Back to School Traditions Archives

Editable Lunch Box Notes for Kids Lunches

July 28, 2018 By Deirdre

This is the final editable Back to School printable I am going to share with you this week. If you haven’t had a chance to look at the editable backpack checklist and editable Back to School chore chart, you will want to stop by and check them out. Today’s printable is a set of editable lunch box notes for kids lunches. You can personalize them by typing in your child’s name or nickname along with your name.

I love to place fun lunch box notes that feature fun things like slime riddles in my son’s lunch. I think it is also important to remind kids that they are special. It is for that reason I created these set of lunch box notes for kids lunches.

How to Download the Lunch Box Notes for Kids Lunches

The Lunchbox Notes – Telling Kids That They Are Special Kids were saved as a PDF so they would be easy for you to open. Once you open the set, you can personalize the notes. The text boxes for your child’s name and your name in the lunch box note in the top left-hand corner are linked to the other text boxes on the page. All you will need to do is type in your child’s preferred name and the name they call you into those text boxes. The remaining boxes will auto-fill with the names you have selected.

Then you can print them out ontowhite cardstockusing a color printer.

Once you have printed them out, you can cut each of the notes out.

Sharing the Lunchbox Notes

I like to stick lunchbox notes on top of my son’sbento boxwhile I place the reusable ice packunder the Bento. It keeps the lunchbox notes dry. You could put the lunch note inside the Bento or in a snack sized plastic bag.

Actually, you could put the lunch note in a different section of the lunch box if it has one. My son’s lunch bagis a double-decker. I usually place apples and baked chips in the top section for him. This would be a great place to place a lunch note. If your lunch box has side pockets on it, you could stick a lunch note in one of the pockets.

12 Back to School Clothes Shopping Tips

August 6, 2014 By Deirdre

When it comes to making sure that you have your children ready for school, these twelve Back to School Clothes tips should really help. They cover a variety of gathering and assessing tips. While gathering may make sense to you, you may be wondering why you need to assess your children’s clothing. In many ways assessing is important than the actual gathering or shopping for clothes. That is why you will find almost many assessing tips as you will find gathering tips.

Back to School Clothes Tip One- Search at Home

Go through all the clothes that you have at home. You have probably boxed up somethings from this time last year as we did. Go through those boxes and see if your child or children can still wear any of those clothes this year. Some of shirts my son wore last year may still fit him this fall. We will have to try them on and find out.

If you find clothes that don’t fit your child and you don’t have children in your family to hand them down too think about donating or consigning them. There is no reason for them to take up space at your house.

My sisters send me clothing that their boys have worn as soon as they grow out of them. We have boxes and bags of clothes that I sorted through a few years ago when my sisters gave them to us that my son has now gotten big enough to wear. I honestly don’t remember everything they have sent to us. Now is the time to look through those boxes and bags to see what we can use this fall. Knowing what you have that your children can wear will keep you from buying clothes that you don’t need.

Back to School Clothes Tip Two- Decide What You Need

I heard a purging expert once say that she believed children needed five outfits for each season of the year. As the mom of a very messy boy who can go through more than shirt or one pair of pants in a day, I think I may have to add a few more pants and shirt to that number. We live a mild climate so many of those pants and shirts can be worn in the fall and spring so, having a few more isn’t a bad idea. My son is also at an age where he is growing a lot so having many more will not be necessary. He may not wear them for very long.

I have love having him wear shorts all summer. Their length isn’t as important as the length of pants would be. My friend Kathleen is the queen of assessing. She knows just what her boys have and what they need. When she heads out hunt and gather clothes for them, she has list of exactly what she needs. I don’t think she deviates from that list much.

Back to School Clothes Tip Three- Think About Matching

Beyond making a list of what you need to hunt and gather think about trying to have clothing that will match. Neutral colored pants that will go with more than one shirt for example. Having clothing that can be worn in a variety of combinations also ensures that your child will probably come up with an outfit that matches. Some children love to wear clothes that match. Others will grab one pair of pants and one shirt with bothering to look at them. No matter what the combination looks like they plan to wear it.

