Getting back to school ready + Downloadable checklist

**Posted in collaboration with very.co.uk**

When the children first started school I celebrated the start of the Summer holidays with no thoughts to getting their back to school clothing ready just yet, after all, we had 6 whole weeks to get those sorted and organised. Of course, the time passes far too quickly for us all – even with the “I’m bored” from the kids or the “Please just 5 more minutes to answer these emails and get this work done” from me.

It can be a struggle for me as I do work from home, and being self-employed there is no sick pay nor holiday pay, if I don’t do the work I don’t get paid, however at 6 & 9 years old the kids are used to this now and are far better at amusing themselves while I get some work done. They know once the work is finished the fun can begin.

Of course, as well as heading out to have fun with the children, or making our own fun at home, there other things which need doing such as the housework, food shopping, general errands and cooking. We all muck in and the children help me with set jobs now they are older so when those are all done the last thing they want to then do is be dragged around the shops searching for all of their school uniform and items they need for the new school year.

It does need to be done though. I’m sure your children are the same and are growing like weeds. I swear I put these kids to bed and they’ve grown at least a foot by the morning.

Back to school shopping can be made a lot easier and done online which is what I tend to do these days. It means I am able to write a checklist (see below for a downloadable list should you need one) and get everything I need in one place – with no searching from store to store at the end of summer only to discover that once again they’ve sold out of the size plimsols I need or don’t have the size polo shirts we are searching for.

By shopping online, even if those items are out of stock, most sites will email you when they are back in stock or just send out once they are in stock again.

Plus – not taking the children into actual store saves me so much money – you know what shopping with children is like – they NEED that sweet which is next to the counter, the toy strategically placed in their eye line and a simple shop can soon mount up with many extras thrown into the baskets.

Very.co.uk has everything you could need for getting the children back to school ready this summer. You probably already know but as well as having its own brand V by Very, which is known for its quality and style and of course being very affordable they also stock all the latest big name brands too.

I have been shopping online using Very for many years now and it became my go-to for school uniform about 2 years ago as it is so easy to find all I need and also to spread the cost at the same time, after all, I do have 2 children in school uniforms which can work out rather costly.

They have huge choices when it comes to school shoes, from brands including Clarkes, Kickers, Dr Martens, Nike and Lelli Kelly.

The only items I need to double-check with Emmy before buying online are stationery items and her new school bag/water bottle – being almost 10 years old those are super important to her and she needs to approve of them before I hit checkout and waste money on something before she’s deemed it ‘cool enough for school’!

When do you get all your children’s school uniforms? At the start of the summer or do you leave it to the last minute?

To make things easier I thought it would be helpful to make a list of back to school items us parents will be searching for, a checklist to help you out. And because I am super nice I have made this a downloadable checklist which you can all use, just double click the image below to print/download:

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