. . .means school supplies, new schedules, and a fresh start for children and parents alike.  ListPlanIt has everything you need to plan for Back to School including homework schedules, daily/weekly/monthly planning pages, an afterschool planner, school lunch planner, class roster, and so much more!

Try ListPlanIt‘s Back to School Planner page.

Now through August 31, 2010, receive a FREE Student ePlanner with any Membership purchase when you use code:  BACK2SCHOOL.  Simply add your choice of membership and ListPlanIt‘s Student ePlanner to your shopping cart, and the price of the ePlanner will be deducted when you use the code:  BACK2SCHOOL.

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Tradition is a favorite concept of mine. I love finding meaning in ordinary events when I consider their traditions. Birthdays are a great time to incorporate the traditions of both families (his and hers) and even to establish new traditions for your particular family unit. Birthdays are the one day of the year that a person gets to feel like a king or queen, prince or princess for a day. As loved ones, we have an obligation to make sure that the birthday boy or girl feels special. That doesn’t have to mean more presents or money spent. Birthdays are about special treatment and traditions turn normal activities into meaningful experiences.

• Birthday Fairy – A birthday tradition that developed in my family is new clothes laid out at the foot of the bed when the child wakes up, delivered by the Birthday Fairy. This may be silly, but I am determined not to “spoil” my children, but I don’t mind if other people spoil a little. The Birthday Fairy started as a way for me to give my children new birthday clothes without it appearing that I am giving them too many presents. Besides, what child at 3 or 4 wants to open a present and find clothes? They love finding mysterious new clothes right when they awaken on their birthday.
• Decorate the Door – I love Home Based Mom‘s birthday tradition of decorating the birthday boy or girl’s bedroom door and allowing them to jump through it after a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday.
• Breakfast – I love starting the day off with a special breakfast of some sort. I usually take into consideration the birthday girl or boy’s favorites. Juggling Motherhood had an excellent post on her tradition of breakfast in bed.
• Birthday “China” - I know several people that have designated birthday dishes reserved for birthdays only. If you can work out a trip to a ceramic shop, it can be made extra-special if a parent makes a plate for each child or if a child is allowed to create a custom design. Then bring these out just one day each year.
  
• Wish Candles – A very thoughtful birthday tradition comes from Advice 4 Parenting Blog where she uses a number candle for the birthday boy or girl, but then hands each member of the family (or guest) a regular candle and allows them to place it on the cake as they offer a wish to the honoree. Then the candles are lit and blown out as usual.
• Dinner – For many families, this means giving the birthday girl or boy their choice of a special dinner at home. For other families, it might mean a dinner in a favorite restaurant. Mealtimes are great for sensory enjoyment and are oftentimes moments for creating memories.

What birthday traditions do you have in you family?

ListPlanIt‘s updated Birthday ePlanner has everything you need to plan your child’s birthday. Get it for FREE * through the end of July 2010 when you purchase any 2 of our improved ePlanners. (*Birthday ePlanner will be emailed separately within 24 hours of purchase.)

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I can’t believe it, but next year I will have graduated from Hoisington High School 20 years ago.  I remember when I thought 20 years was so long.  Now, it is time for a reunion of my old friends.  I graduated in a class of 42 from a small town in Kansas.  I rarely go back since my parents moved and I almost never get to see those people who were a part of my most formative years, but I hold a special place for them.  I am excited to be a part of the planning committee, even though I live halfway across the country.  With the internet, it is possible to do a lot of the planning without having to be there.

Whether it is a class reunion, a family reunion, a church reunion, or a reunion of a group of friends, planning takes a lot of thought and preparation – and lists.