Back to School Tip Four- Quality vs. Quantity

I was talking with a friend on Saturday morning about boys pants. She buys a number of pants from consignment stores for her son. He wears out the knees in his pants quickly. For her having a lot of pants that cost her $3 or $4 is more important economical than having more expensive pants with iron knees. There are some of you that would rather invest in a few pants that have iron knees from Lands’ End instead.There really isn’t a wrong choice here. Both types of moms want find the best value they can. Actually, the best choice might be to find the high-end pants with re-enforced knees at a consignment store or thrift shop. I haven’t had a lot of luck with that, but my friends seem to find bargains all the time. The friends that have most success love to troll consignment stores and thrift shops often. They are die hard shoppers.

Back to School Clothes Tip Five- Clear Vision of What Is Appropriate for Your Kids to Wear

More and more schools are establishing dress codes. Assessing what your children can wear to school will impact that you think you need to add to their wardrobe. My son doesn’t have at of clothing rules at his school. He is also a boy. That means we don’t have to worry much about what is too short or shows too much skin. Sometimes he tries to wear high water pants that he has outgrown but still loves. I think there are probably other boys that do that too. Girl moms may have more of a challenge in this area.

Back to School Clothes Tip Six- Check With Friends

I have a friend Sandy who loves to buy high-end girls clothes for her daughter. She loves to add a monogram displaying the first letter of her daughter’s name to them too. There are several moms at church that have girls younger than her daughter that have the same first initial. They are more than willing to buy her daughter’s second-hand clothes.

The mom’s group at my church has set up a Facebook group. There are posts on it regularly for moms selling or looking for particular clothing items. It is a great way to shop without having to go into a store. If you don’t have friends that have children your age, check it see if your friends know of someone who does.

Back to School Clothes Tip Seven- Consignment Sales

I live in the land of consignment sales. The largest of these sales was this past weekend and there will be at least six others coming up. Some are huge and some are small. Most will have bargains. A local blog Kidding Around Greenville shares information on all the consignment sales in my area. If you have a local blog in your area, you may find a complete list of consignment sales on their site too.

Back to School Clothes Tip Eight- eBay

One of my sisters had bought clothing for her children by the pound on eBay. I have never tried this myself. She has told me that most of what she gets that way are great. She has gotten a few items with a stain. You don’t get to see everything you will get so, you have to trust that the seller is selling you great items.

Back to School Clothes Tip Nine-Consignment Stores or Thrift Stores

The lady I co-taught VBS with loves going to local thrift stores. She has found clothes for her daughter’s with store tags still one them. One of the benefits of going to a consignment store or thrift shop rather than a sale is that the prices drop after the clothes have been in the stores for a certain number of days. Yes, I know consignment sales have half price hours on their final day, but sometimes thrift stores will go even lower than that.

Back to School Clothes Tip Ten- Tax-Free Days

Some states have gotten rid of their tax-free shopping days. Thankfully we still have them here in South Carolina. For some reason, a number of the stores have decided to have Back to School sales on those days too. That makes those days a great time to hunt and gather school clothes.

Back to School Clothes Tip Eleven- Online Coupons and Codes

If you absolutely dread going out to shop for back to school clothes, you can shop online. Many of your favorite stores are having End of Summer or Yipee It’s Fall! sales. Sometimes you can Google your favorite store’s name along with the words coupons or codes and find an extra discount. When you can stack a sale price with a discount code, you can really save a lot.

Back to School Clothes Tip Twelve-You Don’t Have To Get Everything Now

You may want to get everything now. If you can get a great price on it now, go a head and buy it if you like.

Wait! You may not want to.

Why?

There will be more sales and more friend’s whose kids outgrow their clothes during the school year.

Your child could grow three inches this fall and need to get new pants! It could totally happen. It happened here! One day your children’s pants seem to fit! The next day they are up to their ankles and heading for their knees.

