Tuesday, August 4th 2009
I can read it on their faces as we spot the isles of Back to School products prominently displayed on one side while the bathing suits and pool supplies are marked “clearance” on the other.
“Already!?!”
And I feel their pain. Just like holiday decorations, Back to School items seem to make an earlier appearance each year. We call it “The Summer Ouch”. But what can you do? It’s reality. School will be starting up again in a few weeks so it’s better to be prepared.
When I was younger, life was much more simple. I only had a few basic things to do before each school year.
In my day…
1. We wore uniforms so really all we needed each year were new shoes and socks…and maybe some cute earrings or legwarmers or a new denim jacket.
2. We were mailed a supply list along with a summer reading list. I’m not going to lie here: sometimes both were ignored.
3. Really, all I cared about was if my best friend was in my classes and which cute boys were in my homeroom. Hallways, schmallways – those were the logistics.
4. One summer, I decided to change the spelling my name. I thought it would be mysterious and alluring to be called “Kimberleigh”. The nuns didn’t go for it.
5. A Trapper Keeper. Enough said.
I asked my 14 year old daughter who will be a freshman this year (Holy God in Heaven – A Freshman!) what her top five Have to Do Before School Starts things were and this is what she said:
Today…
1. Back to school clothes shopping: I want to wear something new on the first day – something that will let me feel confident when I walk into homeroom.
2. Packing my book bag: I like to be prepared and all packed up so that I can have a good morning and not be searching for my things.
3. Decorating my locker: To make it look like my style.
4. Planning: Planning out where my classes are, how to get to them, and who’s with me.
5. Getting a haircut before the first day of school.
I want to know what back to school tools or rituals you had vs. what your children have today.
WHAT DO YOU WIN????
An Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810T-6415
The Aspire Timeline series was designed to strike the ideal balance between maximum battery life, performance and outstanding value – attributes that every mom is looking for a notebook for herself or her kids for the back-to-school season.
In order to maximize battery life while still delivering solid performance, the Aspire Timeline AS3810T features a high-chemistry 6-cell battery and the Intel Core 2 Duo processor SU9400, the new Ultra Low Voltage version of its Centrino 2 family. Under MobileMark 2007 Productivity testing we’re getting 8-9 hours of battery life from this product. This extended battery life will provide an incredible benefit to students who are taking it from class to class to take notes, work on projects and look up information online, only to then need it after classes are through for study times. Moms on the go who want to stay in touch can use it as they work from home, then compute on the road with kids, volunteer at school and other charities, etc.
The Timeline has an elegant thin and light design that is incredibly sleek and ultra thin to keep costs down and your bag light. The Acer Timeline ranges from $599-$899.
Visit the Acer Aspire official site to learn more.
My 14 year old has not gotten a hold of this laptop and could not be happier. “It’s so thin and fast – I love it!” I told her that’s thanks to Intel. She’s glad she’s got a cool pc and I’m glad she’s set for high school (and won’t be on my laptop.) Thanks Intel!!
The Rules: To enter, leave me a comment below about what Back to School tools or rituals you had vs. what your children have today – or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin at 9:00 a.m. (PST) July 21, 2009 and will end 5:00 p.m. (PST) August 31, 2009. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.
* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US residents, aged 18 and over
* Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
* Please see the official rules here: Official Rules
***CONTEST CLOSED***
Winner = # 276 …Arin / arindance.blogspot.com
Congrats!!
New Winner : 9/8/09 Julie G.
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Back to school shopping is a must – both for clothes and for school supplies.
I can still smell the trapper keepers of my youth.
I deliberated painstakingly over the perfect pencil box. You know, the ones that looked like cigar boxes? My daughter has no idea what that is. The lunchbox was the it thing. It was metal and I wanted the muppet one SO bad. Now I’m being begged for a Hannah Montana thermal coolie lunch bag. Markers were only used in art class. Hers are washable (thank god). We picked out the best way to walk to school so that we could see as many of our friends on the way. My daughteris not allowed to walk to school because of my overwhelming fear of Chester the Molester…
I did what your daughter did- in my day, I had to:
1: get new clothes, at least a few outfits
2: get my backpack ready
3: get up early enough to have breakfast
4: find all my classes
Now, we home-school our daughter. She has to do really nothing except prepare her mind for learning! The rest falls on me of course! Thanks for this great giveaway!
I had to have a Big Chief tablet and two new pencils. Yesterday I took my granddaughter shopping. Her list required 20 pencils (!), 4 boxes of 24 crayons, a ream of paper, plus, of course, numerous other goodies. Very different. Hopefully she’ll come out being able to read and write. You know, so she can blog someday and I will know what’s going on in her life.
School supply shopping day was like Christmas Day for me: NEW STUFF! Prang paints, new paint pan for my sister who always lost hers and none for me because I was careful, orange #2 pencils, forbidden colored markers which I had to keep hidden lest they be confiscated, number cards, letter cards (both to be punched out and kept in envelopes; there were never enough vowels or zeroes), pads of paper, trendy folders – the only ones I remember were the Monkees. Mom made us wear saddle oxfords, so the new shoes weren’t much fun. I was always dragged to the beautician for a permanent, so most of my school pictures look like a blonde Janet from “Three’s Company.” My knees were always covered with band-aids. I had to carry the same lunchbox for six years, way past the age when lunch boxes were cool. My mother really didn’t understand.
My own kids? Dang, I LOVED going lunchbox-shopping! I loved buying groceries to make those lunches. New shoes, new socks, new jeans, new plaid skirts, new superhero sweatsuits for my son who wouldn’t wear jeans ’til fourth grade. . . new pencils with their names on them. New pens. New folders. New markers, which they DIDN’T have to hide. New clay. New erasers – has anything ever smelled so good?
School supplies are like crack. You can never have enough, and you can never arrange and re-arrange them in your desk enough.
Schools that do community supplies are the devil. Kids need supplies of their own, to sniff, to cherish, and to help them learn personal organization.
My daughter is going to be starting pre-k this year and I just went to look at the list, they need a full size back pack, rest mat, box of tissues, wetwipes, hand sanitizer, over size t-shirt for painting, ziploc bags gallon or qt, snack items like pretzels and crackers, two types of glue. I find it weird that you go into stores now and a display for your area is there. The first day was always the day you got the list of what you need, but mom and I would go for the basics, pack of pencils, pens, few spiral notebooks, binder and paper and we would get the rest later on. I remember always wanting to look good the first few days so mom would get us a few new things for the begining of the year. I have been looking foward to shopping for school supplies for my kids, I love the supply section for some reason, my hubby thinks I’m crazy lol…
When I went back to school (in the dinosaur days, as PunditGirl has taken to calling them), I was excited about having a new pencil box and some cool book covers. Not, for PunditGirl, we are not quite to the laptop stage (but VERY soon will be), but she “needs” to have the new backpack and wants to know why I am so “strict” that I won’t let her have a cell phone. I’m hoping that new pencils will keep her happy at least for another year!
punditmom1@gmail.com
My husband and I just talked about how we would dread the days our moms would move up our bedtimes. All summer long we’d be able to stay up pretty much as late as we wanted and then suddenly, about two weeks before school started, both of our moms (several states away) would suddenly become bedtime Nazis!! I mean, I guess it was nice for them when they didn’t have to roll us out to the school bus on the first day of school, but still. Gee whiz. Can’t a girl stay up late without consequences?!
It was all about the binder for me. The perfect, organizing binder that would somehow, on it’s own, manage to earn me straight A’s and keep everything in its place. (It never worked — at least not the “in its place part.”
The funny thing is that I still do the same things with my house today. Labor over buying the “best” organizational desk/drawers/shelves when in the end, there is still crap strewn about like a typhoon has just hit!!
School for my son is really just unfathomable. He’s just 4 and goes to a Japanese preschool. The number of items he must have for school (all home-sewn – by my friend who can actually sew) is unbelievable. An eye mask. A home-sewn bag for said eye mask. A jumprope. A bag for his jumprope. A smock with his name and fun doo-dads sewn all over it so he can identify it as his. Indoor white shoes and a bag for the shoes. Then these little tags get ironed into every bit of clothing and then written on with permanent marker his name in Japanese. And that is just the beginning. I must have worked on his “back to school” stuff non-stop for a week and still managed to forget to hand stitch a red circle on a white washcloth to put in his cup bag (homemade) which holds his cup in his bento bag (again with the homemade). BIG Sigh…
Oh, geez – that was like a million years ago! My mom never bought me cool clothes so all I cared about was wearing something new and trying to look different than the year before – more growed up! And my schedule – that was a big one, I needed to know where all my peeps were.
For my kids, they don’t seem to care about the outfits – boys!! Go figure. All they want to know is will they have to do homework on the first day of school!
It was so different for me walking to school,cold lunches in kindergarden through 3 rd grade,then off to a school that we took the bus
,grades 4 thru 8 ,7&8 grades were half days all year!! 
The schools in the area weren’t big enough for all the kids so the 7 th grade went in the morning and 8th graders went in the afternoon,making the switch in Jan.from morning and afternoons and then back to walking again because we were under 3 miles away,snowy cold mornings were the worst because the school never closed.
It started to close in 1995 for bad weather.
We had the back to school clothes,pens ,pencils,typewriters for HS and to send in a neat paper
My kids had it made!! Home computers,hot lunch and because living in the country ,the bus picked them up at the end of the driveaway.
I did carry on and went school shopping for new outfits ,each having their own calcuators( WW3 if they had to share and everything better be equal,not a pencil more) and all the goodies.
Now with the last one in college ,a laptop and calculators are a must,don’t forget the phones.
I wonder how I even made it through
The main difference for me is the amount of supplies we have to send in for the beginning of school. I remember only needing a couple of notebooks and some pencils when I went. (Sadly, I never had a Trapper Keeper!) Now we’re asked to send boxes of tissues and hand sanitizer and all kinds of stuff we never would have imagined bringing to school.
My Day:
2 new pairs of shoes – one brown, one black
1 new pair of keds – white canvas… there were no other.
1 new notebook
1 package of pencils, crayons, markers, pencil box – oh how I loved school supplies!!!
Present Day:
New outfit – complete with jewelry
New shoes, new tennies, new gym uniforms
Notebooks – one for each class
1 package of pencils
1 package of markers
1 package of highlighters
1 package of red, blue and black pens
Binders – for those teachers who require such an item
3 packages of poster paper
Glue sticks
Pencil case
Oh how we still love school supplies…
The night before:
Pack the backpack
Lay out the outfit
Set the alarm clock
The morning of:
They grab the requested lunch,
Take the requisite first day of school picture – make them smile like they like it,
Head off to the bus stop 20 min. early… Because, they don’t want to be late!
Back to School Butterflies
I went to Catholic school so my back to school list consisted of new saddle shoes and knee sock that stayed up. LL Bean had the nicest socks and we went to Buster Brown for the saddle shoes, I was cool when we were allow to have the shoes that had a higher heel. We didn’t need school supplies as they were supplied to us. We did get to pick out a new lunch box and my all time favorite was my Partridge Family metal lunch box. I think my mom still has it.
Now we have much more to shop for: composition note books, pencil cases, red pencils, and of course as always glue and tissues. My daughter is a sophomore in FHS and she doesn’t get her list until she starts school.
