First Day of School Ideas

Today marked our first day of school! We are homeschooling and Will started Kindergarten while Adeline is doing her first preschool (I use this term very loosely) year. Anna sleeps. :)

As I thought to our first day, I went in search of ideas to build anticipation for this year. Since Will has done a preschool curriculum at home with me, I wanted to let him know that this would be different and a big deal! Like I suspected, he LOVED the suspense building up to today and we had a GREAT first day.

These ideas are for ANY first day of school. Not just Kindergarten and not just for homeschoolers!

1. Make a paper chain to countdown the days to the first day of school. The poster Will is holding once held his paper chain, but we removed the last link before I took a picture.

2. Here is a blog post with creative pictures to document those first school days.

3. This is a great list of "Smile-Inducing" lunchbox ideas for those packing a lunch daily. We won't have to every day, but my kids did get new lunch boxes for those days when we can pack things up and head outside! (Not yet, it's still near 100 degrees here!)

4. Make a special breakfast! Something out of the ordinary. My kids got these Double Chocolate Chip Muffins.

5. Here is a list of 10 fantastic ideas including wrapping up the new school supplies! I thought it would be exciting for them to find their new pencil boxes (though not wrapped) with shiny new crayons, pencils, etc. The only problem was that the shiny new scissors were too enticing and my kids gave each other haircuts for the first day of school. (I was feeding their baby sister.) So, beware of those shiny new scissors. :)

6. This great list includes ideas for a "Back to School Fairy" and a time capsule to remember the first day of your new school year.

7. Interview your child to have a record of their responses at the first of the year. Repeat at the end of the year. I typed one up and it was our first activity. We measured our height, drew a picture, traced our hand and answered questions. I wrote what they couldn't and look forward to doing something similar each year.

8. Make a schultuete! It's a German tradition for the first day of school. I love it! (I love school supplies so any gift of school supplies sounds great to me! Maybe not my kids...)

9. Order pizza for dinner. I know, its nothing earth shattering, but I think we'll continue this one. It was nice to not have to worry about dinner and it was a great treat for the end of our first day!

10. Lastly, be sure to take the traditional picture for the first day. I enjoy seeing mine from childhood. Your child might enjoying being able to look back and see what they were wearing, what kind of lunchbox they had, what house the picture was taken in front of, etc.

Happy School Year!

This post is part of KK's SUYL back to school traditions link-up