Back-to-School Preparation

Summer is winding down for our kiddos and we have been working on prepping for the beginning of the school year.  This is my first year with two kids attending school, so I've had a little more work to do to get ready.  We have tackled the school supply and clothes shopping, now we are just preparing the kids for what's to come.

This week we pulled out all of our school books.  I had several of these from when I taught years ago and the kids have eaten them up this year.  I think it's important to spend some time talking about what they can expect once they go to school and what will be expected of them.  Reading these books opens up the dialogue and we often find ourselves answering some very good questions put into their minds by the stories.  A few of our favorite back-to-school books are Franklin's First School Day by Paulette Bourgeois and Tucker's Best School Day by Susan Winget.  

We also like to read books that address some of the emotions they may be feeling.  The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn helps kids with the blues about missing Mommy.  One of our new favorites Pete the Cat:  Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin can help with the school jitters, while Fox Makes Friends by Eric Relf is a great story about making friends.

Now that we have a child going into elementary school, I would like to start a back-to-school tradition. I think I am going to type out a little blurb that includes the following:  favorite food, color, activity, and tv show, as well as what they want to be when they grow up.  I will leave space at the bottom to include their first day photo.  These will be small enough to store and when they graduate I can put all of the pages together and give it to them as a gift.  It will be a fun little keepsake!

I have a few more items on my list that I need to address before next week:  lunchbox ideas and "training" everybody to get through their morning routine by the time we need to leave.  I will be working hard on those items over the next few days and hope to have success by the time school rolls around on Wednesday.  I think coming up with lunch ideas will be the trickiest, but I am sure I will find many great ideas on the worldwide web!

Stay tuned for some more posts focusing on back-to-school topics.  I have a few fun projects and snacks up my sleeve to get everybody in the spirit!