I still get the butterflies the last week of summer even though I am long out of school. It must be sympathy for all kids going back to school. I love the summer and hate to see it end.
It seemed far easier when I was in school. A few notebooks, a few spiral notebooks, a few packs of paper pens and pencils. Oh, the trapper keeper!! Did you ever have a phase wiht the blue work horse fabric ring binders? We did!
Each year we supply the kid’s classrooms with several sizes of ziplock bags (which I have never seen my child use), boxes upon boxes of kleenex (whihc I know my kids has used more than her fair share of and someone elses, too, since “timmy” wipes his nose on his shirt), bottle after bottle of hand sanitizer (hopefully to keep wayward germs off my asthma ridden child), packs of paper and pencils, and a few extra things form the school list to help those who may have a tough time pulling it all together.
I have been getting school things together slowly over the summer. My girls are ready to go back. One wants to shop for cool jeans and a great backpack. Anything else she might need she isn’t concerned with.
The new high school freshman is excited but also a bit over welmed with what might be expected of her.
But it’s all good! The kids are ready for a change and looking forward to the routines that will develop as they each enter a new phase. I am excited for them as I know what is in store (and in some ways I am scare to death what it all means!) in these next few months.
I am not finished with summer but I am looking toward to fall and the changes it brings.
When I was in elementary school we went to Sears or JC Penney and I got a new pair of tennis shoes and a couple of new dresses. (Can you believe back in the dark ages of the 60’s girls were not allowed to wear pants at my public school?) We never had to buy school supplies because they were provided to us. By the time I started high school I still got one pair of shoes but I was now allowed to wear pants, so I got a couple of pairs of pants.
When my daughter, who is now 28, was in school she got a new pair of shoes, and $100.00 to spend on new clothes. I told her that she could go to a fancy schmancy store and buy one thing and she could wear it every day or she could go to Kmart or some other bargain spot and get several things. It only took her one shopping spree to find out that I was serious about not spending any more than $100.00. (I hope those Doc Martens were worth it.)
Now, my niece is in high school. In order to be ready for school this year she requires:
1. Hair cut & color
2. new Rainbow sandals, new Tom’s shoes, new Chucks
3. several pair of insanely expensive jeans
4. several layered tops to match expensive jeans
5. “cute socks”
6. new MAC make up
7. Andy Warhol book bag. (Back pack? Puleeze!!)
8. maybe a couple of notebooks
Lordy, lordy how times have changed.
My ritual was the clothes shopping when I was younger. High school it was all about my clothes, hair, make up etc.
For my kids- the week before is a dry run. Everyone wakes up on time and we start getting into the routine. And I don’t do the massive back to school shopping expedition. I buy all year from thrift stores and yardsales so we just sort through the clothes.
This year we are re-using last year’s backpacks. We sprayed them with water repellant and added cute keychains.
Blogged about it. http://poditan.blogspot.com/
Blogged about it here: http://poditan.blogspot.com/
When I was in school, my mom took me clothes shopping every year at the end of the summer. I always had to buy new tennis shoes and jeans and my mother and I often argued because my look was so tomboyish and there were so many cute outfits she’s rather buy for me. I always bought a new book bag or backpack but invariably ended up leaving all of my books in the choir room instead of carrying them with me throughout the day.
My oldest son starts junior high in a few days and they have to wear uniforms. I was relieved at this until he pointed out to me today that Aeropostale has clothes that meet the uniform policy, as long as we cover up the store logo with a school logo. So much for getting off cheap….
He’s also told me he is way too cool for a backpack this year and that if I make him get his hair cut, I will ruin his life. *sigh*
I used to LOVE back to school shopping, all the new clothes and the new supplies! I was always SO excited for school to start and for it to be fall and I could wear my new jeans and long-sleeved shirts!
That usually lasted about 2 weeks. And then I hated school again.
Consumerism, consumerism, consumerism – that about sums up my own back to school ritual as a child.
My kids are homeschooled, so their experience is entirely different. We never “stop” school, so there’s not “back to school” time. For us, September is vacation month, and we take full advantage of lots of outdoor activities before it gets too cool to do them, while there are fewer other families around.
I don’t have kids yet but I always hated going back to school. I dreaded it. The summer went by too fast!
My mom and I would head out and pick up all sorts of goodies that I needed–supplies, lunch boxes, pens, pencils, notebooks. Then it was time for the REAL shopping! Clothes, clothes, clothes. My mother also liked to sew clothes for me, so I almost always had a couple of new hand-sewn outfits from mom. What a memory…
I always remember the school clothes shopping. Picking out the outfit to wear on the first day of school. We had the lists of required supplies, but you were always picking out cool trapper keepers and folders to spice things up. When I reached locker age it was locker accessories such as magnetic mirrors. I don’t have any kids, but my nephew is going to be 13 in 2 weeks and he has a list of things that all of his teachers expect him to have.
For me it was new shoes, setting aside a first day outfit, and maybe a new lunch box (but usually brown paper bags). For my kids its just some notebooks. We homeschool and our first day is usually a fun one – good breakfast, reading outside, some treats, great lunch and maybe some pictures.
Thanks for the entry – what a great contest!
I used to have a uniform too – so yes, cute shoes were KEY!!
My kids wear them as well, so my son could care less, whereas my daughter – well, she takes after her mama
I also used to have hot lunch, now I make it for the kids – so new lunch boxes are big at our house. I am prepping for lunch making, but not making sandwiches this month – so September is not so shocking. LOL!
Thanks for this great giveaway.
We shopped for new clothes and supplies – but decorating your locker? What? That was done with pages from Teen Beat torn out and stuck up with scotch tape.
And we bought our OWN school supplies. My kids do this communal supplies thing – so they don’t even get to pick out their own stuff.
I remember clothes shopping and fighting with my mom over guess jeans and benetton. Michael, my 4 year old, is in preschool, and we just pay a supply fee.
tweeted!
http://twitter.com/jodifur/status/3154565729
Law school? Hello highlighter obsession. My husband? Those tabs and post its. Hi, 3M. You could have had the ultimate spokesmodel.
Oh, for high school? College-ruled paper.
I adored back to school clothes shopping but, sadly, my 3 boys have no interest in it.
I tweeted it. http://twitter.com/dragondream/statuses/3155931052
I blogged it. http://thefertileinfertile.blogspot.com/2009/08/win-acer-aspire-timeline-laptop.html
Many moons ago when I attended school, there were new notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers and maybe a ruler. Now it is all of those but also a laptop and graphing calculators for my college age son. Oh and don’t forget the cell phone and GPS system so he doesn’t get lost coming home for visits and brakes. Thanks for a great giveaway!
I tweeted on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/trishden/status/3157092282
Thanks!
trishden
New clothes, shoes and basic school supplies.
When my son started college he had to have a new laptop, the largest backpack ever made to hold all his required books plus new clothes and shoes ’cause they never outgrow that need even in college.
Ha! My routine sounds about exactly like your daughter’s…i loved the planning it all out. i also loved the crisp new school supplies and cool new clothes. my kids aren’t old enough for school yet…we’ll see!
http://criminallyeloquent.blogspot.com/2009/08/want-to-win-new-laptop.html
I remember the huge trip to Wal-Mart to get supplies and how excited I was to have all those new pencils and notebooks. Now, the kids get laptops and cell phones and $100+ calculators… at least my friend’s child did. eek!
We went as a family to K-Mart and bought new school clothes. Us boys would get 2 pair of wrangler jeans that were stiff as a board. And a couple of shirts. Once my parents found out about the Goodwill, we rarely returned to department stores though. We would also buy notebooks, folders, paper, pencils and pens. I remembering covering my textbooks with brown paper grocery bags. And labeling my books and folders with a black sharpie. I would always wear one of my new outfits, and actually comb my hair on the first day of school, hoping to make a good first impression. Also my dad would offer to give us a blessing to help us prepare ourselves spiritually and emotionally for the new school year. I plan to make things equally exciting for my children when they are old enough to attend school. I may even add a tradition from my wife’s family: take a picture of each child on the first day of each school year.
It’s actually much easier today. Way back then we were dragged all over town to many different stores for clothes, shoes, supplies but now we get our uniforms online and all the supplies from a list from one store.
I don’t have kids, but from what I’ve observed, back to school is much more electronic than it used to be! The most sophisticated supply I ever had was a graphing calculator!
Another gal and I were laughing the other day when we heard 2 boys talking about their “back to school shopping”. One said “Yeah, I got a new _______ cellphone with a qwerty keyboard.” Boy 2 said, “Wait til you see my new laptop!” The 40-something I was standing by looked at me and said, “Wow, that sounds like how WE shopped for back to school, doesn’t it?”
When I was going to school we would get one of the blue denim binders,notebook paper,composition books,pens and pencils…nothing fancy.
Today,we are shopping for 2 school age grandchildren and the differences are amazing.All of the gadgets that are needed today…wow.
We always had to drive to Tyler to the mall on one weekend in August to get all (1 step-brother, 2 step-sisters, and myself) new school clothes. Now I start shopping at the begining of summer and pick up deals until school starts.
My mom would always take me back to school shopping in the summer. Who wants to try on fall and winter clothes in July? I tend to wait till my kids need something or just buy them by size when they go on sale. If they don’t fit, I can always return them. Of course, it helps that I have boys!!!
I loved the clothes shopping. Our kids are home schooled, so their excitement is the new school supplies!
Tweet: http://twitter.com/jellosheriff/status/3166932671
I remember my mom taking my sisters and me for patent leather shoes and fancy dresses, and the ritual now is so far removed from that. I buy my kids jeans and tees!
Tweeted http://twitter.com/cdziuba/status/3167315329
Blogged http://ceeceeblogger.blogspot.com/2009/08/petroville-intel-acer-inspire.html
I had to have everything just so. New clothes, shoes and supplies. Bought extra to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
My son couldn’t have cared less if he had anything.
Here is my tweet: http://twitter.com/SereneMoments/status/3167347391
Kids today have lists of supplies they have to buy to take to school. When I was in school, the school supplied all the paper, crayons, pencils, books etc. The only thing I had to get was clothes.
In my day going back to school meant 2 new homemade dresses, 1 pair of new shoes, and paper, pencils, etc. I never liked the dresses my grandmother made me and they were ALWAYS too long. Being a readhead she thought my best color was green… and I hated green! (she also made me pinks, oranges and all colors that are no no’s for redheads)
With my son it is all designer labels and with me out of work, that is not happening. He tries to understand but I can see the disappointment when he asks. I know it is a peer thing, but one has to be reasonable. I found a few discount stores that carry the label brands so I was able to get him a few things, but I feel guilty that I can’t get him more. I gave him an old laptop to do his homework on, but it runs at a snails pace. He has to have a scientific calculator… but it has to wait.
My day: back to school meant maybe 20.00 spent total.
Today: You are lucky to get out under 200.00 (and that is bargain basement!)
What would kids put in their trapper keepers today? They take notes on their laptops; do they even get paper homework anymore?
That makes me feel really old.
I love your pic of you in school!!
Well, when I was in school, it was “cool” to have the metal lunchboxes with various characters/t.v. shows on them!! When I was raising my brothers, they would not have been caught dead with one lol..much less a paper bag lunch haha
I was actually talking to someone on twitter today about the Trapper Keeper! Remember that notebook? We thought we were SO COOL or one of the rich kids if we had one lol
If you’re a teenager, I think you should also work and help pay for your school clothes, especially with the price of “name brand” clothing!
