When people ask if you’re glad the kids are going back to school, do you deny it on the outside in case it sounds like you’re a bad parent while letting a small ‘Yippee!’ loose on the inside?
Don’t worry, there are plenty of brilliant mums and dads who love their children to the ends of the earth but are still glad to have them back in their school and after-school extra-curricular activities. Thinking up ways to safely entertain them (and without taking a second mortgage) can have you stretched thin by around this time in the Australian summer holidays. You’ve thought up ways to keep them busy helping in the kitchen and they’ve long since bypassed Chocolate Crackles in favour of kelp foam and sandcastle crumb deconstructions. Their audition video for the next season of MasterChef Junior has been edited and tested on social media. They’ve made so many Lavender Bliss Bath Bombs you’re thinking of selling them on Gumtree. (The bath bombs, not the kids.)
Don’t worry, there aren’t many sleeps to go before school starts again, so here’s a guide to making it as easy as you can for them and for you.
Don’t Buy the Stationery Store
If you’re anything like me, a stationery store is better than a lolly shop used to be back in the days when we ate lollies. (Ok, back when we ate lollies out in the open without feeling judged for it.) It can be hard not to throw in a bunch of things for yourself and coming home to find you’ve gone overboard. When heading out to buy stationery for the kids, inhale Young Living Clarity™ essential oil blend or authentic peppermint oil (close your eyes when you bring the peppermint bottle close to your nose, as the menthol can be bracing). This will help keep your thinking on track.
And it’s not just your own impulses you need to resist. When you’re trying to stay ‘on list’ and are being bombarded with requests for ‘off list’ items by those adorable faces looking up at you doey-eyed, all fiscal sense can go out the window! A fun thing to do is to tell them ahead of time that they can look for extra things they love along the way and once you’ve found everything on the official list, they have five minutes to take you on a quick scoot around to choose two extra items each up to a certain dollar value. This adds fun to the excursion while keeping the outlay curtailed.
Energise Their Lunchboxes
Stock up on Young Living NingXia Red® single serve sachets to pop in with their lunch boxes each day. These are tremendous for boosting antioxidants and energy naturally, and kids love the taste. (So do adults, so make sure you have a bottle for you in the fridge, too.)
Prevent Lousy Hair
To help ward off lice, mix up a blend of equal parts of authentic essential oils of lavender, melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree), eucalyptus radiata and geranium in a glass bottle with a dropper. Large pharmacies usually have such bottles available. Lice aren’t fond of these oils so washing hair regularly with a shampoo containing them can help make your children’s hair not so appealing as a potential residence.
Note: Not all essential oils are created equal. Far from it. Quality varies immensely, so please ensure you are choosing a brand with complete transparency from seed to seal, such as Young Living. Discover why we love them so much in this short video. And essential oils are potent, so when handling them, please follow directions on the bottle and the usual guidelines for safe use of authentic essential oils.
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In a 30mL travel-size shampoo bottle, put a couple of drops of the oil blend then top up with the kids’ usual shampoo, shake well and use as their regular shampoo. You’ll need to replace it often but this is an easy way to control how much essential oil you’re adding and get it evenly blended through the mixture – along with keeping an eye on how much they are using. If the travel bottle is bigger than this size, multiply quantities accordingly. If you condition their hair as well as shampooing, add the oil blend to their conditioner instead.
If a lice problem does occur, you can use the same essential oil blend for heavier artillery. Mix a teaspoon of this with a teaspoon of shampoo, massage well into the scalp and hair and cover with a disposable shower cap for 30 minutes. Rinse well then complete the process with a final rinse of a cup of water with a few drops of the oil blend added. Be sure to do this with your child’s head tilted backwards and make sure the final rinse water does not get into their eyes. If the rinse water does get in their eyes, flush with a little pure olive oil or any pure vegetable oil. Keep the eyes closed and the sting should dissipate quickly.
Back to School Morning and Night Before
Diffuse authentic lavender essential oil or Young Living Peace & Calming™ blend while everyone is getting ready for bed (plus a couple of drops smoothed into the soles of the feet before bedtime) and again in the morning. It will help set a cheerful and smooth track for the day, free of jitters, tears and melt-downs.
Have a great time making the most of the last of the school holidays for now!
