How To Make Back-To-School Fun
All over America, starting at the beginning of August until mid-September, depending on where one lives, children, teens and college kids will be returning to the classroom. After the easy-living of summer, it can be a bit of a jolt to suddenly have to wake early and be ready to take notes or work on times tables rather than sleeping in and maybe watching a cartoon or two.
Mothers (and fathers) all over the country have been busy purchasing the needed school supplies and some back-to-school clothes to make at the least the first day more special. We make our kids pose at the door before they head out to get the school bus, though I must admit by my third child I sometimes had to take his going back to school photo after his first day. Yes, in the rush of things, I forgot. He didn’t seem to mind, and since he was all alone in the house from eighth grade on, he truly learned the art of rolling out of bed a mere twenty minutes or so before he drove himself to high school.
For those parents who are in charge of their child’s return to structure and learning, this is an exciting and nail-biting time. Will our children be safe from the pandemic? Those twelve and under can’t be vaccinated, and so we’ll worry about hand washing and hand sanitizer. For the older ones, I’ve had my college kid get that dreaded or welcomed vaccine, because he wants to do everything in his power to attend classes in person this semester. He’s spent three semesters online only, and he’s rather cynical about seeing the inside of a classroom again. So am I, to be truthful. But there’s some good things to do on that first day, so let me move on.
Be the calming force in the days and nights leading up to that first day. No matter if a kid’s been attending the same school for years, they will still have butterflies in their stomach. You can keep them fairly calm. And on that first day back, I did several things to make the day better for all of us, because I missed having my children home with me. So I would always bake one of my kids’ favorite dessert to feast on after school as a rare treat. I baked cookies or delectable caramel chocolate bars from scratch, because they needed something to look forward to.
Maybe their first day was fraught with difficulty and uneasiness. It happens. Things don’t work, lockers don’t open, lunch is awful, friends aren’t in their classes and so on. Knowing that mom or dad is home waiting for them with a wonderfully gooey dessert or homemade cookies helps. Lending them an listening ear is also a good thing to do, even while they’re diving into the pile of warm cookies. Sometimes they just need us to listen, and then they can go on to deal with teachers or students they don’t really like. That dessert was always something that made that first day back to school so much nicer.
Another thing I did for myself was a tradition I experienced as a mom in Wisconsin. If anyone was sending a child to school, even if little ones were still at home, we were invited to breakfast at a restaurant like Bob Evans or Denny’s that could accommodate many moms and children. We’d show up as soon as that yellow bus took our children away, and then we’d drink some much needed coffee and find something edible. Chaos reigned, but it helped to have something on the calendar to do on that first day of change.
The days when we sent a child to kindergarten for the first time are tough on so many of us. Going to breakfast and maybe shedding a few tears was good, because some mom always made us laugh in the end. Then we’d leave as necessary, if we had a baby who needed a nap; or if we had to head home to meet the kindergarten bus. One by one we moms would disperse. We all had much to do, including baking treats to welcome the kids home.
But the best tradition was for the exclusive group of moms who were sending their baby, their last child, to first grade. That mother was welcome to attend a lunch that was not open to anyone with kids still at home. We all wanted to join the group who not only enjoyed breakfast out, but then they also had a long lunch to enjoy. It made sending our babies, our last child to school full-time, just a little easier, and we whiled away too much time talking about summer, missing the kids, who the good teachers were, and what we were planning on doing for the PTA that year.
I’d barely have time to fit in a decent walk after breakfast, so I could eat a relaxed lunch in peace and quiet, with so many moms had been lunching for years. They didn’t cry over their youngest heading to school, since they’d been doing this for several years at least, and I tried to learn from them. Mother wisdom is shared at events like the long lunch, along with a good dollop of catching up on our regular lives. We’d chat about work, volunteering, gardening, sex, the Packers, the school while lingering over our salads (we’d already had eggs and bacon for breakfast); then it was time for all of us to go home and bake.
I think I was the first in our group to introduce baking a welcome back home treat for our children, who welcomed it no matter their age. My seniors in high school wanted those chocolate caramel bars as much as any first grader did. When I moved to Ohio I introduced the moms I met to breakfast on the first day. Since I had a toddler at home, I wasn’t able to show them how to go to lunch; but I heard they managed that part just fine without me. It took me four years of waiting, but I finally joined the moms who lunch club one day.
I had cried silently, since we have to be brave for our slightly scared first graders. So we smile behind tremulous masks, hiding our sadness that another milestone has been reached; we’ve moved out of a phase of our lives, never to return. The firsts and lasts are the most difficult to manage, and I’d cry when I was completely alone. I never let my children see. I’d cry after they left, and then I’d pull myself together for a day of feasting.
Make your kids first day back to school fun for you and them. Take the day off if you can, and start the new tradition. And yes, bake from scratch, since it tastes so much better, and you’ll feel like such a good mommy; even though you’ve been eating and maybe drinking a glass of wine to celebrate the successful (hopefully) launch of another school year. Enjoy yourself, especially after running around last minute trying to find that one item your child just informed you that they need or they’ll die.
This first day back-to-school take time out for you. But be there for your kids, so they can vent or crow about their first day back. Then decide what way you’re going to volunteer this year. As a stay-at-home mom I chaired many events such as the week long book fair, or the teacher appreciation luncheon; and that came with very high expectations, since the mom before made the school gym into a garden complete with a gardener’s shed. Yeah, we had those kind of parents at our school. But it was fun, and I loved those busy, busy days.
You can make it through anything this school year sends your way. Why? Because you’re starting this year off connecting with other moms, and you’re rewarding yourself for getting through the long, hot summer. Enjoy a big breakfast! Then lunch. Then bake away! And be ready for them when the kids come home. They might not say it, but they need you.