Tweet about the giveaway:
http://twitter.com/JoeyfromSC/status/3169090291
Every year my mom would buy me a new pair of lace-up navy blue shoes to wear with my Catholic school uniform. Seemed like you couldn’t get soft leather shoes back then — every single year my new shoes gave me blisters for ages before they were broken in. My goddaughter is more fortunate; she’s more concerned about how pretty her new shoes are, as opposed to their comfort.
Definitely the lunch box shopping experience was the most exciting moment. It was a defining factor
But now everything is standardized and available in cafeterias!
Oh how I loved shopping for school replies. I love the smell of a brand new box of Crayola crayons. Weird, but all of the other brands never quite smelled right.
I also loved buying college ruled looseleaf paper. I felt so grown up to use college-rule. LOL!
I came, I read, and I tweeted. http://twitter.com/thienkim/statuses/3170433565
We got a new pair of tennis shoes every school year. It was a big deal because you didn’t get a new pair until the next school year unless you out grew yours during the school year!
My girls won’t even wear tennis shoes. They live in their crocs. Not sure what they are going to do this winter. I guess I will deal with that then though!
Tweeted:
http://twitter.com/simplybudgeted/status/3170997176
My story is the same as your, I think my uniform was too
. All I needed was new uniforms (if I outgrew the previous years uniform), shoes and maybe a new bookbag. My son who is also going to be a freshman this year needs a whole new wardrobe (he’s outgrown everything), laptop, haircut. Then I have my 3 year old who is starting school too he needs a backback like his big brother.
We homeschool, so back to school includes making a special breakfast together, taking “first day of school pictures” and setting up/decorating each child’s box where special projects and papers will be stored each year. It’s a fun day that we all really look forward to! The part of this that carries over from my childhood is that each first day of school my mom would take our pictures before we headed out the door and these were always fun to look back on.
Just blogged at http://infertilitymom.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-quest-to-win-laptop-computer.html
My school tools were a calculator, pens, paper, markers and crayons – for kids now it’s a laptop that covers almost all of those in one. I think it’s great and wish they had been available back when I was in college!
The tool that stands out is definitely a computer they actually know how to use. The first one we had only understood code. It was dead to me.
I had alot to say so here is the link to the post on my blog (2nd paragraph) about my own rituals vs. my kids rituals of today.
http://twinceretwinkles.blogspot.com/2009/08/intel-wants-to-help-you-move-to-head-of.html
Twincere(at)gmail(dot)com
I tweeted about this Review & giveaway here:
http://twitter.com/Twincere/status/http://twitter.com/Twincere/status/3169037328
Twincere(at)gmail(dot)com
I blogged about this awesome review & giveaway and included all linkbacks to your blog and BlogHer here on my own blog:
http://twinceretwinkles.blogspot.com/2009/08/intel-wants-to-help-you-move-to-head-of.html
Twincere(at)gmail(dot)com
When I was growing up my mother took a “first day of school” picture in front of our house. Same location every year. The house always looked the same. Me and my sister – not so much.
It was always a challenge to get just the right book cover. Partridge Family, Donnie Osmond, Brady Bunch, Bay City Rollers. You get the drift. We would actually “wrap” our books! How dumb was that?!
We didn’t have backpacks – just book bags. And we actually brought food for lunch! Or paid for “hot lunch.” OMG that was back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Rituals when I was a kid: none…well, I couldn’t sleep the night before, and it was sometimes my birthday.
Rituals my kids have: I take a first-day-of-school photo, they get to wear their new clothes/shoes, that’s about it. No wait! After the first day of school, I have them complete a survey about themselves. It’s fun to watch their answers change as they get older.
Sharp pencils VS a souped up Laptop! is there a comparison?? My daughter starts her second year of college this year!
Back in the Stone age.. I didn’t even have a calculator til I reached High School. NOW it seems the pre-schoolers need one!
hahah
Thanks or a GREAT Giveaway
Leslie
LeslieVeg left a Tweet
http://twitter.com/LeslieVeg/status/3186512791
Leslie
We used pencils,pens and paper, and now computers
I have to say it is not much different today than when I was in school. The kids still get excited to go shopping for their back-to-school supplies and clothes. It just costs a lot more now than it did then!
My friends and I would walk to school the first day ( kind of tells my age, doesn’t it? ). Now I surprise my kids and drop in for lunch one day the first week of school.They never know which day so it’s a great surprise.
Back in the olden days (he-he) my mom and I went to the fabric store. We spent time picking out patterns and fabric so she could sew a couple of new dresses for me for school. Now it seems all the kids wear jeans. Although they are a lot more comfortable than what we used to have to wear, there is something missed in the excitement of designing and watch my mom turn a flat piece of material into a coveted one of a kind dress.
Following you on twitter username luvtxess
Just tweeted
http://twitter.com/luvtxess/statuses/3189404374
The first thing we did when I was a kid was to figure out what was still usable from last year. Since I was the oldest, I usually ended up with all new things. ( I think my brother hated me just a little.)
My back to school ritual in elementary school was that my mom took me to school a week ahead of time to meet my teacher and see my classroom. My daughters ritual is to make sure she has matching school supplies for whatever character is popular at the moment.
I went to a country school. I had more school supplies than most other kids, which was not a lot. I loved going back to school because in the country summer was very lonely.
My kids have tons of school supplies and nice clothes. They see friends all summer and going back to school to them is just life.
We were usually all set for under $5 per kid. New pencils, pens, glue stick, crayons, paint set and a notebook. Now I’m lucky if I get away with less than $200. Closer to $1000 if it’s time for a new PC.
Ouch!
~Chris
I love school supplies. My eight year old could care less. We buy them from the PTO and they’ll be waiting for him on the first day of school!
I remember shopping for school supplies…and picking out my favorite folders…deciding pencils vs pens….all personalized. Nowadays my kids get a rigid list with detailed specifications…. e.g. blue folder with shiny cover and 3-hole-punch insert…along with items that are for the entire classroom. I am actually quite happy that I don’t have to argue with my son over whether or not he can get a particular mass-marketed folder… and that teachers are no longer sadled with the cost of buying extra supplies for our kids’s classroom. Change is good.
As a kid, we bought the essentials like pens, pencils, paper…the stuff you actually need for school. Then we always went out to lunch–which we loved. Today, there is a ton of stuff that my kiddos can beg me for–most of it totally unneeded. Of course, they love getting all the new stuff as much as I did.
I had to walk to school every day, even when it rained
My son will be driving to school next year (a privelage I never obtained) My sons ritual is to “hang out” with his friends the day before school.
I can remember my parents buying a USED set of World Books. I loved to randomly read things while I was supposed to be looking up a person, place or thing for a school report. They were heavy and had a distinct smell, which I always associate with “Knowledge”. My kids know what “Google” and “Wikipedia” are. They will never have the sensation of lying belly down on shag carpeting looking up Vietnam, Rosa Parks, or Tennis. They will never think that the world is small enough to fit in that set of books, which took up an entire shelf in our den. Nope.
The Internet delivers the world to my children. And it could be limitless or as small as a laptop to them.
I didn’t have any rituals, really, just to stock up on all the necessities, like pens, pencils, etc. My daughter is going into kindergarten in a couple of weeks, so it will be fun to go get her ready like my mom used to do for me.
I did the usual, stocking up on back to school supplies with my mom. My daughter is not about to start kindergarten, so although we don’t have any rituals yet, I look forward to going with her to stock up like my mom did for me.
Things were so much simpler for me as a kid. The only back to school ritual I remember is picking just the right lunch box! Now everything has to be ‘just the right one’. Even with kids in uniforms they find things to worry about.
I think it is way more complicated now. I went shopping for new clothes, but the supplies and “needs” just seem so much bigger now. Maybe because I am the mom now??
Back to school rituals- wow! I don’t ever remember the hoopla over meet the teacher, buy the shirt, pay the PTA dues, sign the medicine form, is the child a car rider/bus rider-so much more difficult rituals today than almost 20 years ago! LOL! We knew the teacher and school knew better than to ask for extra money-it wasn’t heard of in my small town, LOL!
Tweeted!
http://twitter.com/The4Crows/status/3198311347
BTW ♥ your blog design!
We always went back to school clothes shopping, which was more torture than ritual. Since we’re homeschooling, we don’t have to worry too much about that. We just replace clothes when they need replacing, and don’t worry too much about trends.
Tweeted: http://twitter.com/Spoodles/statuses/3198414033
Blogged here: http://spoodles.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/acer-timeline-giveaway-4/
I use to get to buy school supplies to get ready for school, but now my daughter just gets a WRAP pack. We order it at the end of the year for the next year, and at registration we pick up everything in one pack that she needs.. WOW I think these are the best things in the world!!!! Thanks
Unfortunetly, every year my ritual was a stomach full of butterflies and dreams of showing up naked! Now that I am a teacher (7 years this year), I still have those nerves and crazy dreams! All my sweet son needs this year for preschool is a sturdy pair of play shoes.
Our back to school rituals with my kids is very similar to what I had growing up, except we spend way more than my parents did…lol.
A tweet for another entry: http://twitter.com/photomommy/status/3198832130
I remember my Mom having to write my name on my backpack, etc with marker and having to redo it every now and then because it faded. When I sent my daughter to preschool, I went online and ordered these nifty labels that don’t wash out, don’t fade, can be applied to basically every surface and look great! Our new ritual is to get those labels and apply them to all of her school supplies, sweaters, etc before the first day of school. She enjoys seeing her name on all of her new supplies and I get to fight back tears thinking about how big she is getting!
Thanks for the opportunity to enter! Woo hoo!
Hah, hah! I homeschool my six kiddos (ages 16, almost 14, 12, 10, 10 & 8) so this could be fun.
Let’s see….
Back to School for me
vs. Back to School for the kiddos
ME: New school supplies (remember the smell of that new box of Crayola’s?)
THEM: Why do you need new school supplies? The old ones are still fine and no one will see them anyway.
ME: New alarm clock with a differnt alarm sound so that I could drag myself out of bed at 5am to get a shower and make the bus stop in time.
THEM: What’s an alarm clock?
ME: Cafeteria lunches served by old ladies in hairnets.
THEM: Homemade lunches served by old Mom with love.
ME: The latest and greatest new clothes K-mart had to offer.
THEM: The latest and greatest new pajamas the thrift store has to offer (who needs school clothes?)
ME: A new backpack to lug loads of books to and from school.
THEM: “Dad, Mom needs yet another book shelf added for the collection here at home.”
ME: Excitement on that first day when we got to meet new teachers and friends.
THEM: “Oh, you again?”
ME: “Bummer, summer break is over.”
THEM: “What is summer break and why don’t we have one?”
ME: Technology was a new scientific calculator (that is actually thinner than a brick) and 15 minutes on an Apple IIe at school.
THEM: Technology is a new *graphing* calculator and an Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810T-6415 laptop at home (one can dream and enter, right?)
I could go on but you get the picture.
Back to school rituals for me were very different from my kids. We went shopping for supplies only. As homeschooling parents, we went shopping for supplies and textbooks with our children.
