It’s less then a week to go until the children go back to school after the long summer holidays or in Molly-May’s case starting ‘big’ school (as she likes to call it) for the first time! I thought I put together a useful list for all those back to school essentials with one traditional add on in our case! This is the first year I’am actually super organised and finished with buying and labelling school uniform and getting all the other little important bits ready with plenty of time spare!
First off there is of course the Uniform! For Finn I mainly get the shorts/trousers and short sleeves Shirts from M&S because they do combat style shorts and the best non iron shirts out there! For Polo Shirts and everything else I love ASDA and most of Molly-May’s Uniform is from there too bar a few pieces from Sainsbury’s when they had their 25% off recently!
Then there is the labelling of the above Uniform! I have tried quite a few things from labels to stickers to personalised buttons and pens but nothing beats our new Stamptastic personalised Stamp which makes labelling clothes and shoes and lots of other things fun again and I have never done my labelling as quick as with the kids stamps! Defiantly a must have for any parent of school age kids! Here is my YouTube Review to check out Stamptastic in more detail.
Onto the dreaded school shoe purchase experience which was pretty quick and easy this year thanks to Treads School Shoes who come with a 12 months Indestructible Guarantee! You simply print out there measuring chart, measure your child’s feet and order their size! No more getting a ticket and waiting in line in those shoe shops on the highstreet for it! They are currently developing a girls range which I cannot wait for and I am pretty sure I will try them out for Molly-May too next year once there out on the market! I have written my initial thoughts over on my Treads School Shoes for Active Kids post but I will write a follow-up in a couple of months time to talk about their performance:
Then there are those dreaded Head Lice!! You can never be too prepared and its always better to have some Lice Treatment at home, just in case! We had those pesky visitors this summer holiday kind of like a goodbye present from Year 3 for Finn who gave it to his little sister who shared it with me! Such fun – said no Mum ever! Thankfully we had some treatment from Kit&Coco which worked really well on the kid’s hair and there Nitty Gritty Hair Comb was very useful for our daily search but I felt like my long thick hair needed something a little bit stronger so I got the Hedrin Treat and Go Spray which sorted them right out! (I left it on for 24 hours instead of the recommended 8 hours) Just to make sure we won’t be having any lice anytime soon I now wash the kid’s hair with the Vosene 3in1 Squeaky Clean Shampoo which contains natural tea tree oil and lemon eucalyptus oil to help prevent head lice and Molly-May’s hair getting double protection with the Vosene Conditioning Defence Spray which is a leave-in conditioner for wet hair which detangles and smooths her hair and the citronella and teatree oil is strong enough to scare those creepy things of any child’s head!
The Girls from Vosene must be mind readers because shortly after we all had a clean head again they send me a pretty hamper with lots of useful things to get us term ready again! We now have some new bottles of the Vosene Squeaky Clean range as well as a water bottle (that will come in useful for Molly-May bringing some water with her), Star stamper and stickers (which are great for reward charts!) a stain remover which is very useful to get those grass stains out of the white PE polo shirts), some envelopes for all those school forms to send back in, a sewing kit, a permanent pen for the kid’s school shoes, shoe polish to keep those black shoes shined, Crayola pens which I will put into Molly-May’s Schultüte (see below!) as well as a key finder (where you just whilst and then it lights up and gives a sound!) which I might pass on to Mr. C. who forever puts his keys everywhere else then on the key hook!!
Not to forget are the Lunchboxes/Lunchbags for the kids. Finn does have 2 days a week where he requested some packed lunch so I got both kids some pretty awesome personalised Lunchbags from the very talented Fee over at Fairy Arts. Finn loves anything Dinosaurs especially Blue from Jurassic World and Molly-May adores Unicorn and Fee manage to make my vision of the perfect personalised Lunchboxes come true and they are only 11£ each! Within the bags I am using my trusted Yumboxes! Finn has the original Yumbox and Molly-May now has upgraded to the Yumbox Panino which fits a bigger sandwich (Finn isn’t a huge sandwich lover hence why the original is the perfect choice for him). I might write a post about my bento inspired school lunches in the near future! I also had a little pencil case made for Finn for only 4.50£ which he uses as his little wash bag!
Last but not least I have created a Weekly Planner for the Fridge which is mostly for Mr.C. so he doesn’t need to ask what time the kids need to be dropped/picked up from school as well as all their after school activities on different days! I just found a printable weekly planner from the internet and added various activities and times in with Picmonkey:
In Germany we have a very special tradition for every child which starts school for the first time which is called a “Schultüte” aka a school cone which is a cone colourful personalised with the child’s name, their favourite colours and animals. It is filled with some sweets, school supplies and little school related presents like hair clips, bows and stickers. In Germany you are allowed to take your cone to school and open it there to help you with your first day nerves whilst the parents sit in the back row of the classroom! I am still in the process of making Molly-May’s so here is Finn back in 2014 on his very first day of school with his homemade Disney Plane inspired big Schultüte:
Have you finished your back to school prep yet to be term ready? I would love to hear when you start prepping and finishing with the whole to do list which comes with the kids going back to school after the summer holidays and if you have any tips or must have items I might have missed off my list?
Disclaimer: I have been sent a #TermReady Hamper from Vosene but I have not been ask to write about it and all thoughts and opinions are my own!