• Dates – Choosing is a good date and time for a large gathering is extremely important and almost impossible to get perfect.  There will always be those who are not able to make it during that time.  The best advice is to talk to as many participants as possible and then choose the most open time for a reunion.  Then be sure to notify as many people as possible of the dates so they can be added immediately to calendars.
• Invitations/Fundraising – Putting together a list of names and addresses of the guests is going to be one of the first things to tackle.  Put out a call to other classmates/family members for the names and addresses that they have.  You’ll need a list of those that plan on attending so you can know how to divide up costs.  It is customary for  each person to pay a set fee in order to participate in the festivities.   Ask if any classmates who own their own business or have some connections to business owners if they would like to help sponsor the reunion to either lower the cost or increase the fun.
• Location - In my hometown, nearly every class has their reunion over Labor Day weekend, which means that in a town of 3,000 people, there are few places for meeting.  It is important to nail down the location of the reunion as soon as possible.  Maybe you are planning to have multiple activities the weekend of the reunion involving an informal gathering, a more formal gathering, a family gathering, or other.  Be sure to plan out each location and put down deposits if necessary.
  
• Food – Potluck may be difficult for a reunion unless everyone involved is from the same town.  Otherwise, plan to either cater food or meet in a restaurant.  People always tend to relax over good food and a beverage.  This is usually the biggest cost of the reunion.
  
• Entertainment/Activities – As nice as it is to see old friends, it is helpful to have something to do during the party.  Booking a band, watching a slideshow, or organizing a fun activity are good ways to get people to interact and enjoy getting reacquainted.
  
• Details – Throwing a large party for numerous people takes a lot of preparation and even more work.  Some things to keep in mind and to help things go more smoothly:  name badges, old photos, accommodations (a block of rooms), have souvenirs made (screen printed t-shirts, cups, or other item), etc.
  
• Help – Don’t try to do this alone.  Form a committee.  Put someone in charge of each of the areas of planning.  Establish a Facebook page where participants can communicate and make suggestions.  Many hands make light work.

Have you ever planned a reunion of family or friends?  What advice do you think is most beneficial to those planning now?

Summer is in full swing now, but Back to School will be here before we know it.  A lot of rushing around and headaches can be saved if we’ll take the time to think about what our child(ren) might need next year and begin to collect supplies so they are ready for their first day.  Take a look at the newspaper circulars for the best sales.  Check out the dollar stores.  Look around online for the things he or she will need.  Get your hands on your school’s supply list for your child’s grade level.  If you are a homeschooling family, take this opportunity to sit down and create a list of the items that you will need for the upcoming schoolyear.  Use ListPlanIt‘s School Supply Shopping List to create a master so you know just how many of everything you have to buy.

• Packs – Backpacks, lunch bags and boxes
• Writing Implements – pencils, pens, crayons, colored pencils, markers, highlighters, dry erase markers
• Paper - spiral notebooks, composition notebooks, lined paper, construction paper, post-it notes
• Tools – erasers, scissors, glue sticks, pencil sharpener, calculator, compass
• Organizers - 3-ring binder(s), pencil box, homework folders, dividers,
• Hygienic Supplies – tissues, clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, ziploc bags, baby wipes

When do you usually buy your school supplies?  What tips and tricks do you use when scouting out supplies at the best price?

ListPlanIt.com has many tools and resources available for families preparing to go back to school.  Get everything you need with a membership to all that ListPlanIt has to offer or instantly download the pages you need in our updated Student ePlanner.

Childhood is the foundation upon which all people build their lives.   Each building block is created from experiences, both good and bad. Our job as parents is to give our children as many positive experiences as possible and the tools they need to carve out a happy and fulfilled life.  Birthday celebrations are a way of showing children how much we value them and how grateful we are that they entered our lives.  How you choose to celebrate a child’s birthday is up to you.  Here are some steps to take to insure your child’s happy birthday.

