[momraine]

What are you doing to get ready for back to school if you have kids?
If you are still waiting, does it stir up feelings in you? I remember when I was waiting, it made me feel more frustrated.

[lastpaige]

I love the ‘back to school’ season. It means that the summer can not remain this hot forever (it was 114 yesterday and grotesquely humid), that the end of our academic year is coming to a close, and that the holidays are fast approaching.

Hmm . . . for the girls (already home) we’ve selected curriculum and have a book order ready to submit once we return home from Poland in November. Once it arrives we’ll open the shipment, drool all over our new books, and then put them away until our academic year starts – about January 7 or so.

For the boys (not yet home) nothing! This IS frustrating, as we can not guess where they are academically, or what areas need more immediate attention than others. I assume that their learning needs to be directed more behaviorally rather than academically at the moment, but we’ll use simple academic lessons to assist in the behavior training.

We have, however, packed Cuisenaire rods, a huge stack of index cards (for a myriad of uses) and I have purchased two “Speechersize” cd’s. If these things can be used while we’re in Poland – great. If not, at least they don’t take up that much room. We’ll assess what the boys need in Poland and then select things for them to add to our order when we return home.

WOW – Are we really going? Are they really coming home? It’s still hard to believe. When does it sink in? When does it hit you?

[aurika]

Our main academic school has been incredibly supportive and is not having a problem with our son starting a week later (as he will be in Poland). They even have "ready-to-go" backpacks that you can purchase with the school logo on them and with all the supplies the kids are required to have for the entire year for that grade level. Spending all the time hunting for all the stuff would "cost" far more than the $45 for the whole kit and kaboodle.

They did, however, require a pretty intricate emergency kit inside of a 1 gallon rectangular rubbermaid (airtight) container. I hear that after 9/11 more and more schools are requiring this. Our school emergency kit contents include: 2 30 gallon sized garbage bags, an emergency blanket (mylar), pain reliever of the variety your child is accustomed to, mini first aid kit or the coleman kids first aid kit, small flashlight with extra batteries, two bottles of drinking water (not juice!), 4 energy bars or similar, index card with contact info, a family picture and reassuring note addressed to child, and if there's room a warm hat, book, or other small items you deem suitable. I thought I'd pass this on just because I think it is a pretty good idea to have something like this even if your particular school doesn't have such a requirement. For su here it is mostly the threat of power outage, sudden snow storm, or earthquake that would cause a need for this, but you never know.

My son is right now at Blue Sky Camp for their "Junior Scientists" and "Creepy Creatures" camps. Yesterday he had a blast making flubber, doing experiments with cornstarch and water, making glue, learning and labeling spider anatomy, etc. We'll see what he comes home with today. Hopefully, by the time I have to pick him up I will have piles made out of all the stuff I need to pack to get to Poland.

I've already paid for and scheduled his extracurricular activities for the fall: gymnastics, dance, and FasTracKids. We'll see how all of this on top of a full day at school will work. I am fearful it may be too much for him (haha and too much for Daddy to keep track of while I am in Poland for a month extra!). Then again a full day from 9-4 at Blue Sky Camp only made him fall asleep 15 minutes earlier than usual and he literally was running out of the house to go there again this morning.

It is hard to plan for anything for our daughter as I don't know what her developmental status is at this point. I suspect we will attend activities such as Kindermusik, perhaps Gymboree or Little Gym. I may resume activities with MOPS, or one of the Moms clubs in the area, as I find they are very helpful in providing both interesting activities for the kids as well as some much needed support from other local moms.

Maternal unit continues to be a problem. *sigh*

[LisArno]

I went back-to-school shopping with our oldest, now almost 11. She's grown 3-4" since coming here last October, so that meant a bunch of new pants (her still good "old" ones still fit her in the hips/waist). We stocked up on school supplies while visiting the States this summer, since our selection here is quite limited. She's ready w/ two backpacks-on-wheels and two lunch bags. We've done "math maintenance" over the summer, as well as tried to increase her reading level.

Our just turned five year old will attend two days of German kindergarten and three days of American kindergarten each week. She's looking forward to going to "Mommy's school". Her German teacher and American teacher have the same last names, but one is Frau (Mrs.) and the other a Mr. We'll see which one she makes the mistake with first

Our youngest will be going to German kindergarten again (begins at 3 and ends when you turn 6 and go to first grade), so it's business as usual for him.

Aurika: Interesting that every child needs his/her own emergency kit. At my school, each teacher has a grab-and-go backpack with supplies to last 3-6 hours for the entire class in case we need to evacuate our school to our "secret area". I guess we assume that each teacher has personal supplies in his/her room to feed a class should we have to stay in our school for a long time I like your school's idea of prepared backpacks/supplies to buy. How old is your son?

Lastpaige: Our kids were ready to learn and really didn't need any behavior training. Our girl was just starting 4th grade in Poland and she was a "model student" in her new school here; she had learned some things in 3rd grade math in Poland that were part of 4th grade standards here. Your boys may surprise you The 114 degree weather may be your biggest challenge with them!