My oldest little guy is starting first grade in just a couple of weeks. To say that we all have mixed emotions about this would be an understatement. If you follow me on instagram, you might remember this from earlier in the year. Well this year will officially mark the first time he is away at school all day, for five days of the week. It will be the first time he begins his day in the morning rather than the afternoon and the first time he takes the bus to school. He is not excited for any of these things aside from riding the bus, somehow that is exciting to him. I guess I can see why for a guy his age.
My boy is a social creature, almost to a fault… but, spending all day with his classmates doesn’t quite have the same appeal as being home with us, at least for now. I can tell he is apprehensive and frankly I don’t blame him. This marks the first of many more years he will go to school- all day long- and then off to college and in classes – all day long – only to then start a career and work – all day long. I suppose I feel a bit like this marks the end of the carefree years of his childhood and the period of time when school is merely a glorified playtime a few hours of the day. In two weeks he truly begins the ‘grown up’ portion of his life and I think I am mourning because of this. But, I do this silently… I simply don’t want to suggest that this is something to fear or something to be sad about any more than he already is. Instead, I am focusing on making this transition exciting and fun as best I can.
If I know my boy, the fastest way to his heart is through the office supply aisle… er uh… I mean school supply aisle. I really have no idea where he gets this from…
1 // Backpack 2 // Name Labels 3 // Reusable Sandwich Bags 4 // Binder 5 // Incredible Ideas Notebook 6 // Lunchbox 7 // Stapler 8 // Pencils 9 // Notebook 10 // Address Labels 11 // Glue Sticks 12 // Backpack 13 // Cute Notes 14 // Mommy Contact Card // Hanging File Folder 16 // Let’s Get Together 17 // Post-It 18 // Mesh Sorter 19 // Backpack
Aside from getting him all of the typical things that are necessary for school – like cool pencils and binders – this school year I plan to super-size the idea of back to school shopping and not only round up some fun items for him to sport to class, but to make sure these things are unique and personal just for him.
For those of you who have boys, I know you feel my pain when it comes to finding items for them – once they are elementary age – that are deemed ‘cool’ in their eyes, are fashion forward without being too trendy and still boyish by nature without having superheroes or weaponry all over them. So in my quest to make this experience extra special for him, I online shopped my heart out and managed to find some fabulous supplies that fill these requirements. From special notebooks that inspire him to cute notes I can sneak into his lunch, I hope to remind him that I adore him and that I am thinking of him while he is away for the day, without completely embarrassing him with uncool or babyish things, of course. I gathered up some gorgeous gear in blues and reds to keep things tough and boyish and then made it interesting by breaking that up with greens, yellows, and the uber-fab black, gray and neutral as a base.
1 // Brilliant Thoughts 2 // Glue Sticks 3 // Lunchbox 4 // Colorful Comic Thank you 5 // Pencils 6 // 7 // Sharpie Gel Highlighter 8 // Red Backpack 9 // Desktop Organizer 10 // Eraser 11 // Reusable Sandwich Bags 12 // Slide Into Fun 13 // Worthwhile Notebook 14 // Backpack 15 // Hanging File 16 // Red + Yellow Notepad 17 // Post-Its 18 // Binder 19 // Tape
While he is certainly growing up right before my eyes, he is still very young and because of this there are a few things I can do to make both of our lives easier and also more fun at the same time – especially since most of his free time at this age involves his social life and school itself isn’t particularly homework heavy yet.
// I created a mommy contact card that he can carry with him, just in case he needs to get ahold of me while he is out and about.
// To help him during his pre-phone calling years, I ordered a series of ‘let’s get together’ playdate cards. He can give these to his friends and they can pass them along to their parents so we can set something up for them. Otherwise, it’s fairly difficult to arrange for playdates once the parents no longer need to pick their kids up and drop them off at their classroom. Six and seven year olds aren’t really able to coordinate this on their own yet.
// I made a gorgeous ornament from Tiny Prints to use as a backpack marker and I’m hoping it will help him to know which is his. It’s no fun to come home with the wrong one when there are several that look similar, and these little guys don’t pay much attention to what they are grabbing. I can’t tell you how often this happened last year, eek.
// Cute name labels should help him keep track of his supplies.
// Personalized address labels should make it easy to keep in touch with his friends and family who have recently moved – there are quite a few, and having his playmates become his pen pals definitely makes the loss less difficult.
By helping my cutest guy get all stocked up on school supplies, whether he truly needs them or not, I think it’s made him feel like a big kid who actually does need them and it seems like he is beginning to get excited about joining the ‘big kid club’ of school-goers! He may still be a tad nervous about the whole thing, but I know once he is there and settled in on his first day, he will be just fine.I just hope my attempt at creating some fun around an otherwise not so fun series of events and new situations helps ease his transition a bit, because it is breaking my heart to see my independent little guy, prefer to be home with his family. He normally dives right in with gusto and loves every second of anything that involves other kids. Apparently even he has a limit on his fun meter.
This post is sponsored by Tiny Prints, where every choice is a stylish choice.
