[momraine]

School has already started in some places and will soon start in others. What do you do to get ready for school? Do you have any first day of school traditions that you do or plan to do when you get children? What does the begining of school mean to you?

[GCS]

We take pictures at home and in front of the school name on the school. First day of school is a half day so we will go out to lunch to discuss afterwards!

We also have our getting ready for school traditions of buying new school shoes and first day of school clothes. K-8 wears a uniform but first day of school is "church appropriate" attire so I usually try to get him something cute for that day.

Girlie is not in uniforms yet and I have done so much back to school shopping for my Pre-4er that I will need to join a 12 step progam to keep me from adding to her bulging closet. Seriously...I have a problem!

[kizibits]

Yesterday was my daughter's first day of school. Granted, she's in a special Pre-K3 program for developmentally challenged kids, but it's a part of the regular school system here and she goes to the regular elementary school. She's the smallest student at the school--at 3 years she is still the size of an 18 month old--but one of the most personable. All of the teachers, her classmates, and even the vice principal are already in love with her.

I can tell she's really enjoying school, too! Yesterday when I dropped her off she really didn't understand what was going on and she kind of got whisked away before she could figure it out and get upset. I expected that she would cry today like she did when I took her to daycare, but she surprised me with a chirpy little "bye!" and went off to play with her new friends.

The only real tradition besides the annual school clothes and supplies shopping trip that I plan on at the moment is the first day of school photo. Here's Livi's... it looks like she is crying, but she wasn't. She always squints her face up like that for photos these days for some reason. I'll include another fairly recent photo that shows her pretty face...

Jeana

[kretzklan]

We are in week two here. Annual traditions are back-to-school clothes shopping which is becoming a much bigger deal now that we have a middle schooler (I feel old every time I say that). We also spend the week before school planning our two vacations - fall break (Oct) and Spring Break (Mar). It's the two big out of school times and it seems to give the kids something to look forward to...
We used to do the big day at Target or Wal-mart to buy the supplies...but it became so hard to find the stuff they wanted that I bought the pre-packaged sets that our school offers. So, only had to shop for oldest this year and he only needed 5 things!
The other tradition is me taking pictures before school and making them hold up fingers for their new grade!

[justmp]

School starts here for us on Monday, and it will only be our second year, so I don't know that we actually have "traditions" yet; however, I'm going to take pictures of DD before school in the same location that I did last year so hopefully it will mark growth from one year to the other.

The other thing I did last year that worked really well and I will continue is that I made cookies while she was at school the first day and they came out of the oven shortly before she got home. That way when she got home, we sat down to milk and cookies and it was a great chance to talk about her day.

[amyfk]

I cannot believe, but my Joanna, only adopted 2 years ago is starting preschool in a few weeks. She goes back late, Sept. 8. Since this is her first year, we really dont have any traditions.
Although Joanna is a tomboy, I think I'm going to put her in a nice dress for day 1. I will also get some photos for her. I may also hide around and see that she's ok and not crying hysterically to leave.
Lastly, I just got the letter from the school today on her new teachers, and I think one of her teachers is a lady we had a year ago at the school for a Mommy and Me class. I hope so, because we know her already and feel comfortable with her.
Best of luck to everyone,
Amy K, NJ

[Drazil]

Adrian starts monday in kindergarten full time and we will do the picture thing before school. This weekend we are going school clothes shopping so that will be fun. Tomorrow night is meet the teacher and get his supply list night so we are excited about that. We plan on making the school clothes shopping thing a big event each year with him that will end with dinner at one of his favorite restaurants. We are excited and sad at the same time. I start teaching preschool next week, part time mornings only (8:00-12:00), so it works around his drop off and pick schedule very nicely. I will also have all the same holidays and breaks as he does. I felt like I needed to do something at least part time to keep my mind busy with him in school full time, I am going to miss him and our little routine everyday .

[bmarsicano]

Well, we normally get the morning pictures done. I thought she was going to be going to a pre-school, now I'm not sure. she has encompresis and the school needs the kids to be fully potty trained, but I think this will be an issue. My mother is going to go to the orientation since we'll be on vacation and ask. We have 2 weeks to train her to do bowel movements sort of on command, because her colon is so stretched out. I really didn't want her to go back to the day care becaue they really didn't train her. She'll be in a dress for the first day, at least next year it will be uniforms for kindergarten so I won't have to deal with clothes issues in the morning. Sorry to get a little off track.

[MamaChinch]

Delaney doesn't start pre-school until Sept. 3rd. She's been in the pre pre-school learnng program and is excited to be moving to the big kid's class!

Last year, we took the first day photos and went shopping for a lunch box, so no real traditions yet. I like the idea of going out to eat after clothes shopping in the future.... right now, though, she has a ton of clothes, so I do not think I will be buying her anything new for school. Besides, she plays so hard at school, last year I started just sending her in play clothes so her nicer things didn't get ruined!

I think she will benefit from her new three day a week schedule, she really likes school so much!

[momraine]

This year my youngest had not grown much so did not need new clothes. Usually for my older kids if they don't need new clothes they get one special new outfit for the first day and new shoes. However, M does not wear shoes (no feet) so we did two new outfits. We also do the back pack and lunch box thing. I started back in June and took each kid shopping for school stuff on a different day. The school supply lists were not out yet, so I could not do that yet, so that was a seperate trip. I was trying to put each shopping trip for school on a seperate pay check! But it turned out great becuase each kid got one on one time with mom and lunch out of it and they loved it.

[Traci Major]

Brylee (age 3) started pre-school this morning. She will be going 3 mornings a week. We went ahead and started her so she could continue getting her speech and O.T. as she aged out of her prior program. She also needs and loves a structured day, so this will really help.
She did not need much as far as supplies, as they all share supplies at school. She did get a few new clothes for pre-school, but will not need much until winter.
We actually took most of her first day of school pictures last night! We dressed her in her new outfit and got her back pack out and took her pictures. She does not like to be rushed in the morning, so we thought this would take some pressure off of this morning. I did snap a couple more pics this morning and then some at school in her room and then a couple more when I picked her up. We then headed for her favorite place to eat for lunch. I have always taken the first day of school off so I could be there in the morning and when they first get home, so they can tell me all the great things they did on their first day of school.
The only thing that upset Brylee today, was that she wanted to ride the school bus, and she couldn't as our school district does not bus anyone under 5.