How to make “back-to-school” activities a breeze.

It’s never too late to start planning for a productive school year ahead. With a little creativity and a range of helpful back-to-school tools at your disposal, you can take the stress out of family scheduling and ensure weekday routines stay on track throughout the school year.

Epson, the global leader in printing technology, provides some useful tips to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

1. Put a name on it – Replacing lost school clothes, books and other items can be an expensive process. Help your kids keep their belongings safe throughout the school year and beyond by using iron-on name tags to label clothes, and adhesive labels for stationery and books. The Epson LW-400 label maker allows you to print and save custom labels to your choice of different fonts, colours and sizes . Best of all, Epson’s label tapes are water-resistant and highly durable.
2. Create a ‘drop station’ – Avoid the hassle of last minute homework surprises and parent notices crumpled at the bottom of school bags by creating a family ‘drop station’ – a designated area in the home where the kids can hang up their school bags and place any important letters or homework to be done in wall mounted folders, along with a white board for jotting down to-do lists and goals for the week. Get the kids to tick off completed tasks on the white board, which helps get them into a routine of getting things done on time while instilling a sense of responsibility. You can find ready-made calendars and goal planners here, or simply design your own using basic software already available on your PC.
3. Make vision boards – Along with goal charts, vision boards will help kids to visualise what they would like to achieve over the next three, six and 11 months – whether at school, at home or in their social lives. Gather everyone around a large table or on the floor, get the kids to print and cut out pictures and words from the Internet, or from magazines, that represent specific things they want to happen over the next year. Provide each child with a large empty canvas or board to stick their pictures on to, and hang these up where they will be seen and reflected on every day. Creating a space for the kids to display what they really want in life will help make their goals a reality.
4. Give them something to look forward to at lunchtime – Getting kids to eat healthily is no easy task, especially with junk food options readily available at school tuck shops and in vending machines. You can easily turn boring fruits and veggies into fun characters, simply by getting a little crafty in the kitchen. You can also save precious minutes on school mornings by preparing everything you need the night before. Encourage them to think positively through the day by including printed notes with inspirational quotes and sayings for them to read during their lunch breaks.
5. Design a custom on-the-go homework kit – Make sure homework is done no matter where the kids go after school – whether it’s after care or even a friend’s house – by giving them a homework kit stocked with everything they might need to get their work done – pens and colouring pencils, rulers, scissors, erasers, extra paper, calculators, and even times table charts. You can find beautiful printable charts online, as well as free printable motivational pages to use as a decorative feature for the inside of the kits. Epson’s Ink Tank System printers, like the Epson L382, offer low-cost printing with high-quality results, allowing you to print over 13,000 pages in black and 6,500 pages in colour, before needing to refill the ink.

Get back into the swing of things with these nifty #BacktoSchool tips from Epson. With a little help from your Epson label maker and home printer, there’s no limit to what’s possible in the year ahead. Visit www.epson.co.za for more information about Epson’s innovative range of printing, scanning and labelling products.

The Epson L382 printer is available in selected retail and e-tail outlets at a recommended retail price of R3 179.82 excluding VAT.

The Epson LW-400 label maker is available in selected retail outlets and e-tail outlets at a recommended retail price of R1 130.70 excluding VAT.

For more information about this product and other Epson printers visit www.epson.co.za