So yesterday was first day back to school for Emilie, she started Grade 5.
Our annual back to school tradition, something I think most parents do – is take a pic of your child on day 1 of whatever grade, and every year compare pics and get sad about how much they have grown. Until I found this awesome site – Thirty Handmade Days and started our new traditions which we have just added to, each year.
On the site you will find a printable number (for whichever grade your little-y is starting), with this I take a picture of Emilie on her first day. We also let her fill in her goals for the year she is in this grade randomly somewhere on the page. This year her goals were things like:
- become a better swimmer (we have already enrolled in swimming lessons)
- make better choices (is this child awesome or what?)
- to pass Grade 5
We’ve also added something else I found on the site this year, which is about who she is today which I thought was quite cool. It includes questions for her to fill in – age, height, weight, shoe size etc and then some more interesting stuff like: What do you want to be when you grow up – this changes as we grow up and its nice to have a place to look what you wanted to be and how it evolves. It also asks what her favourites are – food, books, TV show, movies and colour.
I let her colour and decorate the two pages and slotted in a flip file I bought when I did our annual stationary shop a few weeks ago. This allows me to have a space to just file significant letters (which she still writes me often), some of her art, school pictures, and events from 2017.
Emilie’s first day of school was uber duber exciting, she has a teacher she loves and they have even made a little clap and dance to greet one another in their class (keeping it exclusive).
It makes my heart so glad to see how happy she is and how far she has come, from the beginning of school last year and how petrified I was with her starting a new school.
In the meantime – what are your traditions for the first day back at school?
x
Ahh I love everything about this idea!
I love this idea! One of our favorite back to school traditions was that the night before school started we had pizza for supper, either out or at home, and during the meal we made a list of all the awesome things we did over break. For us that was always at the end of summer. I’m fascinated that where you are kids change grade at the beginning of the calendar year!
That’s sounds like a good idea too!!! I should perhaps incorporate a family meal for next year. We’re in the middle of summer now, We are in SA.. when do you change grades?
Our kids change grades at the beginning of the school year – around here that’s mid-August, but in a lot of places it’s the beginning of September. Most school districts take about ten weeks off over the summer. I forgot you were in SA, so of course it’s summer there now!