I know most of us parents are excited to get the kids out of the house and back into a routine now that the school year has rolled around, but let’s face it… kids aren’t always as excited as we are. Leo loves being at home with us all summer, so it isn’t always an easy transition. When he started kindergarten, I could tell that he was nervous, so I thought to myself: How can I make something that seems daunting and scary feel exciting and fun? I decided that I was going to treat back to school the same way that I treat holidays like Valentine’s Day, Easter and Birthdays by making it feel like a celebration!
You all know by now how much I LOVE celebrations. Life is extremely short and can be so serious, so if I can add some kind of excitement and whimsy into my kids’ lives, I’m going to do it. Today I’m sharing my top three hacks to actually get your kids excited for back to school! Without further ado, let’s get right into it!
- Summer Photo Album
How many of you have gone the whole summer doing fun activities and then when September rolls around, the kids whine that they didn’t do anything exciting? I’ve been there. I started a tradition on the last weekend of summer, before back to school, where I present the kids with a summer photo album! This will be my fourth year doing it. Even if your summer wasn’t full of fun, you can take a handful of photos of the highlights, and it will help them remember the good times and be grateful. This has become one of my very favourite traditions. It’s so special to sit with the kids and flip through the photos of all of our memories and I love that we’ll have a collection of these that will continue building year after year.
Many of you have asked me how I make these albums, and it’s super simple! I start by uploading my favourite pictures to the London Drugs photo app, order them to be printed and pick them up. Easy as that!
Another route you can take is ordering an album through Chatbooks. My kids prefer the old school printed photographs, but this is a great alternative!
- First Day of School Decorations
You know my love for holidays and decorating… so I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to bust out my seasonal decor! This doesn’t have to be extravagant by any means, but the kids get super excited when they wake up to decorations and a fun breakfast to celebrate the first day of school.
I love these colourful fans for any holiday, I reuse them every year! This ruler runner from Amazon is another decor piece that I always reuse, along with these foil balloons that you can deflate and store for next year.
You don’t need to buy new decorations if you don’t want to! Just find colourful things around the house like plates, napkins, a red apple, paper straws to make the breakfast table bright and cheerful.
- Give the Kids’ School Supplies to Them as a Present
The next way that I try to make the first day of school exciting for the kids is I let them pick out their school supplies, but then I keep them hidden and give them out as a gift on the first day of school. If you’re reusing items from last year, you can still make them feel special by washing the backpacks, lunch bags and shoes so they’re shiny and clean. Lay them out nicely in the morning to make it feel exciting.
If you have a little one who is nervous for back to school, I recommend giving them a little friendship bracelet like this one. It’s a matching bracelet for parents and kids, and you can tell them to think of you when they wear it… so cute!!
I hope this blog gave you some ideas on how to make back to school exciting for the kiddos! What are some of your first day of school traditions? Let me know in the comments!
xo,
Jilly
