This post is sponsored by Yoplait®. All opinions are my own.
I remember when my girls first entered school, it was a shock to our daily routine. Being at home meant later wake-up times and slower mornings. Now it seems like everything is in fast forward. The girls get home from school and before you know it, it’s already time to get ready for the next day. I want them to have downtime, but I also need them to be productive, get in some rest and have some fun playtime. It takes some getting used to, but I finally feel like we have a good after-school routine going that includes not only them being productive but also getting outdoors and having some fun. I wanted to share our after-school routine here in the hopes that it might help you mamas for transitioning to full school days for your kiddos.
I try to break up the monotony of our day-to-day by taking the kids to the park after-school at least once a week. This week we brought some yummy snacks from Yoplait®. My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE yogurt and to have these new flavors on hand this week was such a treat! Yoplait is always coming out with new fun flavors. We are fully stocked with all the NEW Yoplait® yogurts including the Starburst® Original Style yogurt, which comes in four different flavors – Strawberry, Cherry, Lemon and Orange. The flavors are limited-edition and so yummy, so be sure to check your local stores for them.
We also brought along new Unicorn Go-GURT® yogurt. My kids LOVE Go-GURT, even for their lunch snacks during school. For our park days, I like to freeze and thaw them which makes it easier for me to take them on the go. The new Unicorn Go-GURT yogurt comes in really fun flavors – Raspberry & Rainbows and Strawberry Banana Sparkle. The kids always get so excited about our little park trips after school and this day they were extra happy with our after school snacks from Yoplait! I’m calling it a MOM WIN!!
On days that we can’t make it to the park, our after-school routine changes a little bit and it looks something like this: Once my girls get home from school and change out of their uniforms, they wash their hands and head straight to the snacks. They’re usually pretty hungry when they get home so I make it easy for them and have a snack bin inside of our fridge as well as a bin inside of our pantry that has all their favorite snacks so they can help themselves. I love the NEW Yoplait flavors because there are so many that the kids never get bored! Yoplait is a great snack option because each cup of Yoplait Starburst® low fat yogurt provides a good source of calcium and vitamin D. These important nutrients help build strong bones and maintain them throughout life. Talk about mom winning here! After snacks, it’s time for homework and sometimes we snack during homework time Today they had a fun activity to do after homework that fit the theme of the new Unicorn Go-GURT yogurt perfectly! For the girls’ first school year I didn’t do homework time until later in the evening, but what I found was that if we do homework time right after school, it’s easier for the kids to get more downtime. Once the homework is out of the way they can relax and play and not have to worry about it the rest of the night.
After homework it’s time for unwinding. That could mean anything from playing in the room with their dolls to sitting in the kitchen chatting with me about their day. We try to avoid TV and tablet time until later on during the evening. This usually gives them a chance to share with me, or each other, how the day went, gives them time to laugh and play. Some days, usually on Fridays, we come home, pack-up the snacks and head to the park. Since we don’t have to worry about homework time on Fridays, it’s a great break from our weekly routine. After homework time we do 20-30 minutes of reading each night. Since my girls are in 1st and 2nd grade they read to themselves, whether that is a book they brought home from their school library or a book online. Reading each night is part of their homework but they also love to read so getting them to read each night is easy. Bath time comes next, then it’s dinner time and then depending on what everyone wants to watch, we either do TV time or tablets. That is our typical after-school routine. Things do change a little bit on the days the kids are in extracurricular activities after school but most days, having this schedule makes us all feel more balanced and rested and ready to start the next day. To learn more about our new Unicorn Go-GURT yogurt and Yoplait Starburst Style yogurt varieties, check them out on Instagram and at Yoplait.com.
