Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
- Book Bags
- Pencils
- Calendars
- Colored Ink Pens
- Notebooks
- Pencil Cases
- Pencil Sharpeners
- Lunch Boxes
Step1
Begin preparing your child a few weeks before the big day (sooner, if this is his or her first school experience or a new school). If your household has relaxed bedtime and morning routines over the summer months, start to wake your child a little earlier each morning, and move bedtime up 15 minutes every few nights to re-establish "school hours."
Step2
Plan a "back-to-school" shopping day with each child individually, and make it a special event. Of course, you'll set (and try to stick to) a general budget, but leave some room for one or two small extravagances (reuse last year's backpack, but buy this year's hottest cartoon-character notebook).
Step3
Before the big clothes-shopping trip, spend some time with each child sorting through last year's things and decide together what goes into which pile (keeper, hand-me-down or donate). Insist that your child try on every keeper.
Step4
For a new year in a new school, plan a visit there a week or so before the first day. Walk through the building locating the classrooms, bathrooms and lunchroom.
Step5
If your child will be riding the bus, find out the route he or she will take and drive it together a few times there and back. If he or she is a walker, plan the route and walk it together both ways.
Step6
Help your child deal with first-day jitters by focusing on some special advantage of, for example, being a fourth-grader. Perhaps your child is now old enough for his or her own house key, an increase in allowance or some other new privilege.
Step7
Celebrate the big day. Go out for dinner or plan a special meal the night before, or present your child with a small gift.
Comments
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 If your child is in middle or Jr. high school, make sure that you make copies of his or her schedule. That way he can keep the original with him, and if he loses it he won't be stuck in a long line in the office waiting for another copy.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 A friend of mine invites the entire block for a send-off party with the children at the bus stop (complete with muffins, etc.). Then the moms all go back to her house to "celebrate" with a deluxe breakfast, complete with champagne! It's WONDERFUL!
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Plan a picnic at the bus stop. Send invitations to children who wait at your stop, and meet there for lunch a day or two before school starts. Ask each child to bring a sack lunch. It's a great way for parents and kids to get back in touch after vacation.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 My daughters begin the "re-entry" process August first. We start to stagger bedtimes and reintroduce school routines so that the mad scramble at the end of the month is minimized as much as possible. It makes for a smooth transition for all. :)