I had a trapper keeper and pencils. My kids have 90 million matching accessories that are somehow supposed to make their learning easier. Hmm…
walking vs carpool http://www.petroville.com/wp-includes/images/cuteassorted/chillpill.gif
typewriters vs computers http://www.petroville.com/wp-includes/images/cuteassorted/bananadance.gif
waste vs green http://www.petroville.com/wp-includes/images/cuteassorted/yahoo1.gif
When I was in school, it was necessary to have those three-prong folders (one for each class), a backpack, a lunch box, simple calculator, and wooden pencils (#2 only). My parents bought new school clothes & shoes and we had to go to bed early the night before school started.
Nowadays, my kids need a bookbag, money for lunch, a TI graphing calculator, mechanical pencils (still #2 is used). We still do back to school shopping for clothes and school supplies, and my kids are given a week to adjust to going back to school.
I tweeted about this:
http://twitter.com/Elkaye/status/3198698406
Our rituals are pretty close.. my mom bought us loads of clothes for school.. we’d try them on at home and she’d take back some, the others we’d keep.. new shoes and new supplies.. now she buys all this stuff for my son.. only he rarely finds anything he wants to send back. He’s easy that way.
Another ritual.. my son wakes me up at 4am because..if he’s awake, I may as well be too. He’s looking forward to going back.. I’m not sure I remember feeling that way LOL
You’re supposed to have a ritual? Hmmm, who knew, because we never had any as kids. My parents just were counting down the days until they could get rid of us! I’ve started a ritual with my kids of spending time baking something for their teachers the day before school. They love the creativity, personal attention, and making their teacher happy on the first day.
My kids must have the perfect bookbag before the start of school. Both of them, but especially my 16 year old daughter, must have a bookbag with plenty of pockets, so that everything has a place. I don;t even remember having a bookbag. I distinctly recall carrying all of my stuff in my arms….and dropping it frequently.
Well, I don’t have any kids yet: but what I would always do growing up is that I would lay-out 5 outfits WEEKS before school started (for the first week of school) LOL
But, once I have my own kids – I hope to start new traditions with them!
I think the only ritual I really had growing up was that my mom would try to get us to go to sleep earlier each day starting a week ahead of time. It NEVER worked, especially the night right before school started when I was too excited to sleep.
I don’t have any school age children yet, so I’m not sure what I’ll do when the time comes.
The only ritual I had as a kid was getting new clothes to wear on the first day of school. My kids on the other hand do not want new clothes. Instead we purchase a long list of supplies needed for the year. And on the morning of the first day, I snap a photo of each child before they leave for the bus.
Back to school shopping was my favorite back to school ritual!
Back to school shopping was my favorite ritual!
What happened to pencil boxes? I remember LOVING my pencil box, as a child…typically a “cigar” type box which held my pencils, glue, crayons and what not.
These days, we buy a pencil case of some sort, for my daughter, but it’s just not the same. ohhhh…the good old days!
My autistic grandson gets a tour of the new school and/or classroom each year, and we try to introduce him to his new teacher as well. If he knows what’s coming, he can stay much calmer.
http://chakolate.livejournal.com/61164.html
Since we homeschool, back to school is a little simpler – we wake up another day, as we don’t really “take” summer break. Its more of a laid back style.
Even new clothes weren’t enough to keep my tum settled.
I remember my nerves when it was back to school for us, and I was always sick for days before school started with nervous anticipation.
I think I like it better this way!
I was a dork and loved summer reading lists so I was always anxious to get back to school and show what I had read all summer.
My 3rd grader is now home-schooled so he has no real prep for school. We read all summer long.
~K!
When I was in school, we really didn’t need much. Just some pencils and paper. Did not matter what kind of pencils or paper. I do remember I always had a backpack but it was not required. My kids on the other hand, are required to have one. They have to have certain pencils where the pack of 24 cost like almost $7. Ticondra pencils or something. I have to buy them crayons,colored pencils,paper,(all named brand), folders that they recommend, just all kinds of stuff. It’s kinda crazy really. I can understand for somethings but in my town we also have to buy the teachers things they need like the dry erase markers, soaps for the classrooms, sometimes chalks. I think it was more simple when I was younger than now. THank you for the chance to win a great prize.
I was so excited on the first day of school – sure I hated that summer was over, but I loved school, too. I loved having new clothes (even if it was only a few outfits) and new notebooks. My son? New clothes look like you’re trying too hard – and PLEASE don’t iron anything (which isn’t really a problem). Maybe it’s not so much generational as it is gender…
I have to say one more thing about graphing calculators! When I was in high school, that was the height of technology but now it’s laptops for everyone. Crazy.
My son was asked to bring an ISB stick ( I thing that is what it is called) This way he can copy things and bring it home without having to bring a book, etc. He is in a magnet school this next year. Computers were HUGE when I was in school. I love how far we have come in 25 years.
We always bought new Fall clothes before school started. My daughters prefer to wait and buy clothes later in the season when they know what the other kids are wearing.
My son took to computers like a duck to water. It was one of the few things that really got his attention in college. He is now a network engineer and loves it.
I used to get to pick out a new lunchbox. Usually metal with a cartoon character on it. Now from PreK on, my kids would get a new backpack. I never had to carry a backpack until college.
My before school rituals included agonizing over whether or not THIS would be the year that the mean girl in class found someone else to pick on. Nope, never was.
Now that I have children my before school rituals include buying the supplies, labeling every tiny thing with their names, packing it all in their backpacks weeks in advance, and praying that this will be the year my oldest finally finds the bff he so desperately wants.
I’m headed back to school myself and this laptop sure would be a nice addition to my school supplies!
For when I was a child, a few school supplies and a lunch box.
For my kids, tons of school supplies and a lunch box.
Oh and new shoes!
Back when I was in middle school (ok-I’ll date myself-it was the 70’s), research for a school project meant a whole Saturday at our small-town library with limited access to information. This last year, not only did my sixth-grader gather all her research in considerably less time, she also had access to an immense amount of information. What a difference!
We have ‘back to school night’ at our elementary, so it takes some of the jitters out of the first day of school. The kids take all their school supplies and get their desks set up. One thing that’s different is that in Kindergarten all of the supplies go into a communal heap. We learned the hard way after my son picked out all his favorite character pencils and Kleenex, then had to give them up.
School supplies, school supplies, school supplies! It’s amazing that I made it through school with a number 2 pencil and some loose notebook paper! And they didn’t have wheels on backpacks then! Wait – back then backpacks were for camping!
I always loved sharpening my pencils right before school started in the fall! My kids aren’t in school yet, but I suspect their rituals will be more techie in nature!
Thanks for the awesome contest!
aprilwoodscary at gmail dot com
tweet tweet: http://twitter.com/MommyNamedApril/status/3209546855
I am currently pregnant with my first child, but I very much look forward to creating new back to school rituals with my kids – and incorporating some that I had when I was a kid!
We homeschool our daughter, so the differences of today and yesteryear are vast!
We enjoy planning out what we want to learn for the coming year, any special interests we want to explore, field trips we want to go on…I get excited just thinking about the endless possibilites!
I mostly remember school shopping for clothes and hoping to get a new pair of NIKEs :-) Now I just try to shop for my girls during the “no tax” week in Augsust, but I still love wearing Nikes!
My kids get a list of the supplies they will need. When I went all the pencils and tablets were supplied.
The biggest difference between what I do now (I’m still in school, albeit college) versus what I did when I was in grade school is buying my own supplies. Although I don’t need all of the crayons, colored pencils, and scissors I once did, I still enjoy back-to-school shopping as much as I did when I was a kid.
We always just bought our own supplies that we wanted and now my kids get detailed lists of what they need to bring.
We still have new clothes for the first day of school.
I loved my Trapper Keeper!
My back to school was always bargain basement basics. We always splurge and get one fancy outfit of her choosing and whatever supplies that she needs. I want it to be fun for her on the first day of school!
kids too young for school, but i still have back to school anxiety each year as face another class of 7th graders. back then and now, picking out the perfect first day of school outfit is a big deal
I linked on twitter:
http://twitter.com/kyrasmom/status/3211686754
I posted on my blog!
http://kyrasmom1225.blogspot.com/2009/08/for-my-second-post-i-am-trying-to-win.html
I used to love getting new pens and pencils – all the required stationary – when it was a few weeks before school started. I’d look over them all the time and reorganize them to see that it was all there. My daughter is only 7 months old and so I don’t have anything to do with her but my niece is entering kindergarten in september and is concerned her princess lunchbox might be too baby-ish since she is a big girl now. I’m hoping to find a new lunchbox for her and send it.
I posted about it.
http://ruralcatharsis.blogspot.com/2009/08/who-wouldnt-want-to-win.html
When I was getting ready for school as a child my mom always took me too get new saddle shoes. Now my kids are asking for Hannah Montana sneakers. Where did I go wrong?
When I was growing up, my sister’s and I were always wondering which bus we had to ride. My parents NEVER took us to school and if we missed the bus, we missed school. My son is very lucky. Mom finally has a job where she can take him to school and pick him up everyday. He loves it (right now at least) because he gets that extra time with mom. I’m sure this will change when he gets older and mom is more embarrassing than cool!
i loved picking out my new lunchbox each year….as do my kids- I picked mine out at the store though and they pick theirs out online!!!!!
Meg
Back to school time is pretty low key when I was growing up and we follow that tradition for my daughter. As my parents did we get back into the school bedtime routine about two weeks out and we buy all of the supplies in early Aug when the fliers advertise the sales. Other than that we don’t really have a routine.
When I was going to school (way back in the dark ages) it was all about what cool lunch box you had, the PeeCee folders and well you could make your book covers from the paper grocery sacks – yeah, I know, I’m older than dirt
When my kids went to school it was having the right book bag, not taking a lunch to school and (if you could convince your parents) designer label school clothes which didn’t happen at out house.
About 2 weeks prior to school starting we have to move our kids bedtime back to thier “school” bedtimes as they tend to stay up a bit later during the summer. When I was a kid we went to bed at the same time all year round, little later on the weekends but the same all year round.
Hmmm..apparently, you need flash drives now to be ready for school. It wasn’t like that when I went!
in my Days ,when Cavemen roamed the Earth ..lol
, i was happy to get “one” new outfit ,some new pencils and if i was lucky a new pencil box 
but oh boy , my little ( not so little anymore ) Miss Prissy —- needs at least 4 new Pants and Tops, Shoes and lets not even get into the List of things the School wants!
We are talking big , i already hate to think about next Year when my Twins starting School also. You almost need a second Job to affort all this
Back in the day, the start of school was big and wonderful for me. Getting new school supplies, choosing the first day of school clothes, breaking in new shoes. Loved it. Now that my daughter is starting kindergarten, I hope to develop some of the same happy rituals that I had to start off a wonderful year. Thanks for a great contest! Jessica
Kids today have alot more electronic tools to help them in their work (calculators,computers ETC) then i did when i was a child.Even though kids have more school work i think it takes less time to do it then 20 years ago.
We would go to a shoe factory that had an outlet and buy 3-4 pairs of shoes at the beginning of the school year. Mom made all my clothes except underwear. The only store-bought clothes I ever wore were hand-me-downs from my cousin. Mom even made my coats. I don’t have any school age children.
When we were small my mom would always lay out our outifts and supplies out the night before school started. She also always took us out to dinner the night before. I would do the same ritual now.
