Robin McClure - 151 Ways to Start the School Year Off Right

Copyright 2009 by Robin McClure

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I would like to say thanks to my three children, who have truly served as test cases on beginning school throughout the years (and for years to come). My oldest son, Hunter, is in high school, while my daughter, Erin, and younger son, Connor, are elementary-school studentsthe focus of this book. Three kids mean three different needs, moods, attitudes that need adjusting at varying times, and hoped-for lifelong learners. Hugs also go to my husband, Rick, who often is trying to leave for work and a long commute in horrific traffic in the midst of school-year routines and morning madness. This I know: Smiles on the faces of our brood of three as they begin the school year (and each day throughout the year) bring great joy to us and let us know that we're certainly doing some things right in the parenting quest of raising (mostly) happy kids.

Isn't it funny how quickly families settle in to the lazy-days-of-summer routine when school is out? Bedtimes creep later and later, while early-morning-madness routines seem like a bad dream. The long, sun-kissed days extend into lingering evenings and bountiful activities outdoors, eagerly awaited vacations, and a slower, gentler, and much more relaxing pace all around. Even parents who work full time may benefit from a shortened summer work schedule or a boss who doesn't mind employees arriving at work a little later. Shorts, ice cream, tank tops, bike rides, swimming, camps, and just soaking up the sun are all rites that come with the summer months.

And, then, seemingly without warning, August arrives, and with it comes the imminent start of another school year. You summon your tanned darlings to a mandatory clothes try-on session, only to confirm what you already knew: Your kids have grown, almost magically, over the summer. Waists are larger and legs are longer, meaning new school clothes are a must. Shoes that were too big only months ago are now painfully small, and a peek at the sock drawer reveals an assortment of mismatched, discolored, or stained strays. Last year's backpacks are frayed or missing, or your child absolutely won't carry a messenger bag with a previously ultra-hip (and now totally uncool) action hero displayed prominently on its front. Off to the stores you go, most likely with uncooperative and whining kids in tow. Several stores later and wallet considerably flatter, you can strike the replenishing of your young fashion diva or dude's wardrobe off your list.

Next, the hunt for school supplies begins. Have you ever noticed how the lists seem to grow longer and more detailed each year, even requiring certain colors of folders or pencils and preferred brands of glue to add to the shopping frenzy? Just how hard can it be to find a green plastic folder with pockets anyway? (Note: If you have to ask, your oldest child must be entering kindergarten, as you're still not clued in that EVERYONE is searching for that same folder in the same color during the same week, or so it seems.)

A further insult to what lies ahead is that your delightfully almost-empty to-do summer calendar with its clean, open pages is quickly becoming a blur of ink, with meet-the-teacher socials, curriculum nights, and volunteer orientations. While your child eagerly (or not) anticipates these meetings as an opportunity to reunite with friends and surroundings, you get tasked with completing the dreaded forms. Forms, you say? They may be disguised as colorful information sheets with cutesy clip art, but look closely in your parent packet, and you'll see a multitude of papers requiring you to supply personal information, acknowledge that you've read the teeny-tiny font of pages upon pages of school rules and procedures, and review the detailed expectations of your child's behavior.

There are also forms for the teacher, the P.E. coach, and the school nurse; release forms for transportation; forms for the lunchroom; forms for spirit wear; forms for contact numbers; forms for volunteering; forms for joining the Parent-Teacher Association; and forms for communications throughout the year. These useful but somewhat intimidating mounds of paper are distributed without pity along with underlined and usually bolded instructions to return them to school by the end of the first week.

All this leads to the two simple questions you should ask yourself as each new school year approaches. 1) Are you ready for the new school year? and 2) Are you preparing your kids to start the school year with a smile? These are key questions most parents repeatedly ask themselves throughout the summer months and weeks leading up to a new school year, as they count down the days and check off the tasks they must complete before the classroom bell rings. After all, child experts say that all children are born ready to learn, but it is the role of parents to prepare children to learn at school.

While summer provides well-deserved downtime for busy families, it seems that learning takes a backseat as well. Educators often lament the fact that they spend the first month of each school year essentially reteaching information that students learned in the previous grade. Why? With learning, as with so many other things, it's use it or lose it. Many kids today don't crack open a single book, read a magazine, review their math facts, or practice spelling words over the summer months. That means young students forget key building-block information mastered during the previous school year that is required as a foundation for the new, more advanced learning to come. So teachers must offer review and repetition each fall to once again get kids at the level they need to be for the new grade. It's a phenomenon so typical that it has even earned a name: The summer slide.