With my kids back in school this month, it’s time to start thinking about our routine for after school… homework, snacks, and also a little down time. For today’s post sharing after school tips, I’m happy to be partnering once again with VolunteerSpot, the place to go to save you time and stress organizing your volunteer calendars and events. I little while back I collaborated with them on a free downloadable e-book, The Room Mom’s Survival Guide. It’s a great resource if you’re helping in your child’s classroom this year! But when looking for ideas for after school, here are 4 ways to have some family fun after school!

4 Tips for After School Family Fun

1. Homework Helpers: Sometimes homework can be a chore for everyone involved. So I love to find anything to help make it fun for us all. We turn on the tunes, usually something my kids know and love to sing along to. Or we’ve also put on a classical music album and listen quietly as we plug through their work. We sometimes add silly pipe cleaner toppers to our pencils, making things a little more wacky as we write. And another fun tip is set up the kids homework station in different rooms of the house. Moving the kids around from room to room as we do homework can give a change of scenery, keeping things fresh and fun.

2. Snack Time: Start after school snack time with these darling personalized place cards. Kids will love to sit at the table to find their name and picture, enjoying their after school snack! Now you just need something to munch on. Try these granola cookie sandwiches, grapes on a stick, easy microwave popcorn, or get creative with your veggie platter!

3. Kiddie Crafts: Once the kids are done with homework and they’ve had an after school snack, now it’s time for a little fun. You could make one of these super simple no-mess crafts! How about a few cute pipe cleaner caterpillar pets, duct tape bracelets, washi tape vases, or silly sticky note window pictures!

4. After School Cool Contest: VolunteerSpot is celebrating Back to School with a HUGE sweepstakes where you can win more than $20,000 in prizes for you and your school! The current theme is “After School Cool”– some of the great prizes you can win for you AND your child’s after school group including a $500 Amex card (to fund uniforms, a trip, a celebration), $150 Care.com FreeTime credits, and $75 Cabot Creamery gift packs with enough artisan cheese to snack up the whole team, Kiwi Crate craft packages, gift cards and more! Plus you’ll be automatically entered to win a $1,500 grant for your favorite school!

*Thanks to VolunteerSpot for sponsoring this post. After school ideas and crafty content are my own. Have fun keeping cool this year in school!