Those really fun “then” and “nows”!
I could NEVER sleep the night before the first day of school. My girls homeschool so they will probably never know the butterflies I endured!
I loved picking out my new metal lunch box. No lunch boxes now!
New crayon smell. {inhale} This one we all LOVE! It always took me a couple of days before I wanted to use them!
I could have written exactly what you did for what my back to school rituals were! It was sooooo boring!
What I have done for both kids when they reached their teens was have a “Back To School” get together at our house the weekend before school starts. This has been a great way to get the kids back together before school starts and avoid some of the awkwardness that can happen after not seeing their friends for the summer.
I think our rituals are about the same for now-new shoes, new clothes, backpack, lunch box-CHECK! I think their supply list is a bit longer, though.
My supplies were kept in a cigar box. My children have no idea what a cigar box is. I take pictures of my children almost every morning of the school year. I was the 6th child so there is a total of about 10 pictures of me. We walked or rode our bikes to school. My kids carpool with the neighbors to school, and carpool with me home. They only time they get to walk home is if my neighor and I walk to get them. Too much traffic and scary people out there to let them walk alone.
We always had to pack lunches… now I literally click through paypal and can add money to an account for my kids to buy their lunches. It is SO not cool to pack anymore!
New Big Chief Tablet, crayons, pencils and a trapper keeper were my essential items. These days, I have to shop for everything! laptop, bookback,
The best thing about back to school was picking out a new lunch box. Could you beat the Partridge Family? These days, my kids love picking out just the right backpack.
Ahh the good ol days when you bought pens and notebooks instead of stylus’ & netbooks. I remember begging my parent’s for a TrapperKeeper – I don’t think the kids would be caught dead with one now. Thanks! thebubbledies(at)gmail(dot)com
I used the caveman tools of pen and paper and Trapperkeeper! And my kids use computer and texting and graphing….
beezus74@hotmail.com
School supply shopping for me when I was a kid used to involve new clothes and shoes too. My kids just continue on in their summer wardrobes at school. Then, when winter comes they get their new clothes!
I would get the boys to school with new outfits. I would take off the rest of the day from work and pick them up after the 1/2 day. We would go then and get the school supplies and have lunch out. It was always a great day. Now, school supplies are bought weeks in advance and you have to have many many more items.
I loved my Trapper Keepers too – that was the THING to have in the 80’s. Neither of my boys have needed them for school yet, and the lists are SOOOO detailed these days, that they haven’t gotten to experience the joy of a Trapper Keeper yet!
We make a fun day of getting school supplies and having lunch out!
My daughter attends the same private, religious school I attended, so we both had the ritual of buying school uniforms!
When I was a kid, we’d hit Walmart for the back-to-school sales every year. Pick up a school supply list at the front of the store, then head to the 1- or 2-aisle displays and pick up the cheapest generic for each option.
For my kids, we’ve turned back-to-school shopping into a treasure hunt. Every Sunday before church, we hit CVS and/or Walgreens for freebies, rebates, and the odd 19-cent sales. Then after church, we stop by Staples (and occasionally Office Max or Office Depot) to pick up more rebates and penny sales.
This year, my husband even gets to join the fun with his shiny new teacher job. Yay for teacher limits at Staples!
I wasn’t much into afterschool activities when I was in elementary. Truthfully, I don’t recall there being any afterschool activities in elementary school to get into.
My girl, on the other hand, was chomping at the bit to get back to Chess Club (gawd it makes me proud to say that out loud!) and her extracurricular art classes.
Me, I’m just wishing we could get the art class supply list in time to take advantage of BTS savings, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen…
I loved picking the right notebook for each class, green for science, blue for english etc matching folders to notebooks. Having everything ready and labled and putting my name in everything.
Now everything I just bought my daughter is going into the community supply pile
No chance to write her name a hundred times, not matching and coordinating. But she does have a MUCH cooler lunch box than I ever did.
I always loved back to school shopping as a kid. I loved arranging everything in my pencil box just the way I liked it. I loved picking out my shiny new lunchbox- dukes of hazard, strawberry shortcake, smurfette! I love being able to relive it all over again with my own kids too!
I loved going to the store to pick out just the right portfolios. My kids don’t care about that so much, they are more excited about going to the store to pick out just the right shoes!
My kids aren’t old enough to be in school yet, so we don’t have any rituals yet. I remember doing the whole “back-to-school” shopping, getting fresh notebooks, new shoes, a whole new set of mechanical pencils…everything like that. It seems to me that kids need a lot more stuff these days for school, but I guess I’ll find out all of that it a couple of years. =) Great giveaway! Thanks for the chance to get a new laptop!
Poor Bugman’s back to school ritual for the last three years has been a Birthday Breakfast. Hoping they change the schedule before he’s old enough to not like school on his birthday.
My daughter’s routine mirrors mine of long ago– get up, eat, get dressed, try to squeeze in one last game with a younger sibling before the thrill of Kindergarten. The only difference is that my desk was a long kindergarten size table while her desk looks a lot like our kitchen table because, well, it is!
I guess the biggest difference for me is the huge amount of supplies the school requests you donate. Notebooks, paper, pencils, markers, ZIP drives, copy paper, ink cartridges…I think that when I was in elementary school, we donated a box of tissues and that was it!
volcanoATgmailDOTcom
I would have to say that the back to school rituals for the basic school supplies are the same for my daughter as they were for me. I, however, had an older sister and wore hand-me downs. My daughter has the luxury of buying new or new to her from a second store. Other than that, I try to keep it simple. If it worked for me, it can work for her. Sure, we can make life more complicated and complex now, but we don’t HAVE to. And I choose not to, or to let her contribute towards the purchase if she wants more than the bare minimum. I think it’s good for her. Builds character.
My daughter is only 4.5 years old so we don’t really have any back-to-school rituals just yet. She did just start pre-k today though and we took a picture of her for her scrapbook and to share with the family. A new laptop would help us share those pictures.
When I was little, my parents did always take pictures of us on the first day of school but back then we actually had to develop the film and mail the pictures out.
OMG Talk about back in the day! I agree – my back to school must have included a new trapper keeper every year! You def don’t see those now – all the kids seem to have Hannah Montana stuff. Our hot ticket item back in the day was Lisa Frank!
Tweet! http://twitter.com/ktkatherine/status/3236431981
Back to school shopping for clothes, shoes and supplies has not changed MUCH since I was a kid except for the cost and style! The thing to have when I was a kid was a Trapper Keeper (do they even make those anymore?). Now the thing to have is a cell phone (starting in elementary!).
My kids are attending the same schools I attended and some of the same teachers are still teaching (I guess some things never change!).
The back to school rituals we have today vs. in the past are the same but updated…When I was a kid I was forced to go store to store and to finally settle on something to wear that wasn’t quite right…Today I surf the internet and find exactly what my kids want and at a better price! I love not having to take them anywhere and waste all that valuable time, tech stuff is the best!!!
I tweeted!
http://twitter.com/ShesAnAngel417/status/3242810332
As a kid, driving to the big city to shop at Sears 150 miles away. Today shopping on line.
I just remember the back to school shopping trip with my mom. I don’t really do that with my girls. They are not as concerned about having new clothes for the 1st day of school as I was. To them it is just another day………
The differences are more of a convenience issue due to online accessibility.
I can buy all the supplies the kids need online now, based on the grade level supply list downloaded from the school websites.
For me it was store to store shopping with my parents. Making sure I had at least one new outfit to wear on the first day so I set the tone. Not to mention fresh clean notebooks and new pens. I love pens!
Today my son prefers to wear his shorts, but needs new cool sneakers and couldn’t care less about the supplies.
My daughter wants to wear the right outfit, not to fit in, but to assert her indivduality. And she loves the supplies!
My mom was a teacher, so back to school was a big deal at our house. Usually, we had a Labor Day cookout on Sunday evening with friends. On Monday, clothes were washed, backpacks were organized, school supplies were labeled, and clothes were laid out for the week. I don’t have any kids of school age at this point, so we will have none of this for a while. But, I got a lot of my habits from my mom, so I expect this to be our routine, too!
I hated school but, the beginning of each school year was a new beginning and taht was the best part of school… that and the end of the school year! haha
My son is different. He likes going to schoo. I am so thankful for that. Don’t get me wrong he enjoyes the breaks. This is his sr. year and he is ready for it to begin.
When I was in school, half the fun of going back was the day we took a trip to get the school supplies I wanted! Now they send you a list of things you have to get. I’m sure it’s very helpful, but it takes a little of the fun out of it!
I blogged here!
http://mamahill.blogspot.com/
I always loved school shopping with my mom. We always spent alot of time in the ‘pen’ department! I was and still am addicted to pens. My kids not so much, but they love going school shopping and getting their new supplies and clothes.
I just wish I had the money to pay for it all! lol
Thank you so much for the chance!
I tweeted about the contest – http://twitter.com/deanna_j/status/3233993933
I blogged about the contest – http://www.winwithdeanna.com/blog-contests/win-an-acer-aspire-timeline-laptop-at-blog-her (Petroville is mentioned!).
When I was in school, we had to take the bus or walk, even in the cold and snow. Today the kids usually get driven to school or carpool with friends. Oh the luxury!
Thanks so much for the giveaway! I’m going back to college this fall and a laptop would be perfect for me to take to class.
P.S. LOVE the pic you posted from high school – too cute! Thanks for sharing!
I tweeted also:
http://twitter.com/lipstickncandy/status/3258346787
my mom used to take me clothes shopping before school. i homeschool so my kids don’t get that.
With 12 kids in my family while growing up, there wasn’t much of any tradition, we had a lot of hand me downs, but our parents did manage to get everyone new crayons, paper and pencils. I enjoyed taking my kids shopping to pick out the school supplies and a date for lunch, I shop now and pick up basic supplies for the grandchildren and take them out too lunch before school starts.
karenmed409(at)comcast(dot)net
For me it was always about the notebook. i would spend hours organizing my Trapper Keeper before school ever began. And for my daughter? Surprisingly it is also about the notebook. She always wants a blue one that zips shut and has a strap so she can carry it like a shoulder bag. Like mother like daughter I guess…
For me it was always about the notebook. i would spend hours organizing my Trapper Keeper before school ever began. And for my daughter? Surprisingly it is also about the notebook. She always wants a blue one that zips shut and has a strap so she can carry it like a shoulder bag. Like mother like daughter I guess…
ajnorris_13 at yahoo dot com
Tweeted at: http://twitter.com/vixendacrusher
ajnorris_13 at yahoo dot com
When I was a kid, the only thing I had to have was paper, a pencil, and a pen. We always got one new outfit just for the first day and a new pair of shoes. My 6 yo nephew told me last week that this year he has to make sure he has enough snacks to feed his entire class once a month! Then he added that he needed new ear buds, a new calculator, and maybe a new watch so he would know when it was time for art class. At 6 he is already WAY more organized and busy than I was at any point before college!!
I think the main difference is I rolled out of bed, dressed, ate, and headed out. I wanted to sleep til the last possible moment. Not my kids. My DD hates change/transition and wants to be awake at least 1.5 hours before school starts, and my DS is a morning person (groan!) and this is his first year, so excitement rules.