• Consider Traditions – Drawing upon birthday traditions from your childhood makes for a meaningful experience for the whole family. Maybe you inadvertently stumbled upon something fun and unique when your first baby began having birthdays. Continuing those activities throughout each child’s youth will create strong memories and lasting bonds.
• Choose an Event -  For some people that means a party complete with guests, games, and grub. Parties are an excellent way to share a birthday with friends and extended family. You can plan a party at home or at a location that caters to birthday crowds. For others, a more intimate, less busy way to celebrate a birthday is to do something either familiar or out of the ordinary. Maybe bowling is a favorite pastime and the birthday boy can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to do something that everyone loves. Maybe your birthday girl has always wanted to visit the science museum. Birthdays are a chance to get to do something special.
  
• Gather Gifts – Children will likely not remember everything they got for their 7th birthday; however, gift-giving is an important part of most birthday celebrations.   Create a budget?  Set a limit of a certain number of gifts in order to make it fair and consistent.  Find out what your children really wants or needs.   The investment of time and planning that you put toward the tradition of gift-giving will more than payoff in the face of your young loved one.
• Plan Festive Food – Because some of our happiest moments together as a family are spent around a table, meals should be given some extra attention on a birthday. For breakfast, go beyond the ordinary cereal or toast and make some muffins the day before or make your family’s favorite banana pancakes with whipped cream smiley faces on the birthday morning. For lunch on a school day, include a note or a special treat in your child’s lunchbox. In the summertime, plan a picnic lunch in a favorite spot. Dinner should be the birthday honoree’s choice: a favorite home cooked meal or a favorite restaurant. On the theme of food, one very important part of a birthday celebration is the cake. Whether you bake a cake from scratch or from a box or buy it from a local baker, nothing says birthday like a cake with candles all aglow.

What are your favorite ways to say Happy Birthday to your child(ren)?

ListPlanIt‘s updated Birthday ePlanner has everything you need to plan your child’s birthday.  Get it for FREE * through the end of July 2010 when you purchase any 2 of our improved ePlanners.  (*Birthday ePlanner will be emailed separately within 24 hours of purchase.)

You may be thinking, “The end of summer?  It is only the beginning of July!”  However, I know that once July is over, August brings thoughts of school supplies and new school clothes.  We will begin to think more about the season to come and less about enjoying what is left of the current season.  So make the most of it while you can.  To dos don’t have to be work.  Summer to dos should be all about partaking in summer fruit, eating as much ice cream as you can,  visiting the ball field to watch a game, and anything involving water.  To remind you of some of the possibilities for the rest of summer, here is a list of some ideas for you to either add to your To Do List or your calendar.  Scheduling projects and even fun will insure your chances of getting it done.

• Go Somewhere – You may have a vacation planned, and in that case you are hopefully to a place where you feel prepared.  If you couldn’t find the time or money for a vacation this summer, then it is not too late to look around you, find someplace new, and make some memories for this summer.  It might be in the form of a day trip, a camping trip, or a weekend getaway.  Go someplace you haven’t been before or revisit an old summer haunt from when you were a kid. 
• Pleasure in the Taste of Summer - My family finds immense satisfaction in growing some of our food in our own garden, visiting our local CSA farm to pick up our harvest share, and finding U Pick farms in our area for fresh summer fruit.  Stock up on nutrition while the food is at its freshest.  Buy or pick extra to can or freeze and savor the taste of summer, even in the winter.
• Get Outside – Just thinking of all of those cold winter months makes me want to go outdoors and soak up the vitamin D.  Whether you are in the pool or tinkering in the gardens or reading a book while the children play in the yard, find a way to get outside.  No more excuses for not fitting exercise into your day.  You can burn calories and build muscles by taking a walk with the kids, swimming, or jumping on the trampoline.
• Summer Projects - You know you had a list of things to accomplish this summer.  They are not going to magically get done.  It may be more difficult with children around and you can probably think of other things you would like to get done, but think through the steps for each project.  Schedule a start date and set goals with dates for each step.
• End of Season Summer Shopping – This can be tricky if you are not prepared.  Don’t do any end-of-the-season shopping unless you’ve taken the time to see what you have and what you will need for next summer.  This is a great time to get some Back to School clothes for your children.  After the 4th of July, stores will start to mark down their summer clothing and you can find some great bargains for next summer if you start shopping around now.
• Make Time for Yourself – Whether you love to read or scrapbook or shop for antiques, be sure that you are scheduling time each day or each week to do the things you love.  Share your passion with your family, go it alone, or do a combination.  Broaden your horizons by studying a new language or taking up a musical instrument or learning to knit.  There should always be room for self improvement.  Teach children to see the meaning of lifelong learning.