You are probably on a budget and you don’t want to spend more than you have to this month for school.

These are the Back to School Clothes tips I thought of. If you can think of more, please leave them in a comment below.

Back to School Traditions Link Up 2013

August 8, 2013 By Deirdre

Welcome to the Pre-Back to School Traditions Link Up Informational Post!

I know some of you have started school already and some will be starting in the next few weeks. I am dying to know
how you celebrate the beginning of school at your house or in your classroom. So starting I am going to open up a Back to School Traditions Link Up next Tuesday.What can you link up?

Back to School Ideas
Family Back to School Traditions (special meals, new shoes, first day pictures, etc..)
Recipes for Back to School breakfast foods or snacks or lunch box meals
Parent Celebrations
First Day of School Themed Books or Activities
Reflections on a Favorite First Day of School for You
Ways to Remember the First Day of School
Great Ways for Parents to Share Your Child’s First Day

What you can’t link up?

Reviews for Back to School products or Giveaways

The link will stay open until September 8^th. Yes, I know it is a big window of time, but I want to give everyone an opportunity to share.

If you would include the badge below on your post or link about to this post, I would be very thankful.

I will be linking my Back to School Related posts during several weeks too. Tomorrow on non-sandwich lunch box main dishes that could be served the first day of school or any day of the school year. I was given ideas and post to share by a variety of wonderful bloggers with first hand experience at making children school lunches.

JDaniel will be attending a New Student Meeting at the school he will be going to this fall tonight. Next week we will be going to Meet the Teacher, and the following week he will start kindergarten. (I can’t believe it.) Each event will probably have its own post.

I have exciting news for those of you that link up this year and for those of you that

leave comments on Tuesday’s post. I have three prizes that I will be sharing with you. One prize will be given to each of the following

The creator of one of the entries in the link up will be selected randomly
A random commenter who leave a comment on next Tuesdays post
A random commenter that leaves a comment sharing with me one post in the link up you left a kind remark on.

What are prizes?

A Kizmos gift pack of kitchen tools for kids
A set of Tiger Tales Books
A CamelBak Water Bottle

jdaniel4smom_camelback

I hope each of you will stop by and participate. The link up will be open until the first week in September. At the end of the first week of September. The winners will be selected and the prizes will be awarded.

Last year the Back to School Traditions Link was my highest visited post. I hope that you will join me in making this years post even bigger.

Please stop by on Tuesday, August 13th!

Follow JDaniel4’s Mom on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Back to School Traditions Thank You and a New Traditions Link Up News

September 14, 2011 By Deirdre

I want to thank all of you that participated in the Back to School Traditions link up! It was wonderful to be to see all the first day of school pictures and to learn about your traditions.

Back to School Traditions is the first of a series of fall link ups I will be offering.

The next traditions event will be Halloween Traditions. The event will include four link ups. They are Halloween Costumes, Halloween Foods, Halloween Crafts and Traditions or Memories. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this link up that begins Oct. 24^th and ends Nov. 2^nd.

During the Halloween Traditions link up period I will also be hosting a giveaway for the reader with the scariest purse. So, you may want to snap a shot of your purse now just encase you think you will win, but you might get the urge to clean it before the end of October.

There will be similar categories in the Thanksgiving and Christmas link ups later in the fall!

Our Back to School Traditions

September 3, 2011 By Deirdre

I have read everyone’s wonderful Back to School Traditions posts and thought I would share what we did for JDaniel’s first day. If you haven’t had a chance to share your back to school traditions or first day of school pictures, the link up will stay open until September 8th.

Labeling Clothes

Before school started we labeled all of JDaniel’s things for preschool using Mabel Labels. I met some of the Mabel Label’s ladies at the Type A Conference and they offered to make JDaniel a set of labels for school. I really love them. Some are designed to go clothes, some of shoes, and others on everything else.

These are great for inside shoes. We also used them to label JDaniel’s extra clothes bag and backpack.