The thing that is similar is that I walked to school and my kids are walking to school too. If you want to know the bizarre part of that, it’s to the same school I went to when I was in elementary school. Insert twilight music here.
One of my favorite back to school rituals was going to the mall and buying new school shoes from Thom Mcann! My girls still get new shoes but they come from Zappos.com and they are sparkly!
Oh and Trapper Keeper = Love! What fun memories!
Growing up my mom and I always had a special back to school shopping day. Would love to win!
A lot of our rituals are the same, special outfit for the first day of school, new shoes fresh out of the box, new lunch box and I always got a new school bag but she still loves her bag from last year so she has chosen to keep it and since it still looks great I won’t argue!
for me it was all about the paper products. My girl is too little for school, but my hubby’s little sister is 12 and for her she’d like it to be all about the electronics. MP3 players, cell phone, etc… Sadly for her she breaks things all the time, so nothing new for her. She’ll have to embrace the new notebooks like I did.
Pictures are my family ritual. Those awkward, nervous-but-excited first day of school pictures with the new shoes, school supplies clutched in one hand and lunch box in the other. I have continued this with my own children and while I love the pics, THEY do not. Oh well.
i used to love sharpening pencils before school started. i’d crank and crank our pencil sharpener making sure each one was perfect. now my boys just buy presharpened pencils or mechanical ones and have no idea that you used to have to work to get a pencil sharp
When I was a kid, the Trapper Keeper was as expensive as it got. Now they have calculators that cost more than my first car.
We both love the pencils and the markers; the NEWNESS of everything! even with all the new technology (blackberries, laptops, ipods), that is one thing that has stayed the same thing.
thank yoU!
I tweeted!
thank you!
http://twitter.com/mariadonahue/status/3276653935
New shoes– everyone deserves new shoes to wear on the first day. I like to wait until later in the year to buy new clothes. They have all the summer clothes they need. I do remember going to school in the heat in new fall clothes. We could never wait.
What I remember most about back to school shopping was the clothes shopping. I mean, yeah, we also went to go get paper, pencil, folders, etc. but clothes shopping was a whole day affair with both my parents (and siblings). We had lunch at the mall. We picked out clothes for each other and fought over who would get the cool shirt that me and my sister wanted. Then when we got home we had a fashion show. We would try on all our different outfits and model them. But alas, I have one son (so far) and I don’t see him modeling for me. Plus, he’s less than a year old. I guess I have plenty of time to think of something.
My favorite memory of back to school was the brand new box of 64 crayons, i was just delighted to have this “luxury” to entice me to start school again…this site also inspired me to remember climbing apple trees and swinging on a tire swing…
Well I became an art teacher of small children, and the school supplies, especially art supplies, are always a wonderful thought! The giveaway prize would help me organize my ideas while I still remember them…. and possibly I will compile a list of supplies and worthwhile and fun art projects , simple yet so fun and creative, for the children today….
I loathed the clothes shopping part of back to school but drooled over the supplies shopping. To this day I will still go gaga over a new box of crayons!
Oh, as with anything technological, my kids definitely know more, but I certainly appreciate it more than them
Mom used to take a picture of us standing in the front of the bus door! Every year! Now we take one picture while waiting for the bus to arrive and then we drive to school and take one of them walking into the school.
I always loved going to the store to pick out my new trapper keeper! Now my grandsons aren’t even allowed to have them! They only use those wired notebooks.
For me, back to school was pretty standard fare. Paper, pencils, scissors, glue, whatever. Now, with my daughter, it is quite a bit more involved. Luckily she’s young enough that many supplies are pooled together so the seemingly endless name writing isn’t so bad. Of course, we also have to do the shoes and clothes so she can be “stylin’”
I am a 57 year old retired gentleman who is preparing to return to college after 25 years. The laptop would really be an asset in continuing my education.
As a child, my mom taught 2nd grade at the elementary school I attended, so we pretty much went “back to school” together. She and I always went shopping together for a first day of school outfit for both of us. She also took a first day of school picture every year of my younger brother and I. Now that I’m an adult, although I don’t have any kids, my best friend and I are taking her oldest niece shopping for a first day of school outfit. One generation blending into the next into the next . . . Times may be more modern, but some rituals are golden and tried & true!
ps. LOVE the old-school photo!
blogged: http://www.shebecameabutterfly.net/?p=4420
I don’t remember my back to school rituals– my son is just beginning school and we are buying him a fish, so maybe his ritual will be to feed the fish every morning?
We always went shopping for clothes, shoes and school supplies every year. It was exciting to get all that new stuff. Kids now don’t get excited about getting new stuff for school.
Crystal816[at]hotmail[dot]com
I blogged!
http://www.barefootmommies.com/?p=3884
I remember going out with my mother for a special day. We would have my supply list. As we looked for items, got new shoes/clothing we would go out to lunch for a fun day. I am hoping to start this with my son this year as well. He is going into first grade and last year was a little too anxious to start too many traditions.
i sew my little girl a new outfit for the first and last day of school every year, just as my mom did for me when i was growing up! i am happy to carry on this tradition with my own family
Back to school ritual… I went shopping in my sisters closets… now they go online or to the nearest store
hey, it’s tough being the youngest!
Also posted on my blog!
http://faybird.blogspot.com
on our first day of school my mom would take pics with a regular film camera, vs today first day pics are taken with either a camera phone or a digital camera.
i tweeted:
http://twitter.com/doozercries/status/3299989281
Surprisingly, we still have a lot in common. Buying school supplies and that special outfit for the first day of school is something we still enjoy doing. However the school supplies seem a lot more high tech like jump drives and fancy calculators!
My Back to School ritual was absolutely nothing. We were poor and couldn’t afford anything much. So we bought what I was absolutely needed at whatever time it was needed. Today we start buying clothes and other necessities diring the Summer. At the end of Summer, we have everything we need to start back to school.
Tweeted ~ http://twitter.com/susanlanai/status/3303064044
i always seemed to have notebooks, a pencil case, and a backpack. my son only seems to need a lunch bag.
I was in school not too many years ago myself, but since then it has changed. We had to have paper, pencils, lab fees, a binder or two, and maybe a few other odds and inns. Now I dread for when my daughter starts Kindergarten. They requir so much! It’s like we are supplying the teachers with their school lists plus our own childs! Not that i don’t understand, I know the teachers need it since the government isn’t helping as much as they use to but are requiring more and more from the teachers. Now some schools requir Laptops, Media storage drives, dry earase board markers, a different notebook for each class, snacks for snack time, some school require phyisicals, and so much more. now its like $200.00 (if laptop isn’t a requirment) in the first week of school vs. The $100.00 in the first week at max when I was in school
My children LOVE to school shop. I did too. It’s a great bonding experience for our family. It’s always nice to do something that the kids are excited about.
When I was a girl my friends in the neighborhood and I would put on a fashion show to “model” our new school clothes. We rehearsed, sent invitations to neighbors, and conscripted the boys to entertain the audience while we switched outfits. It took the boredom out of the end of summer. Now my daughter uses her phone to show off her new clothes to friends.
My mom took 1st day of school pictures of us every year in our new outfits (and I had my roommate take them for her when I was in college, too!). I need to find them all to make a collage – that would be so cool! Anyway, I also had to have a new trapper keeper (weren’t they the best!) and I loved pens. My daughter is only 2, so no school for her yet, but I am definitely going to keep up the 1st day of school picture tradition with her!
Blogged here: http://tinyurl.com/lfcaoh
thanks!
tweet, thanks! http://twitter.com/idahojill/status/3310399617
My mom took pictures of me on EVERY first day (kindergarden through 12 the grade) and I do the same thing. I love to look back and see how he has grown!!
Thank you
About a week before school, we would go and pick out all of our school supplies together. The backpack and lunchbox were the two items my parents would splurge on. We could get any one at any price.
I’m usually pretty thrifty, but this is the one thing I still allow my kids to buy at full price!
Here is where I blogged about the contest:
http://anunhingedlife.blogspot.com/
I think when I went to school, we only had to have paper, pen/pencils, and a ruler. Half of the stuff kids have to get now I never heard of and cost a lot more than what I needed!
I mostly needed new clothes to wear while my kids needed clothes and that long and detailed supply list. As they got older we found teachers who had additional supply lists handed out in class. So, we shared the tradition of going to back to school sales.
tweeted
http://twitter.com/bettycd/status/3321362996
I was all about getting my Trapper Keeper, notebooks, and cool new pens and pencils. Pretty simple, huh? Well, not the case for my two daughters. All of their back to school supplies MUST be eco-friendly and made from recycled materials. Now, this I agree with. However, the amount of “necessary” electronics astounds me! In the past, they had been sharing one laptop. But now that my youngest is entering 4th grade…that no longer seems possible. Both girls have been presenting their case on why they each need their own laptop all summer long. Times are tight…so winning this giveaway would be a life-saver!
Tweet: http://twitter.com/Nelsby/status/3322232397
Thanks!
I use to love buying notebook PAPER now it’s notebook computers.. Crazy!!
The days before school started my mom would set up a table in our room so me and my sister could lay out our supplies. It was so cool because starting weeks before my mom would buy us stuff here and there. And then my grandparents would buy us stuff. So we would lay everything out and look at it. It was like christmas.
tweeted http://twitter.com/carogonza/status/3333491112
blogged: http://theartofrandomwillynillyness.blogspot.com/2009/08/win-intel-laptop-at-these-sites.html
In my day, so many years ago, according to my kids I’m as old as dirt, we bought clothes that looked new to wear back to school. My kids only want to wear jeans with holes in them that look as old as I am! We were also excited to go back to school, my kids are not. I got a new lunch box…my kids are you kidding. Things have changed!!!
For me, it was shopping for clothes, and having to have the perfect trapper keeper and folders (usually had to be the Lisa Frank ones!!). My oldest is only 5, and we homeschool, so he’s really doing nothing that we used to do. He doesn’t need new cool clothes, backpack, pencils or anything like that. What we do need his grammy usually buys for him!
Back to school shopping and preparation was pure HELL when I was a kid. My mom didn’t drive (still doesn’t) so we either had to take the bus to the nearest mall (totally embarrassing!) or wait ’til my dad was able to take us on the weekend, which was even worse. Oh, that, and I was a fat kid, which made clothes shopping even worse! I loathed August each year as the days crept closer to September. My boys are nine and three, but they have it WAY better than I ever did! I drive, for one, so mall shopping (shopping at all, really) is the norm for them. They are both normal-weighted, so anything they want from the rack will fit them (provided their sizes are available.) Plus, they have WAAAYYYY cooler clothes for kids now than they did when I was their ages. No more plaid Toughskins (BLECH!) They don’t realize quite how fortunate they are – or maybe the problem is that I DO!
Blogged! http://ourjacobsenfamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/9-different-giveaways-for-acer-aspire.html
I also liked to have everything packed and ready to go the night before school. I think it’s the same with most kids even today. You feel ready to go and not have to scramble the morning of school.
My most important item in elementary school was a lunchbox. The most important in middle school was my trapperkeeper.
When I was younger, my mom would always take my sister and I out to buy a bunch of new clothes for school. When we got a little older, she would give us each $100 and let us buy whatever we wanted. Back in *coughcough* $100 was a lot of money for clothes.
