What are some of your favorite first day of school traditions? Do you do anything special? Have you heard of someone else doing a special something and thought, "I should have done that for my child!" Let us know!
We take picutres on the front porch of her and her backback. Then once at school she gets one in front of the door but this time with her lunch box. (only in first grade but we did the same for pre-k...minus the lunch box).
We took a picture of my ds, every single year, standing in front of our front door. The door changed some years because we had moved, and in the beginning he barely reached the doorknob. It's fun to look back and see how tall he got compared to a front door, and to remember the houses we lived in.
I think it's cute when they take a picture of them with their backpack on all ready to head out the door or waiting for the school bus on the first day.
I have heard, never done, where parents take pictures of the child of coarse, but also the pair of shoes the child is wearing. I seen it on a link somewhere and thought it was kind of cute. They had all the pictures of the kiddos shoes. I may or may not do that for my little guy who starts in the morning. For sure a picture of him.
I always make pancakes 1st day of school. Not sure why, but my daughter always asked for pancakes on 1st day of school. We usually have them every sunday before church, so, not sure why that was so special, but hey, it's her day. I would try and do something cool, like mickey mouse shapes or chocolate chips, shape of ABC, sometimes they were pink, always a suprise. It became a little ritual. I used to tease her that when she started college, I would be at her dorm making pancakes on a hotplate.
I usually make french toast. Then we head outside early for photos. This year I'll have two off to school
My daughter starts kindergarten on Wednesday so this is her first year. I thought about doing little gifts bags for all the kids in her class. Maybe a little eraser, a pencil, some stickers and maybe a fruit rollup?
My daughter starts pre-K tomorrow. I plan on taking her picture in front of our door (with a little sign I printed out that says, "____'s first day of preschool. August 17, 2011"
I also plan on taking her out to lunch after I pick her up, to celebrate her first day (she gets out at 11:30). When she's older, we may switch to going out to dinner to celebrate.
The day before the first day all the kids in the neighborhood get together for one last play time altogether. We let them stay out until 9pm. On the first day all the boys meet at my house and I take everyone. I always pick him up after school on the first day so I can hear about the day, the teachers, etc. and I take him to Starbucks and we have Ice Tea's and discuss the day. Nothing fancy but I have been doing this since 1st grade. (He attends an after school program so I don't always pick him up)
The only time we did anything special was their first day of kindergarten. We took the pictures in front of the front door.
There were a few years we drove them on the first day (we've almost always lived within walking distance of the schools). Generally speaking we don't do anything special though.
We only have two left at home that are still in school and the oldest of the two is a junior in HS. He gets himself up. DH and I wake up about 15 minutes before he leaves so we can say goodbye, have a good day and all that :-) and get our middle schooler up and moving.
I'm also don't order school pictures. For one I refuse to pay upwards of $40 per kid for a bunch of pictures that people put in boxes and never look at again. We take enough photos throughout the year at events family gatherings and everyday life that I feel like school portraits are a huge waste of money.
Great question! Ever since Preschool we have taken a photo of our daughter with her backpack heading off to the first day of school. This year she is a senior in High School and it's great fun to look at the photos and see how much she has changed!
In the early days in our neighborhood...there were at least 25 kids on our block. The evening of the last day of summer - the night before the first day of school...we always invited all the kids over to our driveway for pictures in front of our garage doors. This way every year we can measure growth of all the kids! After all the parents got their pictures taken we treated the neighborhood to either a Dairy Queen cake decorated for school..or just Dairy Queen dilly bars! Eventually, all the kids grew up and left for college. We even had to start a COLLEGE picture cause those kids didn't want to be left out of the tradition. All of us left on the block...are getting grandchildren now...we all look back on the good old days! Many of those pictures ended up on the "high school graduation picture boards" as fond memories in the neighborhood!
My kids get rather bummed about going back to school so it has become a first day of school tradition for the last few years to do something "celebratory" for the kids when they get home from their first day. Just to cheer them up. We have made Chocolate Fondue as an after school snack for the past few years. It's a fun treat, easy to make and it gives us a chance to sit and talk about how their first day went. I've got the recipe on my blog if you want it - http://www.chocolatecakemoments.com/2011/parenting-tips/b...
S. Kirchner
My husband's mom always took him to McDonalds for breakfast on the first day of school. We homeschool so last year after a few pictures my daughter and my husband headed off to McDonalds for breakfast and then came home to start kindergarten. We will begin first grade in a few weeks and my daughter has already started talking about going to McDonalds with daddy on the first day of school.