These are designed for inside clothes.

These are great for pencils, notebooks, and everything else.

JDaniel loved helping to label his clothes.

Back to School Breakfast

We started the day with blueberry pancakes I made the night before and reheated. I was worried things would get to hectic in the morning so, I went ahead and made them early.

Back to School Pictures

After breakfast, I took JDaniel out to his tree to take his first day of school picture. He didn’t look happy. I decided to take some quick shots as we walked into school later.

They weren’t much better. I may have to stage some next week.

Back to School Lunch

JDaniel requested pizza for his lunch. I picked up pizza from Moretti’s a family favorite while JDaniel was in school. My husband met us at the house to celebrate JDaniel’s first day of school and hear about his morning.

He was able to share a few things between bites of pizza. He loved recess and snack. The dump trucks and robot in class were a hit too. I was also informed that he didn’t need his worry rock. He said that he won’t need it this year. He just loves it there.

This post is linked to Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop.

Parenting: Tell Me About Your Day with a Communication Frame

September 1, 2011 By Deirdre

Tiggerific linked a post about Back to School Traditions that mentioned taking pictures of her grandson’s classroom. She wanted her grandson to feel more comfortable at a new school he was attending so, she made a poster of things that were in his new room.

That idea stuck in my head as a went to JDaniel’s preschool open house last week. I took lots of pictures of his room and his teachers and put them in a frame.

I decided to use the pictures to help him share about his day with my husband when he comes home from work.

I get to pick JDaniel up from school. When I do, I get to read what he has done in class on a white board outside his classroom.

My husband doesn’t have that advantage. By the time he gets home Jdaniel has had six hours to do more things that now may occupy his mind and the preschool thoughts may have been replaced with digging in the dirt or playing with a friend ones.

The pictures in the frame are there to jog JDaniel’s memory. I have a pictures of the calendar area, work tables, free play area, his teachers, and the snack time prayers in his classroom.

We will be keeping the frame in the kitchen so, JDaniel and his dad can use them as starting points to share his preschool time.

My husband can ask him about what he did in each area of the room by pointing to the picture helping JDaniel reach back into his mind for the details.

My frame is not well done. If you like this idea and decide to do it for your own children, please let me know and I would love to see it.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday, Link and Learn, and the Mommy Club Linky Party.

Trail of Tears at the Grocery Store

August 31, 2011 By Deirdre

I have read many tips for moms sending their children to school for the first time. One of them was to avoid the grocery store. I think this tip is really for mom’s whose children are starting in a public school.

The problem with going to the grocery store on a first day when many emotion filled moms seems to be there is the fact that they will all be crying. Every aisle could possibly be filled with teary eyed moms and seeing all those other moms crying may lead you to crying or to crying harder than you have been.

I am guessing these weeping mamas didn’t want to go home to an empty house and they decided to go someplace filled with people and maybe cross grocery shopping off their to do list.

The stores probably do a great business on that first day of school. There must be tons of impulse buying by moms walking aimlessly down the aisles. I think there must be a lot of customers purchasing opened bags of Oreos and tissue boxes that are missing several tissues. The bakery probably sells a lot of cupcakes and donuts that day. There should probably be specials on them offered to moms.

Given all the drama going on in the store. There probably should be signs setup in the parking lot reminding senior saints and everyone else outside this demographic that it is the first day school. These informed shoppers may decide to wait a day or come back later in the day. Unless they are looking for a tear duct cleanse themselves.

Another alternative might be to sequester the mourning moms in an isolated section of the store. The store could offer them coffee and doughnuts while providing them with a cooking demonstration or just place to hang out.

Maybe the moms would meet other mom friends that they could meet elsewhere for coffee and donuts in subsequent weeks.

For those of you that having school starting in your area after Labor Day consider yourself warned. The grocery store can be a very emotional place on the first day of school.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday!

Muffin Tin Monday- Back to School

August 29, 2011 By Deirdre

JDaniel starts preschool tomorrow! I thought a Back to School Muffin Tin would be a perfect way to celebrate.

