The star is preparing to send her son off to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and she tells PEOPLE that the transition brings new “logistics” for the family.

As Alison Sweeney gets ready to send her oldest off to college next month, there’s one thing she’ll miss almost as much as her son.

“One of his chores was taking his sister to school. So we’ve been aware this whole time of like, ‘Wait, who’s going to take Megan in the morning?’ ” Sweeney, 47, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “We had a built-in Uber driver there!”

Sweeney’s son, Ben, 19, is headed to Baylor University in Waco, Texas where he plans to study mechanical engineering, and his 15-year-old sister, Megan, was perhaps the first family member to miss him — before he’d even officially left.

“We all eat dinner together and we have a four-seat table in our kitchen. We looked at it when he was gone [recently], and there was an empty seat at the table, literally,” recalls Sweeney. “And Megan finally said, ‘He’s not here for me to tease about his drama class.’”

Sweeney, meanwhile, admits that the tears “sneak up on me and it’s hard for me to reign it in,” so she’s expecting the final moments at drop-off to be the hardest part for her.

“I’m definitely more emotional, or more forthrightly emotional than [my husband] Dave and Megan, for sure,” she says. “So, I will do my best to stay under control, but I’m sure it’ll be right at the very end, just the goodbye.”

The Hallmark rom-com star/producer is relieved, however, to know that she’s sending Ben to Baylor with everything he could possibly need.

“My best friend sent me a list that moms have been passing around of the real thingsthat need to go, so get yourself a friend whose kid did it the year before you because that list is key!” she says. “It has all sorts of things: the basics, but also toiletries, and in some ways it’s funny because it’s the same sort of thing I got from other moms when Ben was born.”

She continues: “They tell you in a parenting magazine like, ‘Oh, you should have the following kit of stuff ready for the diaper bag,’ but really [you need] like 15 other tiny little things that you wouldn’t think to buy. This was the same thing. It was like, ‘A mattress topper; this type of shelving is better than that cheap disposable type.’ All very specific things. I’m just so happy to have a guide from my friend.”

Though Sweeney and her husband still have to work out the “logistics” of Megan’s school transportation, the couple is finding comfort in knowing their son is ready for his next chapter.

“He knows how to make himself dinner — chicken, pasta, eggs in the morning. I walked him through making our family oatmeal pancakes recipe. And he knows how to do his own laundry,” says Sweeney. “He’s very excited. He is really looking forward to it.”