How does that differ from my kids’ rituals? I don’t buy them a damn thing for back to school. If their clothes were good enough for summer, they’re good enough for school. Although I have a feeling they might talk me out of that before they get too much older.
My mom would always take me out school shopping, just the two of us.
tweet
http://twitter.com/bridget3420/status/3336233830
My child is only 7 months =)
My mom used to make cookies on the first day of school for us when we came home (I’m sure she made cookies lots of other times, but I remember specifically always the first day of school)
For a number of years my mom used to take me and my best girl friend to Mall of America for back to school shopping!
Tweeted- http://twitter.com/joannagiveaway/status/3337831386
Blogged- http://pricemommysense.blogspot.com/2009/08/giveaway-monday_11.html
Posted on my blog
http://abdoggett1.blogspot.com/2009/08/win-laptop-httpwww.html
Me:
All us kids use to walk together to school when I was a kid. We would all have on our fresh new clothes like a new pair of Jordache Jeans. lol
My son:
Kids these days do not walk to school by themselves. Most kids are either walked by their parents, driven to school, or bused. I guess I can understand with the way the world is today. As for clothes, my son wears what he has unless he needs new clothes.
There aren’t many rituals that are the same at all. My son is only four and I am planning on homeschooling him for preschool. For us, my husband and I are telling him how much he will enjoy it and buying supplies like art and a few books. That is pretty much the same as what my parents did. The difference is that I also had new schoolclothes, backpack, lunchbox, etc which he obviously doesn’t need.
Back in the day we each had our own school supplies labeled for our own use…now we buy the same list of supplies but the class shares all of the supplies-no labels or worrying about what brand is cool.
we always got a list at school but kids these days just go in with everything ready to go in their bookbags. I guess they get started on the first day with the schoolwork without the expected meet and greet!
Great giveaway!!
I know that the supply lists are MUCH longer now than they were when I was in school!
Every labor day my mom would take my sister and I back to school shopping for clothes. I loved every second of it.
With my kids I don’t do one big trip with them (maybe when they are older) but I buy bits and pieces when I see good deals throughout the year.
Tweeted http://twitter.com/annedoggett/statuses/3351665808
We had simple back to school routines – new shoes, sometimes a few school supplies. Now it’s primarily school supplies for the kids, new lunch pails and they’re off! We don’t stress about clothes until it’s cold enough to wear something other than shorts. Even so, at least one kid wears shorts all winter, just to make life easier for his parents.
My sons’ back to school rituals are not that different from what mine were. Two weeks before school starts, we do all the clothes shopping. One week before school starts I change the bed time/curfew from the summer routine to what the school routine will be so they can acclimate before school starts. Unlike me when I was in school, they do not care about their school supplies so throughout the summer I purchase the supplies I know they will need and then will finish once we receive “the list.” 2 – 3 days before school it is time for haircuts.
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/FlourChild2006/status/3368023460
When I was a girl, I remember showing up the first day of school with a large brown shopping bag full of supplies. Am I forgetting something? I don’t think so. We have pictures to prove it. My boys show up on the first day of school with a stuffed backpack and then a huge plastic bag filled with overflow items. It’s insane!
No matter what part of the school year it was, from the first day to the last, I always had to have a book with me, something to read whenever I got a spare moment. It’s kind of fun to watch my son do the same thing.
Pens, pencils, notebooks, and folders – those school supplies haven’t changed. What has changed is that the kids carry everything back and forth to school in a nice backpack. We just carried a big pile of books and hoped not to drop anything.
Tweeted – http://twitter.com/bcmom/status/3375353173
My son is just starting school this year, so we are still working on our rituals!
Thanks!
we always had to have new shoes. my son prefers wearing his old ones till xmas.
In my time, I would only get new books and unforms. we’d still have to wear our old shoes and backpacks and it didn’t matter if they were tattered. We did not get driven to school or ride in a school bus. We had to take taxi (depending on how far away from civilization you lived) and / or take a regular country/city bus to school. You better get up early enough too to get their on time because the bus does not wait!
We did not have new textbooks. You’d rent at the library or walk around and borrow from neighbors.
In this time with my kids, they get to go shopping with mom and get all things new and ready for school. They also get to ride a school bus or be driven to school. They get new textbooks etc.
As of right now my children are still quite young; 7 and under so our rituals aren’t very different now than mine were coming up then. I do homeschool my children. I wasn’t homeschooled until 10th grade
No rituals here. Breakfast/brush teeth/bus. But I don’t remember long school supply lists when I was a kid. And we didn’t have backpacks.
I was always particular about my bookbag. It had to be good loking yet functional. Nowadays, I think it is about getting the perfect cellphone or laptop. Things sure have changed.
Well, I don’t have kids, but “back in my day” it was all about the new stuff. Didn’t matter if it was just pencils and notebooks, it was NEW!
I blogged about this. I love back to school time.
http://in-due-time.blogspot.com/2009/08/back-to-school.html
Tweet. http://twitter.com/samski21
As far as school supplies, we had pencils and erasers, now my 10 year old has thumb drives and makes power point presentations instead of book reports! My have times changed!
Tweet! http://twitter.com/themomjen/status/3430736409
Blogged it here, http://www.themomreviews.com/2009/08/acer-aspire-timeline-laptop-computer.html
We used to get school supply lists in advance and a summer reading list too. Today we have to find the school supply list ourselves from the school website or hope a list is found at a local Wal-mart or Target for customers near the school.
Tweeted @farrah1230
I don’t remember any particular rituals when I was going to school aside from getting a new outfit or two to wear. As the school supplied our paper and pencils, etc, we didn’t have to do a lot of shopping for it. These days, it is a big deal, not just to get the right “first day” outfit, but all the supplies they need, too. There’s the list posted in the stores and then they come home with more lists from their teachers!
I tweeted this contest here: http://twitter.com/Margay/status/3431105690
Margay
I was a Catholic school girl too, so back to school meant trying on uniforms, driving to the houses of older girls for hand-me-down uniforms and trying to find earrings that would express “me” past all the navy blue and plaid. Mom went out alone and bought all the things on our list, maybe from a grocery store or Peoples Drugstore.
Today, I’m bombarded by Back-To-School Sales ads on TV, in the paper and in 10,000 emails. We inventory the clothes my stepdaughter has now and try on everything in the winter clothes bin. Hand-me-downs go to donation. I comparison shop for the best deals on school supplies – never at a grocery store! I establish a budget and then shop with the little girl, repeating the budget and our list her many times as she counters with repeating words like “cool” and “want” and “more”. When the budget is done, we’ve confirms I’m “So. Not. Cool.” and my title of “Meanest Parent Ever” is still safe, we check out and go home.
All of our back to school rituals are pretty much the same! We both got/get excited about back to school shopping – clothes & supplies, take photos by the door with our first day outfits, and have a good breakfast before the first day. I love bringing my old rituals and traditions into our family now.
XOXO
My kids are homeschooled but I went to public schools. We have some of the same rituals-like shopping for school supplies! We also have a lot of differences because my kids don’t get nervous about new teachers (it’s just me!) but they get excited about our new curriculum.
Here is my blog link entry: http://buzaroundtown.blogspot.com/
One of our rituals growing up was having our picture taken at the door of the school bus on the first day of school. I continued this with my son and for the month of September we display our pictures….same ages… side-by-side on the entertainment center.
Mentioned your giveaway on my blog – http://www.alwaysbcmom.com/2009/08/more-sites-with-acer-aspire-laptop.html
Mine was going to the tea room with my mother while we took a break from cloths shopping, today my teenagers shop at thrift and vintage stores, no tea room for them. They recycle and reuse
Back to school lunch preparations for when I was a kid:
-bags of chips such as Doritos, Fritos, etc.
-sugar loaded snacks such as fruit roll ups, pudding, etc.
-white bread with bologna
-juice boxes
Back to school lunch preparations for my daughter:
-fresh produce from the garden
-homemade yogurt
-whole grain breads
-organic cheese
-healthy homemade trail mix
( see my Trail Mix Cookie Jar blog posting at http://www.contemporaryearthmama.typepad.com)
I studied in India, and we went to private schools there(public school system is for really poor people). Back to school was fun, and we had to buy many more things, but that was just a year around process not one time shopping. No back to school sale also there. Here is a different “season”, and I really enjoyed it for the first time since my eldest is starting Kinder garten this year!!
I had to have like a million pee chee folders! REMEMBER THEM? Yeah, my daughters don’t. Now it’s not regular pencils, it’s mechanical pencils. Back then it was ripped up jeans, now it’s ripped up shorts. Back then it was reebok, nothing special, just shoes. Now it’s Basketball shoes, Cross Country shoes, Soccer cleates, everything is so expensive.
I blogged about it here
http://lastnervescontests.blogspot.com/2009/08/acer-laptop-giveaway-ends-aug-31_7952.html
I follow you on twitter and tweeted here
http://twitter.com/lastnerve2000/status/3450625848
When I was little we didn’t need to buy so many back to school supplies. I had my Trapper Keeper, a few notebooks, pens & pencils and that was it. Now I’m buying everything my child might use plus hand soap, tissues and Ziploc bags! Next year they’ll probably have to bring their own toilet paper!
Clothes shopping–duh!
You had to pick out the cool clothes to wear for the first day.
Now, with my son, clothes aren’t “as” important, although now that he is in middle school it is becoming more important–to impress the girls, not the teachers. Plus a big one for him is buying his school supplies and getting them all ready and fit into his backpack.
Every year before school started we’d head off to Walgreens to pick up school supplies, pencils, notebooks, etc. One year –all packed in the big old gray Van with mom behind the wheel — we pulled out of the parking lot after shopping and heard a HUGE crunch. Mom didn’t see the brand new red sports car parked on her right side. Oh-oh! We waited and waited for the owner to come out while mom left the van about ten times and fretted and stewed over the smashed car! After an hour, Mom went in to the store and asked the manager to page whoever owned the brand new red sports car. The manager’s face fell to the floor. “I own the red sports car. Just picked it up this morning from the car lot.”
Mom said, “You might want to take it back and ask them if they do body work.”
That’s my most memorable back-to-school shopping trip.
You can find your contest posted on my blog, Kat’s Kwips and Rants. http://kataskwipsandrants.blogspot.com
And I’m now following your blog.
I will also retweet this morning.
Count me in! I need to win the laptop — I’m a starving artist!
Kat Bryan
OOPS! That’s http://katskwipsandrants.blogspot.com
I blogged about this here: http://romanceaddicted.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/win-an-acer-timeline-as3810t-6415/
It seems to me that the school supply list has grown a lot since I was a kid.
I think I got much more excited about the new stuff, especially the new clothes. Both my kids are boys, so they aren’t so worried about that.
Melissa
melissaconatser at gmail dot com
Tweet tweet: http://twitter.com/comefollowme/status/3464592978
Blog post here: http://humanchristian.blogspot.com/2009/08/trying-to-maximize.html
Going thru the horribly long list of supplies I go back to thinking of what kindergarten was like for me. Really wasn’t it only glue and crayons? I really think the tools they need these days are crazy.
I remember a few things from the old dusty days!
1. Going to the store (only ONE) to get clothing. If there were jeans on sale, I got 5 pair! All the same color, my dad didn’t care about style.