His tin has cheese bus with mini Oreo tires and Chex windows on crackers. There is also a Rice Krispy treats apple with a grape leaf. Finally there are tiny carrot sticks shaped into numbers on a slice of turkey and a cupcake tin of grapes.

While I would love to take credit for all ideas in this tin, I can’t. The apple recipe came from a wonderful blog called Gourmet Mom on The Go.

If you wrote post about Back to School foods, please link them up to my Back to School Traditions link up.

What special things to you serve to celebrate the first day of school?

Starting School and Apple Turnovers with Mary Lee

August 24, 2011 By Deirdre

This is the second Mary Lee story I have shared. Over By the Tree Sits a Memory was the first. It features a lovely older lady named Mary Lee and her thoughts on how quickly children grow up.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Sarah sat in a rocking chair beside her mom cradling a tall glass of sweet tea as she rocked. Her crying had left her breathless and she was now taking deep breathes as her mother had advised her to do. Mary Lee rocked beside her on the porch that summer morning waiting for Sarah’s emotions to settle. She had known Sarah would probably been stopping by this morning.

Sarah had arrived at her house in tears with a frantic look on her face. She had just dropped two of her children including Davey her youngest at Simpsonville United Methodist Preschool moments earlier. Mary Lee was grateful that she and Frank lived only minutes from the school. Sarah hadn’t looked like she would have been able to drive much further.

After hugging Sarah for ten minutes or so, Mary Lee had guided her oldest daughter to the porch and given her a wad of tissue and glass of tea. She had encouraged to take deep breathes and sip the sweet tea to help her calm down.

Sarah didn’t remember being this upset when she had dropped Lydia and William of a preschool. She remember them crying, but she had been excited for them.

When Sarah’s emotions seemed to have calmed, Mary Lee had asked her to share what the morning had been like so far.

Sarah ran through the getting ready for school routine.

Each child had special pancake waiting at their place at the table. Sarah always made smiley face pancakes with blueberry eyes, a chocolate chip nose, and a bacon mouth for the first day of school.

Lydia and William had headed off to their rooms to put on their first day of school clothes and new shoes. Lydia had tan Mary Jane’s with rhinestones and William had new sneakers with blinking lights.

Sarah had guided her three year old Davey to the room he shared with William to help him put on his new robot t-shirt, khaki shorts, and sneakers with racing stripes. William could put his arms in his shirt after it was pulled over his head and was able to pull up his shorts after your helped him put the right leg in the correct leg hole. Shoes on the other hand were difficult. Even his slip on sneakers seemed to frustrate him. Sarah still had to help him put them on.

After everyone was dressed and had their hair had been brushed ,the backpacks and lunch boxes were gathered up. Davey and Lydia really didn’t need a lunch boxes, but Mama you had bought them one anyway. You had told them that they could come to your house to celebrate Davey’s his first day of preschool with lunch with you under the big tree in the front yard and share about their day.

John, Sarah’s husband, took a picture of each of the children dressed for school on their own and individually. John needed to head off to work in a few minutes, but he loved getting to be a part of the first day by taking pictures.

After the pictures were done, the children were piled into the car and strapped in. When Sarah had looked into the backseat via the rear view mirror, her children looked excited and ready to go. Tears had threatened to start as she back out of the driveway, but she was able to contain them.

The first stop was William’s elementary school. It was less than a ten minute drive from their house. As soon as the car had pulled up to the unloading zone. William had jumped out of the car and headed to the door. It had only been just as he went through the door that he turned and blew his mom a kiss and waved good-bye.

Then it was off to Simpsonville United Methodist where Lydia would be in the K4 class and Davey would be in the K3. Sarah a hoped there would be a number of red lights on the way that would delay the inevitable, but they had been all green.

Sarah was able to find a parking spot in the crowded lot. Every parent was required to escort their children in during the first week of school. That meant every parent had to find a place to park during the morning drop off. If the lot had been full, Sarah would have had to circle until a spot had opened up, but she had had no such luck.

