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Back to school
The first weeks of school set the routines for the year. These plans cover mornings, bedtimes, reading, screens, and the talk about how it's really going.
14 plans · Most useful August and September · Every one says plainly whether a real dad has tried it yet.
The plans
Pick by age and time →
The 20-minute weekly parent huddle
Calendar, who does what, one money number and one thank-you. Twenty minutes, once a week, for the adults running the house.
Sort, fold, put away: the laundry crew
Sort by person, match socks, fold towels, put it away. One clean basket, thirty minutes, and a laundry job each kid can own.
A chore chart you'll actually keep
Two or three jobs per kid, picked together, with what done looks like written down. A 10-minute Sunday review keeps it going.
Library card day: their own card, their own books
Sign them up for their own card, get the tour, hunt the shelves with a list and check out a stack they chose. About 90 minutes.
Chapter-book nights: 20 minutes, voices, cliffhangers
One chapter book, 20 minutes a night. Recap, do the voices, stop on a cliffhanger, and ask what happens next.
Make a family media plan together
Use the free AAP Family Media Plan to pick screen-free places and times together, and what everyone commits to, including you.
The first-phone talk and agreement
Before the phone is theirs: why they want it, what it starts with, the rules you write together, and the one rule that never changes.
The feelings check-in: a number, a word, what helps
Draw a 1–5 scale, go first, help them find the word, then ask what would help. Two minutes a day once it sticks.
The car-ride talk: hard topics, side by side
One drive, one topic. Open small, ask and wait, say your one thing, and stop before the driveway. Side by side beats face to face.
A week of “when-then”: calm limits that stick
Three daily battles, one calm sentence each: “When the shoes are on, then we go.” Say it once, wait, follow through. One week.
Split the invisible jobs: a who-does-what list
List the jobs nobody sees, give each one a single owner from noticing to done, and check the list again in a month.
Park the phones outside the bedrooms
One charging spot in a shared room, one nightly parking time for every device, Dad's included, and a plain alarm clock for mornings.
The school-morning launch pad
One spot by the door for backpack, shoes and lunch, a five-item check the night before, and a bedtime that fits the wake-up.
The first-week-of-school check-in
One or two real questions a day for the first week, more listening than fixing, and a short list of signs that mean it's time to call the school.
Tick a few on Start here to print them as one pack. Other times of year: Winter indoor days · Summer break · Holidays.