School Starting tips and ideas:
We have asked a few friends with school age kids of some things they try to do before school starts or as school starts.
1. Call the Halleluiah chorus first. (Camey – mother of 3 boys)
2. We just tried to make the beginning of school a fun, exciting, new beginning. We'd eat out at a favorite family spot and have a beginning of school "meeting". That sounds very flowery and well planned doesn't it? Well the other part of the real story was that part of our "plan" was to try to start fresh to correct the "mistakes" we had made before. Like maybe one year we realized that our kids needed to give more attention to homework for example, so we'd start the year with trying to arrange our schedule so that homework was a priority. We also wanted it to be like a family meeting not a parental dictator imparting news and the kids ended up loving it! (Debbie – mother of 1 girl and 2 boys – 2 college and 1 High School)
From one of Debbie’s kids: “We used to go to dinner the night before and talk about everything the year would hold.. kinda like rules and stuff.. but we always looked forward to it.. and she would write us notes on our napkins and surprise us with candy bars in our lunches. We really would all wait in anticipation to see if our bed times went up each year, along with curfews and allowances.”
3. For younger kids - Oral review of homework expectations (homework gets done first, then play). (Camey)
4. Get in the habit of praying for your teachers. My daughter and I, as we drive to preschool (she is 3), pray for the day, for her and for her teachers. We pray that she would be able to share, be nice to folks and be respectful to her teachers. We pray too that she will be able to show her teachers that God loves them. It is a great way to show them how to implement prayer in their lives and to let them see that they are in a world where not everyone knows God. I even ask her who she wants to pray for and it gives some great information for mom to pray throughout the day while they are in school. It can be done in a few minutes even before you send them out to the bus stop! (Dana – mother of 1 girl))
5. Reorganization of the house since that also means sports start again and we’ve got to make room for the stuff. (Camey)
6. Since summer means later bedtimes, I start about a week or two before school starts and bump bedtime up a bit until it’s the same time it will be for school...that way no one is staring at the ceiling and coming downstairs every 10 minutes. (Camey)
7. Valerie takes each one of her girls (separately) for a mom and daughter day. They save that day to do a tea room lunch and get pedicures. Then they go and shop for the first day’s outfit. All other school shopping was done at a different time but the first day’s outfit is what they shop for on their special day. (Valerie – mother of 2 girls)
8. Try to say yes when your kids ask friends to come over. Be the cool house for folks to hang out at. Provide some sort of snack or fun food.
9. Things to get:
New backpacks/lunch boxes – I am surprised as I asked folks how fun this is. I did it as a kid and I always looked forward to it – sounds like kids today do too! Haircuts, coat/windbreaker, some special snacks for after school (Allyson – mother of 3 boys)
Make the start of school something really fun and special – prepare your kids for it – tell them they are going to probably make some really cool new friends and it is going to be a fun year.