Easy Back to School Strategies
Back to school is often marked as a time to buy a lot of stuff. New school year, new wardrobe. New backpacks. Television commercials at this time of year are yelling at us that we need stuff. We need to be ready. Buy, buy, buy. Your child won’t be ‘ready’ for the school year without new kicks, the hottest backpack and a whole new wardrobe. He or she will walk into school with confidence in their new clothing.
Apparently the mall and a few hundred dollars will make for an easy back to school experience.
But that’s just not true. Any parent will tell you about a smooth transition for their kid and attribute it to an action. They visited the school a few times in the weeks before classes started. They practiced the walk to school or taking the bus. They put some effort into having their kid journal, read and do a bit of science review over the summer to help with the ‘summer slide’ as they call it. They talked about fears about the upcoming school year over dinner. Nothing about their back to school success plan involved shopping.
Why do we mark so many occasions with shopping or stuff?
True, the ‘stuff’ of back to school can be fun to organize as part of this annual transition. Pull out the clothing from last year and see what fits. Repair that tear in the backpack. Pick out a first day of school outfit. Mine through last year’s school supplies. But there are also many ways to mark this transition and prepare for back to school that don’t involve stuff.
Ideas for preparing for back to school without stuff:
Get more sleep. Bed time’s often creep ahead during the summer. It’s a fun time of year and summer evenings spent outside are a pretty good reason to stay up late. Start winding the clock back in the week before school starts so kids are going to bed earlier.
Time trial your school morning. Have to be at school by 8am and have a thirty minute commute? Make sure you take a test run the week before. This will not only give you a heads up if your planning is off, it will make your kids more comfortable with the upcoming change of pace.
Talk about the upcoming school year. Not a big one to check off but often filled with so much insight into where your kid is at. Are they hoping for a specific friend to be/not be in their class? What about teacher preference? Are there new expectations for them this year at school like having their own locker and moving to different classrooms on their own? Move the conversation away from “what a bummer summer is almost over” to “what new things will happen at school.”
Back to school shop in a different way.
If you do need to shop for back to school items, try to do it differently.
Wash, repair and repurpose. Putting my kids lunch bags and backpacks through the wash makes them look close to brand new. Not good with a sewing machine? Turn those knee-less ripped jeans into shorts or ask a friend for some help. Hand-me-downs from within your family or community are some of the best ways to repurpose clothing and get ‘new’ clothes for your own kids.
Wait until you need it. Change your mindset from buying ahead to buying as needed. This has saved me so much money, time and hassle. A sale or ‘I’ll need it soon’ aren’t great reasons to buy stuff. Outgrowing something is a good reason to buy something.
Buy second hand. Have a quick cruise of your local thrift store or Schoola.com. If you’re not familiar with Schoola they are an online second hand clothes retailer that also has a hefty school support program. Easy back to school can mean buying a few things that are needed but rethink how you get those things.
More about back to school success the simple way:
I definitely live by the practice of buying clothes and supplies only if we need it, but also including my kids in that discussion. My oldest is entering 3rd grade, and she was really clamoring this summer for a new backpack. She has used the same one since kindergarten and it still has a lot of use in it (almost as good as new, actually). I told her I was not going to buy her anything. She didn’t need a new backpack, she just wanted a new backpack. So, she proposed buying one with her own money, and I agreed. She has been doing odd jobs this summer to earn money. I asked her questions to help her figure out what she was looking for in the new backpack so that she wasn’t jumping at the first pretty bag she saw. We then looked online in a couple spots (we’re somewhat limited in stores around us), and she found both a backpack and a lunchbag that will meet her needs and her style. We ordered it, and she is thrilled to be getting it.
I think the emphasis on having her spend her own money for things she wants – let Mom and Dad buy the needs – helps her to think about what is really important and valuable to her. There have been other occasions where she’s asked for something and I tell her she can buy it with her own money – and she doesn’t buy it!
Thanks for sharing this. It’s great to hear how parents manage requests from older children. We still make clothing and stuff decisions for our kids on our own with a little feedback from them. They’re pretty green/unconcerned with fashions and such (but they are obsessed with Lego!!). I like to hear how parents manage requests like this.
I think it’s great to think of other ways to prepare for the school year besides buying new supplies! It’s also good to keep in mind that teachers often have lists of what particular items will be needed for the year. You can save yourself some trouble by waiting for that list so that you don’t buy the wrong thing and then have to deal with fixing that.
We too rarely buy clothes for back to school, but usually always need a new pair of school shoes since they’ve outgrown the ones from the previous school year. The part that really bugs me is all the new school supplies they need when they have half used ones from prior years they could finish up using. We have nearly a dozen half-used composition books that I wish we could use up before buying others. We try to save as many supplies from the previous years like scissors, crayons, etc., but I often feel like we could all just use up what we have and not have to buy so much.
Megyn: yes! I’ve kept the supplies from last year and we used some of the composition books over the summer. I’m going to ask the oldest’s teacher this year if we can re-use some of his books supplies from last year.
YES! This is spot on. I just let all grandparents know that no new school clothes are needed this season … we’re fine with current clothing. Also, we had a great conversation with our daughter about using her backpack (3 years running now) for another year because it’s still working well. It has been a wonderfully calm back to school without entering into the shopping craze.
I agree with all of this, except for (in a VERY small number of cases) the “wait until you need it”–for example, I have three boys. They will all DEFINITELY need indoor and outdoor shoes, and winter boots from October/November until May (we live on the Canadian prairies, winter is long and hard here). So I keep a running list of all the shoes and boots we have, and if I see some “missing” sizes on clearance at a great price, I buy them. I don’t really pass down shoes as they usually get worn out, but I do have them re-use boots. Again, if I can find ones on clearance in the spring in sizes I don’t have (and will need as I have three kids of differing ages) I will buy them. This is one way I can save quite a bit of money. I do not do this for clothes (because usually by the time we need them, friends have handed us some clothes, as we do for others) but for shoes and boots it has really helped us.
Wonderful and helpful tips Rachel! My kids have so much clothing I’m definitely not taking them shopping this year – the exception being shoes since their feet have grown. I’m trying to teach them that they already have favourites that they wear all the time and lots of clothes they neglect so why add more to the problem? We are pretty lucky with our school since they supply what the students need as far as pens and pencils etc are concerned. Although the last two years one teacher has asked everyone to bring in a box of Kleenex at the beginning of the school year because there are never enough in the school. That is something I am very willing to do!
Thanks!
I also prefer paying a fee for supplies to the school (anything to avoid shopping). One of our kids has that happening this year (Kindergarten) but I think the third grader has to buy his own supplies.
I think we are good on indoor/running shoes right now but I’m predicting a round of snow boots in December.
Are you at the point where you can tell them to go shop in their sister’s closet for their next round of clothing? They’re going to have so much fun with that when they are older. *And fights. But fun too!
Great and timely piece.
I was always shocked by the amount of ‘must have, new stuff’ parents are led to believe their kids need. Surely a backpack would last more than one school year. Did all the pens, pencils, binders etc. vanish during the summer vacation? Did you kid really grown out of every item of clothing? I have even seen ads that suggest a need for a new bed!
My sons left school many years ago, but I still remember buying their jeans and long sleeved t shirts for the winter. For their summer wardrobe I just cut of the sleeves of the t’s and cut the jeans down for shorts! Their back packs etc. lasted many years. Thankfully there didn’t seem to be as much advertising or hype as there is today.
Hahaha a new bed! I’m sure there was some hint at better grades because the bed will assure the best sleep possible.