Back to School - iD's Top Tips for Students & Parents.
Maria McCabe.
23/08/17.
It probably feels like Summer just began and before you know it, you’re already drowning in the Back to School bonanza! It’s a hectic time for parents and college goers but it is in fact a great time for everyone to re-assess our daily activities and start doing some exciting new things!
We’ve come up with up our Top tips for parents, students AND Everyone in between!
For the Parent.
For many parents, kids going back to school is a joyous time! (hehe jk). Time to get them organised.
- Educational Apps & Games - We’re all for apps and games useful for educational screen time. If you’ve got a little one aged between 4-9, ‘Symmetry School: Learning Geometry' is fantastic. Developed in Ireland and available for iPad on iTunes, at €4.49 it’s more expensive than other apps, but worth every cent. If your kids are a little older and in secondary school, studyclix.ie has taken Ireland by storm in the last year assisting both students and teachers with study plans. Join for free and get a headstart!
- Bag a bargain - You may need to buy new bags, shoes or trousers - get in early to the School stores. You don’t want to leave it last minute until all the good stuff is gone. There are tons of bargains to be had with Tesco, Aldi and Marks and Spencers amongst others offering great value uniforms! Remember to buy the trousers a few inches longer!
- Lunch Plan - Stock up on handy snack items easy to throw into the lunch boxes. Bulk buy yoghurts and fruits so you’ve less shopping to do mid-week. Get back into the routine of sandwich prepping the night before so you’ve more time in the morning. And of course there’s an app to help you to plan smart! LaLa Lunchbox does just that and it’s available in Ireland on iTunes. For Android there are lots of options and School Lunch Food Maker 2 is our fav!
For the College Student.
- Study right, stay organised - Right kids. “Work hard, Play harder” should be every student’s motto! So if you do work hard, you can really enjoy all those college parties and rave it up. Get started early with planning your study & projects to help you stay on top of tasks each week. Our favourite all rounder is Google Drive. If you don’t already have a cloud storage option, by the time your first round of projects are due, you’ll need one. With Drive you get 15GB for free, plus support for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides so collaboration with other students on projects is a no brainer. Fear no more of losing that essay you were working on for hours without saving and the laptop shuts down! Plus, why pay when Google Drive is free? It’s available on the Play Store and App Store and via your desktop computer, all with your gmail account.
- Laptop / Tablet Promos - Never a better time to grab a new laptop, especially if you’re starting college first time round. Keep an eye on on the end of Summer & Back to School sales. Our friends at Currys PC World have great prices on laptops, tablets and new headphones to help you look good, even in the library. #studysheek!
- Bag a bargain - All students know the value of their student card! So make sure you carry it with you in your wallet for bagging every possible deal out there. We also recommend the UNiDAYS app (on iTunes here & the Google Play Store here) which is great as it offers free and exclusive discounts for students that can be used in store or online offering promo codes for sites such as ASOS and Boohoo.
For everyone else in between…
So if you’re not a parent off on school runs or changing nappies, and your beans on toast days are over, you still will have to deal with the surge of Back to school promos all around you. But this season is prime time for many other activities.
- Dodge the morning jam, set your alarm - Make the most of those final morning lay-ins. Now that school’s back, traffic jams will re-appear so make sure you set your alarm that hour earlier again.
- Start a new class or hobby - Typically many term seasons revolve around the school terms which means if you’ve been thinking of joining a new class or a part time course, now’s the time to sign up! The darker evenings are coming and we don’t want you to go into hibernation so plan ahead and get yourself busy and active. For example - if you are interested in Photography the Dublin School of Photography’s 7 week DSLR Photography course starts the 19th September. Check out NightCourses.com to search for a variety of courses across Ireland.
- Stream & Chill! - We love our streaming! So if you’re burnt out from your newfound hobbies and the darker Autumn evenings are shunning you indoors, get streaming and immerse yourself in some of its latest additions. Check out our recent Netflix Movie Lowdown. Download the app (for Android or iOS) so whether you’re on the move or in bed you can watch from your device, with your iD data to keep you going!
We hope you find our tips and app recommendations useful.
Now, have a great September start! Happy Back to School!
iD.