, are going to get eg
up everything else in your life to make that happen.
I think having family meals three times a week is great.
Three times a week is habit. Do it Friday, Saturday
and Sunday right or do Tuesday morning breakfast together. Change
your work schedule to make that happen. If family meals
matter to you, and then do Tuesday morning breakfast together
(36:23):
and let the kid be on the team they want
to be on. Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I love it. Well, how about you?
Speaker 3 (36:30):
How about your back to You're just not there yet,
but once school does roll around, do you get a
surge of like back to school liss energy at all?
I do feel like for me it is like a
more productive season. And also I like the shift of
the rhythm from summer for us. I mean, I know
people are like, well, summer's not slower for me, but
for us, it is definitely slower. And then I kind
(36:53):
of like like how it rubs up and changes, Like
I crave those shifts, and so I'm excited for it.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, I mean a lot of the stuff I do
week to week is pretty similar. But I mean, I
am planning to start the actual writing of my next
book in the fall. I've been doing a lot of
research over the summer, so I guess that will be
a shift. And I'm training for a half marathon in
late October, so that's kind of exciting. And yeah, so
(37:20):
you know, I like the back to school energy. I
like buying school supplies, but yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
I mean, the.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Extra stuff does make life more challenging, but I just,
you know, make sure that I have enough time to
work each week.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Take each week at a time.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Don't think I'm necessarily going to set stuff and forget it,
because with five kids, that never happens. But then I'm
going to remember, like, oh, yeah, and summer was a
lot less like that, right, We had weeks where there
was almost zero activities, So I think, you know, I
will keep that in mind during the weeks when I
get a little bit annoyed.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
How much is going on?
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Well, so this has been a lot of back to
school related topics. We have slightly a question related to that. So, Sarah,
how much do you plan family travel around kids' activities
or how much should you plan family vacations, et cetera
around kid activities?
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah, I don't have an answer for this. This is
more a question that I ask on my website, so
and I was interested in people's answers. In fact, we
had one person very adamantly that she really did not
plan unless it was the biggest tournament of the year
or like some incredibly big milestone event of the season.
(38:41):
She prioritized vacations and her kids are like elite level,
like going to be college athletes, kind of like that realm.
So for her to say that meant a lot other
than I joked with my friend that like, well, maybe
consider less talented. We can't afford that kind of lenience.
Now I'm just kidding. I personally don't feel like I
(39:02):
know what my policy yet is, but I will say
that Cameron is for the second year in a row,
missing the first week of soccer practice because we're going
on family trips, so obviously we're not like Diehard must
be at every single thing. And yet at the same time,
if I see a tournament or something on the calendar,
I sort of try not to put other stuff there.
(39:25):
So I don't know, still learning, still figuring that out.
I'm not going to give my definitive answer.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, it hasn't really come up that much for us
because you know, a lot of the activities have been
school based, and so they're probably not going to have
their major thing during the spring break or during the summer,
during Christmas.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
And you know my kids.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
So the one thing we have had this year, Sam
wants to run on the cross country team, and of
course they're doing their ramp up in August, which is
when we are on vacation. But he's going to go
to a couple of the practice that he can, and
I mean, he's a freshman and he hasn't done this before,
so it's not like he's going to be running varsity anyway.
So it's mostly like it's just to try it out.
(40:10):
So we'll see what the policies.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Are on that.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
But I am hoping that for the newbie freshmen joining
the team just for fun. The policies maybe a little
different than the people who are competing for the school
in the various tournaments. So we shall see. But that's
we're not taking our vacation.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
I mean, of all sports, that's one where you could
very easily be handed a training plan and do it
remotely to get ready for your season.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
And perhaps one.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Should do that, Sarah, that would be good, and maybe
a child could do more runs on their own and
not when they are structured from the everyone else doing
them around you.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
But you know we're not all our own people, all right.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Well, Loves of the week, I have to give a
school supply because of course mine is the Cocuyo Campus Notebook. Okay,
that sounds fancy, but they're actually not like I think
they're kind of like the Mead Spiral bound of Japan.
They are like these little kind of like glue bound notebooks,
(41:18):
and they're not terribly expensive. You can actually get them
at like Barnes and Noble. They're way marked up, like
they're way cheaper at Jetpens or maybe even on Amazon.
I don't know, but they're just like great. They're like
sixty or so pages the paper is lovely. They have
a great form of ruling that I really like. They
like lines with like almost like dots in the life.
I can't explain it, but they're great. Annabel requested them specifically.
(41:39):
She's like, I can you get me these for taking
notes because for her school they they're basically on laptops,
So they're like, use whatever paper supplies you feel will
support you, but we are not going to tell you
what to get. So thrilled to outfit her in Cocuyo
campus notebooks. So if you have not tried them, recommend.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I might have to put in an order. I'm always
looking for a good notebook. I like spiral bound with
a harder cover. Myself always cos or not that these
are not that okay, well then maybe not. My love
of the week is unexpected hand me down. So I
was out in the garage like hunting through stuff, and
I found a pair of crocs that fit Henry exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
So that's helpful for.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Going out in the yard to the pool or I
guess walking on the sand to the beach.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So I'm really.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Glad that we have this pair of cracks and I
don't have to buy a pair of sandals for him.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
It's all all good. Sometimes you win. You shopped your garage.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I shopped my garage. I probably need to shop my garage.
Shot my closets for more things I was getting. When
I was getting Alex ready for camp, I found more
pairs of size eight to ten shorts. I'm like, who
even knew we had all these pairs of eight to
ten shorts that still fit? So we packed those with them.
He had extras, didn't have to buy more.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
All good. Well, this has been a best of both worlds.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
We've been talking all things back to school as we
have for lo these many years, as our kids have
on to low these many grades. So who even knows
twenty twenty five back to School Extravaganza what we'll be
talking about. But for now, this is this one and
we will be back next week with more on making
work and life fit together.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
and you can.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us
next time for more on making work and life work together.
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