What is on your summer to do list?

I love summer food.  I especially love it when it is cooked outdoors.  The Fourth of July is a great excuse to eat your old grilled favorites (hamburgers and hot dogs) or to try something new.  With summer gardens ready to harvest, a 4th of July cookout can mean lots of color on the table.  If you haven’t already, start planning your 4th of July menu and shopping list before the stores run out of your favorites.  Here are some ideas for your cookout or picnic.

• Main Dish – If you want to break away from Cheeseburgers this year, make your guests mouths water when you serve them Kabobs (Sirloin or Vegetable), Grilled Chicken, or Salmon.
• Side Dishes – A little preparation makes an American Potato Salad or a Three Pepper Pasta Salad the perfect make ahead side.  Wow a crowd with the brilliant display of a Patriotic Gelatin Salad.
  
• Fresh from the Garden or Farm – Local farms and gardens are at the peak of their growing season with everything you need to make Roasted Corn on the Cob, Cucumber Watermelon Salad, and Fried Green Tomatoes
• Drinks - Refeshing, family-friendly options include Watermelon Cooler Slushy, Strawberry Lemonade, or an Arnold Palmer.  For the adults, they may want to let their hair down a little with a Strawberry Slush Delight or a Coconut Margarita.
  
• Desserts – Have a Red, White, and Blue Cheesecake, Shortcake, Trifle, or Fruit Pizza.

What is on the menu for your 4th of July cookout or picnic?

ListPlanIt.com has many tools and resources available for Holidays and Occasions and Meal Planning.   Members have access to all that ListPlanIt has to offer for a full year.  Join today!

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June winds down this week and July gets off to a good start with Independence Day on the 4th.  This week’s Weekly Planner is blank to allow you to plan out the week leading up to the holiday or to leave a relaxing blank, in honor of the lazy days of summer.

• Monday (6/28/2010)
  
• Tuesday (6/29/2010)
  
• Wednesday (6/30/2010)
  
• Thursday (7/1/2010)
  
• Friday (7/2/2010)
  
• Saturday (7/3/2010)
  
• Sunday (7/4/2010) Independence Day

If you are a subscriber to ListPlanIt‘s weekly e-newsletter, The L.I.S.T., then you have discovered what has become a popular feature called The Week Ahead. We look at the week ahead and remind you of important dates, suggest good ways to catch up or get ahead, and give you a chance to get a good start on the upcoming week.

For children, summer vacation is the pinnacle of their year.  Swimming, playing, sleeping in, and being at home are a few of the things that epitomize childhood summers.  For parents who work from home, notions of summer vacation are a little different.   Those who operate a service business may need to spend much of the time away from home.  In this case, arrangements for your child(ren) must be made.  If you write or work independently from home, then you will have to be creative.  Here are some tips to work productively while children are on summer vacation.