Lydia was ready to leap out of the car as soon as Sarah had come around to open her door. Davey had been more tentative. He had been to the preschool many times to drop of his siblings and to attend various family events, but he had never stayed behind on his own.

Despite her desire to keep Davey strapped in and take him home, she had unbuckled him and helped him leap down from his car seat. “Everything is going to be wonderful!” she had reassured him. “You have wonderful teachers and your friend Joe will be in your class.”

“I know,” Davey had said in a whisper. “Are you going to be okay?” he had asked her. “I can start on Thursday if you need me to stay home today,” he had commented after grabbing her hand.

“No, I think I will be okay,” she had said forcing herself to smile and walk towards the entrance of the preschool.

They had first gone to Lydia’s room and helped her hang up her backpack. She was thrilled to see many of the same children from her class last year. She had given Sarah a hug and then bounded to a work table where the teachers had set out puzzles.

Davey had started slowly down the hall with Sarah stopping to point out the bathroom, the office, and the library. Each time Sarah had commended him for remembering where each of the rooms were.

Their pace slowed to a creep as they neared his door. It was like they were both walking in slow motion. It was like they both were putting off getting there.

When they finally arrived, Sarah had helped Davey take his backpack off and hang it on the right peg. Mrs. Robinson, one of Davey’s teachers, had welcomed them to class and offered to introduce Davey to some of the students that had already arrived. Sarah had bent down to hug her youngest and wipe away a small tear.

“Mama, Mrs. Robinson had take Davey‘s hand a guide him to a table with small blocks on it“ Sarah said rocking in her chair. “I’m not sure either one of us would have let go.”

I blew him a kiss and watched him place it in this pocket before I turned to walk away to walk into the hall.

“I tried Mama. I really tried to hold back the tears, but they forced their way out and tumbled from my eyes before I made it out of the building,” Sarah sighed.

“It is totally normal,” Mary Lee assured her daughter as she reached out to stroke her arm. “Many mamas go through this. I bet there were mamas all over the parking lot sitting in their mini vans in tears.

“I am so glad you were home,” Sarah sighed again. “ I just don’t think I could go home to an empty house today. I am not sure I could have driven through my tears much further than your house.”

“ I glad I was here too,” Mary Lee replied. “ I love that I can be here for you. You know I went through a similar challenge when your little sister Martha started school. I think I spent the whole morning crying.

“Really?”Sarah had questioned.

“Yes, I did and I think we need to do what I did that day once you finish your glass of tea. So, take your time finishing and we will go into the kitchen and make apple turnovers to have with Lydia and Davey when they came for lunch.

“Cooking always helps me feel better,” Martha said finally feel a little better. “Me too,” said Mary Lee rocking back and forth slowly in her chair.

Sarah sat in a rocking chair beside her mom cradling a tall glass of sweet tea as she rocked.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday and Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop. It contains many back to school traditions. They are special pancakes, new clothes and shoes, blowing a kiss and having your child keep it in their pocket, crying moms, needing a place to go that isn’t home, and a special lunch with people you love to share your day with.

I am hosting a Back to School Traditions Link Up. If you have a post on Back to School pictures and/or traditions. I would love for you to link it up!

Back to School Traditions Link Up

August 21, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to the Back to School Traditions link up!

I know some of you have started school already and some will be starting in the next few weeks. I am dying to know how you celebrate the beginning of school at your house or in your classroom.

Below there is a link up where you can share you back to school pictures and posts.

The link will stay open until September 8^th. Yes, I know it is a big window of time, but I want to give everyone an opportunity to share.

If you would include the badge below on your post or link about to this post, I would be very thankful.

I will be linking my Back to School Related posts during the next two weeks. This week I have two post on getting him ready for school.

JDaniel will have Meet the Teacher this Friday and start preschool next Tuesday. I will be posting on each of these big events along with linking several other posts of my own.