Oh I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that the first day of school is super fun! But there are ways that I have found over the years to help prepare us.

When it was time to send our third child to kindergarten, we had him in pre-school activities to expose him to social settings and routine. I recommend doing that if you can.

Making school a big deal — since it is — includes some creative and thoughtful planning. I’ve always admired those who post chalkboard signs. I love the answers children give, it changes over the years and how wonderful to see the growth.

This design was created for Jonah, you can grab the FREEBIE* editable version too. Click here and I’ll send it to you. (I’ve also created a white background version in case you wanted to print it at home and save ink.) 

BONUS: You’ll also get the “Last Day of School” printables too. Compare your child’s answers at the end of the school year. Click here.

*Freebie for personal use only. ©Lorena Depante/LD Design Loft

Here are some fun ideas leading up to the first day of school:

1. Play “school” at home –
   We’ve set up a pretend classroom with a chalkboard, desk and chairs.  Use stuffed toys for extra classmates. We’ve gone as far as packing real lunches in bags and eating them together. My older children love being the teacher. When I only had one child I showed her how to be a teacher; later on she started teaching. The moment she figured out how to write her name, it helped motivate her to practice. Show the fun recess games you know from childhood (i.e. hide and seek, eye spy, hop scotch), some kids need examples. They’d be the kid on the playground with the best game idea, recess would be even more awesome.
2. A special alarm clock seem to motivate them. You might want to consider finding an alarm clock with their favorite character on it. This can help them during those early mornings. We found this Groot alarm clock from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy since they love him. Your child might like Disney’s Frozen or Paw Patrol, I’m sure they have something for those.
   
   

   Groot alarm clock from Marvel’s guardians

    

   But no need to spend money. I have found familiar “wake up songs” from YouTube does the trick. My favorite is this one from Story Bots. (A looping playlist works best and I play it on our tablet or phone in the mornings). Side story: My daughter Camryn asked me this summer “Mommy, why don’t you play the wake-up song for me any more?”. I told her “You don’t need to wake up as early during summer vacation”
   She said “Oh, I can’t wait till school starts again so you’d play it for me”...LOL.

3.  

3. Have them choose their swag –

From back packs, clothes to lunch snacks; even down to the morning cereal. The feeling of ownership of this big event does wonders.

4. Get up extra early to do a fun activity your own.

Summer vacation messes up with our morning schedule. It’s so hard to wake them up early again. To help get used to this again I have told my children that I’ll take anyone who gets up early enough for bike rides.

These mornings have been cherished times for us. When we have time, we go to a local café for some breakfast. It starts my days on the right foot.

5. Talk to them and remind them how amazing they will do.

Visualization works, have them imagine all the new friends they will meet. Talk about their successes and how they can continue learning more as they enter this new phase.

6. Have some surprises up your sleeve 

I like drawing funny faces on their lunch bananas. Leaving special notes and having treats for after school lunches. We shop for these treats together so they get even more excited. A cool suggestion is to have funny jokes they can ask the teacher to read to the class. (i.e. What did the 0 say to the 8?…give up? “Nice Belt!”…LOL).

I hope you like these. Do you have other fun tips to share? Let me know in the comments below. Anything that can help one another. There will still be some anxiety, if you’d like to read of ways to Overcome Separation Anxiety on the First day of school, Parents.com has a wonderful article about that.

I noticed they had suggestions which involve Zazzle, as you might know, I happen to design for them. I’ve created the products below to support the article if you need.

P.S. My 4th child, Grant, has now also entered Junior Kindergarten (sniff sniff). Here is his first day of school photo with his sign…remote learning for now.

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