Prince George, B.C. – The last  blast  of summer holidays  is just  a day  away, the official countdown to the return to school.

There are a number of things families can do to get  students  ready  for the return  to  school, says Sujata Connors, Manager of Community  Services with Northern Health.  “You could put things into three kinds of buckets,  with  the first bucket being  safety.  That’s where you want to think about things like traffic safety,  bus safety  keeping personal  safety, bike safety, car safety   and bullying,  Those are the big things.   As soon as school starts,   the traffic increases dramatically and people really need to transition their  thinking from  playing around  to  how they are going to be safe on the street.”

The second bucket  says Connors, is   about food safety, making sure school lunches are  nutritious  and fun  “One of the biggest challenges with lunches is   making sure they aren’t boring or stale, and being prepared so there is variety.”   Connors  suggests having  students  help  prepared the lunches so their own  choices  are part of the package, plus, they learn about food groups and what makes for a balanced meal.

The third  bucket says  Connors is about getting back into a routine “We really  need to think about getting up early,  making sure things  are ready, having lunches prepared the night before so it’s easy  to  just  grab them in the morning and there is still enough time to have a healthy breakfast. It’s really a good time now to start  getting to bed earlier so the students will be fresher in the morning, so it’s a gradual return.”

There should be consideration given to the type of backpack  your child is using,  and how  that  backpack is packed. “It’s important to choose the right backpack first of all” says Connors ” You want something that’s a bit light,  also think about the   shoulder straps.  Skinny shoulder straps can dig into the shoulders, so you want a wide, padded shoulder strap that may transfer some of the weight to the hips and think about how you are  packing the bag so things are evenly distributed, so  heavier things should be at the bottom of the bag.” She says the rule of thumb is that a packed backpack should not be  any heavier than 15 -20% of the person’s own weight.