Right about now hundreds of thousands of Australian households are preparing to head back to school.
Whether you have tiny tots readying to enter school for the first time to savvy teens heading back to high school, the back to school routine places different demands on the average family household.
If you’re looking to simplify, streamline and establish a new routine for the new school year, here’s how to make back to school a little easier in the smart home.
Bedtime routines
After a long, relaxed summer of flexible bedtimes and chilled sleep-ins, one of the major focuses of the new school year is establishing a solid sleep routine for your child.
The Sleep Foundation notes primary school aged children require on average nine to 11 hours’ sleep each night, while teens need between eight and 10.
One of the best ways to ensure your child has sufficient sleep and can thrive in the learning environment of school is to establish a bedtime routine.
And the smart home is here to assist…
Using scenes and automation you can set your home to “wind down” for the evening and ease your child into sleep.
For example, come 7pm, the TV and entertainment might turn off and lights might dim or change hue throughout the home.
After you’ve enjoyed some bedtime reading with your primary school child, their nightlight might also slowly dim, lulling them into sleep.
You could even use a smart speaker to offer some soothing music, while motion sensors in their room can tell you whether they’re up and about or tucked up in bed.
Morning routines
Mornings can be frantic in any household but add the schedule of school to the occasion, and stress levels begin to rise.
Why not have your smart home take on some of the heavy morning lifting?
Using automation and scenes, at 6.45am the blinds in your child’s room gently open, lighting slowly starts to brighten and a smart alarm steadily wakens them from their sleep.
Meanwhile, down in the kitchen, your alarm has triggered the coffee machine and is also reading you the schedule for the day.
After packing lunches and enjoying a little breakfast, you touch base with your smart speaker to see how the traffic conditions are on the roads. You might even place the kids’ tuckshop orders using voice command.
And when it’s time to leave, just tell your home you’re exiting. With programming, smart locks and smart features, it can begin shutting down on its own; closing blinds, turning off the heating and cooling and even locking the doors as you leave.
Study time
The study environment plays an important role in how effectively your child or teen absorbs information, so why not use smart technology to your advantage?
Set up their study zone with automated temperature control that’s conducive to remaining alert, utilise smart lighting that allows them to be comfortable yet is bright enough to clearly see what they are doing.
In the smart home you can even promote a set study time by restricting access to entertainment, or by monitoring what they do.
Keyless entry
The smart home also offers peace of mind on those afternoons when the children return to an empty house. With smart locks, they can gain entry without a key, while an alert can be sent to their parents indicating the children have arrived safely home.
Meanwhile, the security features of the smart home like smoke alarms, flood alarms, CCTV and security lighting also ensure peace of mind, allowing parents to receive automatic alerts should something go wrong.
Shopping
It’s the little chores like shopping that really eat into the average family routine. So, why not take some legwork out of the weekly grocery shop?
You can order your groceries by voice command and then have them delivered, with remote entry features of the smart home allowing delivery personnel to drop the groceries where required.
Come home to convenience
Between school sporting commitments, after hours activities and your own work schedule, the after school routine is often pretty hectic, so why not come home to convenience?
As you leave your final commitment for the day, tell the app on the smart phone you’re coming home. It will sense your location and begin readying the house for your arrival, switching on lights, setting the right internal temperature and even unlocking gates and doors as you approach.
With the right programming and appliances, you can even set the oven to warm to speed up the preparation of the evening meal.
Simplifying everyday life
True smart home technology and automation is all about simplifying everyday tasks. And the school routine is among the everyday activities that can be streamlined with technology.
These are just some of the ways the smart home can assist, but as smart technology increases and improves, there will be a wealth of ways to further harness its power to add convenience to everyday living.
About Lera Smart Home Solutions
Lera Smart Home Solutions is a leading installer of smart home technology in the greater Sydney region. Our team boasts over 20 years’ experience in IT networking, programming and the electrical industry.
We have sourced the most reliable and cost efficient solutions from around the world to provide the very best in smart home solutions, and work with our clients to understand their needs.
You can learn more about transforming your house into a smart home here, or contact us directly for further advice.