• Keep a Detailed Calendar and Plan Ahead – You need to know what is happening ahead of time.  Keep a calendar and put everything on it that MUST be done (dentist appointments, baseball practice, etc).  Each weekend, take a look at the coming week and determine what blocks of time you can devote to work.  As much as possible, assign goals to each block:  e.g. Monday morning (work) – write blog post, write guest post, spend 15 minutes in social media.  You will be more productive during your work times if you are able to work toward achieving certain goals. 
• Be Realistic about your Schedule- Those who obtain childcare may know exactly the hours that they can work, while those without childcare may have to block out times of their day to fit in work.  I suggest to those without childcare that you get to know the quiet times in your home.  This may mean that you are up before the sun and well after the sun has gone down.  The only way you will be productive is to find quiet blocks of time.
• Have an “Office” – You may or may not have an entire room that can be used solely as an office, but either way you should be sure to establish rules and boundaries for your office space.  For example, there should be no loud play in the office area.  It is understandable that if you have toddlers, they may need to play around your feet, but you can begin to stress to them that this is where you work and it should be a quiet zone.  Encourage behavior and volume-control that is library-appropriate.
• Schedule Playdates - If your children are school-aged, then you may be able to arrange a weekly “swap”.  Have a friend come play at your house for a morning or an afternoon, and then later in the week your child can play at the friend’s house.  I find that even with friends at my house, my children are happy and occupied, and it gives me a chance to get things done.
• Find Places to Work and Play – There are many places that you can let children play with minimal supervision.  You can bring along your work and try to get bits and pieces done.  Take short breaks to play with the kids.  Here are a few examples:  1)  your yard.  Grab a chair and keep an eye on the kids as they play in the yard or ride their bikes on the sidewalk or blow bubbles.  2) an age-appropriate indoor or outdoor playground. Keep one eye on the kids and the other on your laptop. 3) a pool or beach.  Obviously, you need to be confident here that your child(ren) can handle the depth of the water.  If you have non-swimmers, then a sprinkler or splash park is the way to go.
• Be Flexible – As a parent, you already get plenty of practice with being flexible.  As a work-at-home parent, you will definitely be called on to think outside the box.  Your work may be done primarily on a computer, but if you are going somewhere without an internet connection and you need to work, then you may need to bring your calendar to get some planning done or a pen and paper to write the old-fashioned way.  Your work may involve supplies for crafting, but if you must squeeze in some work away from your inventory, you may choose to bring your checkbook to write out some bills.

What are some tips that you have used to manage work and family in the summertime?

ListPlanIt.com has many tools and resources available for work-at-home parent whether it is Business Planning, Meal Planning, Home Management, Family Matters, or Time Management.

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June is national Camping Month, and with the official start of summer, now is a good time to grab a tent (or rent a cabin) and head to nature.  Camping does take a fair amount of planning and preparation, so start now.

• Monday (6/21/2010) First Day of Summer / Summer Solstice – There may have already been a few false starts to summer (Memorial Day, last day of school), but today is also the longest day of the year.  Celebrate by making sunrise a family event tonight.
• Tuesday (6/22/2010) Plan a Camping Trip - For some people, camping means sleeping under the stars. For some, camping means sleeping in a camper.  No matter how you camp, it is an excellent way to bond with your family and nature.  Camping has a tendency to produce powerful memories.
• Wednesday (6/23/2010) Create a Camping List – ListPlanIt.com has a thorough camping list – ready to print and check off!  Don’t forget sleeping bags, flashlights, and camp cookware.
• Thursday (6/24/2010) Plan the Camp Menu & Shopping List – Will you grill or roast over an open fire?  Will you eat sandwiches?  Will you invite family & friends?  Be sure to spend a few extra minutes making your shopping list so that you don’t forget anything.
• Friday (6/25/2010) Halfway to Christmas – It’s hard to believe, I know, but Christmas is exactly 6 months from this day.  No need to panic.  Are you already saving money for the holidays?  Are you keeping your eyes peeled for bargains?  Being aware will help you be prepared.
• Saturday (6/26/2010) Go Camping - Whether you camp in a tent or in an RV, camping is a great way to connect both with your family and the outdoors.
• Sunday (6/27/2010) Smell the Roses – If you wake up by a lake today or in the mountains or in a field of wildflowers, be present.  Be in the moment.  Don’t think of tomorrow.  Enjoy today!

If you are a subscriber to ListPlanIt‘s weekly e-newsletter, The L.I.S.T., then you have discovered what has become a popular feature called The Week Ahead. We look at the week ahead and remind you of important dates, suggest good ways to catch up or get ahead, and give you a chance to get a good start on the upcoming week.