Back to school traditions.

Hi - I take my boys out for breakfast the morning school starts. We get up a little earlier, get our pictures taken (one together, one alone) and then head off. I usually let them pick and last year it was McDonalds. This year we have already agreed on a restaurant that serves breakfast all day and waffles with strawberries and whip cream. As a side note - I don't pull my kids out of school, generally, but on Valentine's Day I take them out at lunchtime and we go to one of our local restaurants for heart shaped pizza. Those are memories I will never forget.

I also try to do the "1st day" picture in the same spot every year. New tradition now that we are in a new house. Their grandpa (papa Howe) always decorates plain lunch sacks and gives the kids goodies in them every time we see him and so I save them and re-use them as lunch sacks throughout the year for special occasions.
I also LOVE back to school supply shopping. I am a sucker for a new pack of anything school supply related and think I bought 4 kids' worth of stuff and I only have 1 1st grader!

In addition to the regular shopping stuff, we have a fun day before school starts tradition.
Our school posts the class lists at 4 pm the day before school starts. We show up, our friends are there, kids we haven't seen all summer, etc. There is a mass of folks at the school. Everyone checks to see what teacher they have.
Afterwards we meet our best friends at Baskin Robbins for ice cream and chit chat review the teacher assignments, the kids play tag outside the store.
I have photos of this little event for the last 3 years. It is a great end of summer day.
Have fun!
Jen

I have two boys, 7 & 6. Each year before the first day of school, I make them write their name and I do their handprint. Each goes into their school albums, and then the last day of school, I get them to write their name again. The improvement is always fun to see! And TONS of pictures are taken too!
Shelby

The entire family gets up early, we eat a good hearty breakfast, and then we all pile in the car, and head to our oldest daugher's school. We always take pictures on he first day of school so in the future, she can see how she has changed from year to year, school year to school year. :)

I take a photo of my son on the first and last day of school each year - I have them in a folder to do a LO of 12 years of first and last days. I always take those days off work. Even though my son is in his last year of middle school, he's still looking forward to home baked cookies when he gets home the first day. We always do that, too.

On the *last* day, we always go out for ice cream. We try on the 1st day but sometimes, it doesn't work out....so we just buy some for home...but the last day, it's a MUST!
I had a friend who always baked homemade cookies for her girls on the 1st day and sat and ate them and chatted about their days.

I also love to pick out school supplies. But since I am have become a Mom my tradition is to take a picture of my kids on the first day of school. Then I write a little of what I hope for them for the year. I have also included some tags from the new schol clothes the past few years.(Mfg are really creating some really cool tags) I am tring to figure out I will geta picture of my son on his 1st day of college.

They have trapper keepers this year at Target.
On the first day my dad would video our walk to school, and walk home and then we'd be quizzed on teachers and schedules. We also all got a new outfit, book bag, and lunch box for the first day.

What cracks me up about the whole back to school mode is how it can date you. Back in the day, we didn't have back to school supply lists. There wasn't much that the school didn't provide, and they didn't care what brand of supplies you purchased. I am really beginning to feel old. :(
I hope you and Simon have fun shopping.

I still get excited about school supplies too! But I usually pick them up whenever I see them on sale over the summer....nothing like 20 cent glue sticks and 10 cent notebook paper. But for the kids they all get to pick out the new lunchbox and backpack...that's tradition here.

Wow, you got alot of great comments! Our traditions are pic first day (same spot)by the front door so I can really tell the difference, their favorite breakfast, decorate their school box, and Kissing Hand the night before (until 2nd grade we did that). But my twins are starting Kindergarten like Simon this year; Jaron will be mainstreamed and in extended resource the other part of the day. My oldest had first day of middle school yesterday. He was so jazzed to get a locker. I'm excited and nervous for the little boys! Hope you guys have a fantastic first day!

We go out to dinner the first day of school
- a nice sit down dinner - no drive thru's ;) :D
it gives us time to just visit and enjoy each others company (and no dishes to clean up afterward) :D :D

Wow! Lots and lots of comments. I absolutely LOVE back to school time. About Mid-July this year I walked into Wal-Mart with my two kids and exclaimed "oh look, the school supplie are out already. I LOVE back-to-school!" To which my children replied, "Oh gosh, Mom. Get a grip!" Then I gave a HUGE SNIFF as I walked by the crayons, colored pencils, scissors, etc. and said, "don't you love the smell of brand new crayons!" My kids are entering 6th and 12th grade, so they didn't really appreciate my enthusiam!! After hearing this my husband replied, "you can't take the teacher out of you, can you?" (I was a first grade teacher for 8 years a while back.) Unfortunately, my kids were too old to buy BRAND NEW CRAYONS but I bought some for me anyway! They don't get out of the first-day-of-school photo though, no matter how old they are!! Enjoy!

Hi Ali,
I know what you mean about school supplies - oh how I loved picking them all out and bringing them home. One of my Dad's brothers actually had an office supply store when I was young - can you imagine??!! It was marvelous.
I'm still working on what to do for Hannah and Wyatt - starting Jr. K. in September. I'm sure it will involve some more reading about school to prep them, some photos, a fun meal and dessert and maybe a few little presents - books and a little toy perhaps. We are also getting them set up with their own little desk and chair in their rooms as well as some Ikea finds (shelves, magnet boards, reading lights etc.).
Love the idea of starting our own traditions. Can't wait to read all the posts here for inspiration. I'll let you know if I come up with anything spectacularly fabulous - or just plain good!
A.

Every first day of school I make the kids a "chalkboard" cake and include their grade and names and room numbers, etc. with icing.

I have a 'first day of school' pic frome every year I had kids in school. (Getting those juniors and seniors to behave in a photo is the pits! LOL) The only other thing we did, as a family, was go school shoe and supply shopping together. With 5 kids, it got pretty crazy (and $$$) but we always had fun and at the end of the day, we went out for ice cream!
Sue

My daughter is 20 years old now so no more "back to school" traditions now but I'll share one that we started when she was in the 3rd grade.
It'll all started on the third day of 3rd grade. I just decided to have waiting for her when she got home, three flowers. Then the following year, on the fourth day of 4th grade, I gave her four flowers, then on the fifth day of 5th grade, well, you get the picture. I never gave her roses because I had planned for this all to culmunate on her 12th day of 12 grade, her Senior Year, with a dozen red roses. It was beautiful and I, of course, cried! :-) I regret that I didn't take a picture each year...but I do have one with the roses so I know I can journal to cover the whole 9 year journey to presenting her with those flowers!!!
Thanks for letting me share! This was fun!
Cheers,
Michelle

Before school, my husband takes a picture of me and my son together(I'm a teacher so it's my 1st day, too!), and then I take some of just my son. We get to school early, and I take pictures of him in school, at his locker, with his teacher (before the halls get crowded). Then after school, we go out to eat to celebrate day 1 being over!

We always took first day of school pics in the driveway in front of the cedar trees--then we'd drive the kids to school---usually the only day they got a ride to school. After dropping them off my husband & I would go celebrate together at a new coffee shop we hadn't been to before & toast the new year with steaming mochas! Not sure what or when we'll celebrate this year since my daughter begins school at UO---the day we drop her off at the dorms? or the next morning?