2. I got the cheapest supplies that covered my needs.
3. I got a new pair of canvas sneakers, lovingly refered to as ‘bobos’!
My kids:
1. Go to every store in the mall plus Walmart, Kmart, and Target and complain that there is nothing that they like or that everything that they do like is in the wrong size.
2. Find that everything that is on the supply list ‘isn’t right’ and they aren’t going to buy that. They are going to buy the mechanical pencils not the “ones you have to sharpen”! And instead of getting the $0.25 folder, they have to have $1.50 one that has the cute little polka dots and stripes on it “cause everyone else will have them”! So much for origionality.
3. The shoes that they will want will cost $200.00 and they will HAVE to have them NOW. No, they will not do extra chores for them. They NEED them for school. It’s something that they have to have. It’s a need, not a want! When you tell them they are not finished growing and you are not going to buy a pair of $200.00 shoes that they will outgrow in 3 months they pout! You show them the $30.00 shoes that look nearly the same but don’t have the fancy label on it, and they say, “Those are GENERIC I can’t be seen with THOSE on.” You throw your hands in the air and tell yourself that a shot of Jack would be a good idea right about now….breathe in, breathe out. You look at your child, tell them they have a $30.00 limit for shoes and you don’t care what they get as long as they get the *&* ^ shoes! They come up sheepishly 30 minutes later with a $35.00 pair of shoes and ask if they can have these….$5.00 to get you out of shoe hell, jump on it.
That is the difference between my back to school and my kids back to school!
Tami.winbush @ gmail.com
Thank you for the generous giveaway! When I was a child we didn’t have a computer like we do today! We used paper, books, pencils, calculators, etc. to do our work and if we wanted to do research, we’d go to the library.
Today, the technology is amazing and the children have access to a variety of ways to do school work. A computer is a huge need and time saver for school work to be done.
And then brings me to school supplies and clothing. When I was in school, paper, binders and pencils were required but, now we have to purchase EVERYTHING including tissues, sanitizer, paper towels, etc. Clothing? We would have maybe 1-2 new outfits or a few clothing items from garage sales. Kids today seem to be expected to have an entire new wardrobe for each new school year. I personally don’t do this as I cannot afford it. I’ll get each one of my children a new outfit, socks, shoes and a couple shirts. I try to buy clothing as they grow out of them or wear theirs out.
My mom took us shopping to discount stores for a few back-to-school clothes. My daughter shops at the MOA and definitely not the discount stores. Each year I take a photo of my daughter on the first day of school — we weren’t so big on pictures when I was in school.
When I was in school, I was allowed to get five new outfits to start the year. I got pencils, pens, paper, a Trapper, and sometimes a book bag. Now, there is so much more. Kids have to have the right name brand shoes and clothes. They don’t want just a no. 2 pencil. It has to be a lead pencil. The list could go on and on but I’ll stop for now. Have a great day.
house_mouse88 at yahoo dot com
I do not have children, but an an adult student, returned to college after a 15 year haitus. I have noticed that because many of my classes are online I do have the morning ritural to deal with as I did as a child, but I do have much better studying habits! Thanks for the great opportunity to win such and invaluable piece of equipment!!!
karmakaytlyn@yahoo.com
Let’s see my back to school tools would have been a Trapper Keeper(yep!), a lock for my locker, shorts & tee for PE, pen & pencils=)
My daughter has a kabillion(that’s a word, right?) items such as:
EACH class a 3″ binder
EACH Book=book sock(book cover)
TI 83 calculator
and several of her classes require additional fees!
Oh boy when I was in school we had no tools other then our fingers to count on, we had no laptops or pc’s in the school at all. My joy was getting new pencils and crayola crayons, I would beg for the 64 pack but never got. We had to wear dress’s no pants allowed for girls. There was no backpacks so you had to carry everything in your hands or a paper sack which always ripped before getting to school. I lived in Alaska on a boat for 6 months until housing was available, so there was no bath tub or shower, we took a bucket walked down to the water spot and carried water back and put it on the wood burning pot belly stove and heated water to bath, once a week we went across the bay and paid to take a hot shower. We had no bus or car, I had no microwave to just do a fast heat up of breakfast food or any food, we had only a cooler to store food. I was in heaven when we finally got a apartment with a tub. After moving back to Michigan and having a huge house we had all the appliances kids my age took for granted. Now days kids have so many choices like cereal, pop tarts, calculators, cell phones, HD tv’s, we got our first tv when I was 11 years old, we didn’t get our first telephone until I was 14 years old.
My kids get to jump out of bed go 15 feet hop into a shower and take a hot shower, go into the kitchen and have a choice of so many different breakfast foods, grab there back packs, run to catch the bus. Things have changed and life is so much easier for the youth of today, could you see kids pushing grocery carts about a mile to their house so they could eat like I had to? Now days they just hop into their cars and drive to store, fast food, movies and school. Life has sure changed and so has our rituals.
Thank you for giving a chance to make this 50 year old a happy owner of a modern day pc.
camper223[at]live[dot]com
I twitted
I’m praying to win this: http://bit.ly/32CcgHl
ess than 5 seconds ago from web
http://twitter.com/camper223
Thank you so very much
camper223[at]live[dot]com
When I went to school, there were no computers, now every child needs one, a fashionable one at that!
I remember being excited about getting to pick out half a dozen different colored folders. And really my girls are about the same! We homeschool though which makes it a bit different–and my girls are all still pretty young.
I went to a private Catholic school so we really didn’t have to fuss with all of the new school clothes,backpacks,folders all we had to do was show up in uniform and a pencil. Today is it crazy with all of the clothes,school supplies we have to buy and not to mention the backpacks. Almost every child has to have a computer because their projects and book reports have to be typed and printed but half the time they aren’t able to get into the computer lab to get their work finished. I think it is harder on cholden today compared to when I went to school.
My favorite ritual was going back to school shopping for clothes with my mom and finding that one special outfit for the first day. My daughter is not old enough for school so no rituals yet with her…
Ahhh- Trapper Keepers! I loved the shopping for new school supplies & that it was time for new clothes! I will enjoy sharing these things w/ my son when he’s ready for school!
I didn’t know what a computer was when I started school (minus the ones I would see on reruns), but now they are a necessary learning tool.
http://miscmayzee.blogspot.com/2009/08/petroville-is-giving-away-laptop.html
a link to my blogpost about the giveaway.
http://twitter.com/miscmayzee/status/3529861699
I also twittered about the giveaway.
Long, long ago…. (about 50 years ago) my mother would take my sister and me to get new notebooks. Now when I’m taking a class I have to get a new notebook. I will enjoy having a new Acer notebook for this year. Thanks for the contest.
blogged: http://slehan.blogspot.com/2009/08/lets-get-new-laptop.html
Tweet: http://twitter.com/slehan/status/3530349355
My back-to-school ritual (at least in high school) was always going in with the following mindset: “This year is going to be DIFFERENT” (i.e., I was going to be more confident, more outgoing, more studious, etc). I don’t have kids now, but my young cousins seem to have that same mindset going into their new school year (especially with the college-aged cousins: they always say that this year is going to be the year they’re going to study more
)
Buying my school clothes and supplies, and making sure I got me a perfect pair of shoes.
As a teacher one thing that strikes me as so different currently from the past is the age old tradition of the parents meeting the teacher at the beginning of the school year. Now instead of exchanging telephone numbers for cases of contact we’re giving each other email addresses and personal websites. It makes it easier sometimes to be able to contact a parent so swiftly by email and you usually get a quick reply but what about the old “face to face” contact?
Other than that I still think a lot remains the same. The kids still get just as excited over pencils, erasers, folders and crayons as we used to when we were kids
And of course…the TRAPPER KEEPER was the BOMB!!
I follow you on twitter: twittelyp
I used to love school supply shopping so now even though we homeschool, I take the kids to pick out new school supplies before we start a new year.
My favorite part of back to school was definitely school supply shopping! Loved getting new folders, pens, etc and organizing all my stuff into a new backpack.
My daughter isn’t school aged yet, but as a parent I think I’m kind of dreading school supply shopping – lol. Just seems the lists are filled with an overabundance of unnecessary and excessive items.
In a lot of ways, the old saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same” still holds true. Although the stuff we buy has changed, the kids still have needs; they need clothes, just as we did, and pens, paper, too. What has changed is the economic divide between the rich and the poor. These days, a quality educational experience depends upon the ability to provide for largely expensive goods that the school systems no longer or cannot provide for their enrollees, i.e. laptops, textbooks, and even pencil and paper. Perhaps the solution to Amerikkka’s dilemma is to stop paying for corporate bailouts and stupid wars and instead to bombard the schools (with funding). This disparity is a sign of the times, I suppose, and I’m not sure I like it. In my day, there way yet another saying– teach peace. That’s probably the best ritual of all. What do they teach these days? I’m really not sure, but god bless the uselessly educated anyhow, because they are the future.
I remember ALWAYs having to have a 3 ring binder and my kids have yet to need one (and the oldest is in 4th grade!)
The BtS ritual always involved buying school supplies (pencils and erasers!) and new shoes. I defintely didn’t have a computer!
I used to love picking out my special pencils and erasers and all the little extras to put in your pencil case.
Now they pool everything in the classrooms and you can’t have a special pencil or eraser all of your own.
My mom never packed me a lunch, so it’s fun for the kids and I to pick out lunch bags and what to put inside!
My DD is entering 3rd grade, so we are still getting the regular supplies–pencils, erasers, folders, paper and comp books. I don’t remember having to take as many supplies to school though, maybe the schools provided more for the students than they do now?
Always had to get new sneakers each year, and that’s stayed the same.
I went to Catholic school in the 60’s and 70’s and our back to school rituals revolved around going to the uniform store to get fitted for our uniforms…we hated it! My kids hated their ritual of going to Walmart for cheap supplies…rainchecks were especially reviled
My kids get a lot of camera time on the first day of school. That was never the ritual for me as a kid. I just got new clothes.
Rituals: We, (all 8 kids) would often have to use hand me downs. But…it was always a treat to get new shoes. Every year, we at least got new shoes, and sometimes new socks. We would Wake up (not ask for ‘just 5 more minutes’ of sleep), fight over the bathroom, eat a warm oatmeal breakfast and run to the bus.
Rituals for my kids: They get to go “new shoe” shopping, and backpacks, socks, underwear, notebooks, and folders. THey love picking out their own folders. It somehow defines who they are. They wake up to a warm breakfast, get dressed, take their school pictures, and off to the bus…with a big prayer from me.
my mom always had us lay out the clothes we were going to wear the first day of school. i hope to pass that one to my kids.
also walking us to the bus stop every morning!
Well, I don’t have kids of my own yet so nieces and nephews will have to be the subjects. I remember how popular Trapper Keepers were when I was in school but we usually had the blue canvas type binders with various pocket inserts. They were nice because when you decorated then with ink pens they looked pretty cool. The niece and nephew do breakfast every first day of school and walk to the bus stop with their parents…and it all gets chronicled on digital camera.
I have followed you on Twitter and left a tweet for the excellent giveaway:
http://twitter.com/courtenay27/status/3611146501
Thanks!
I have blogged about your giveaway here:
http://courtenayslife.blogspot.com/2009/08/win-acer-aspire-timeline-as3810t-6415.html
Thanks!!
We didn’t have cell phones back then, and now no kid can go to school without one or so they say pretty much hehe. It’s funny how it’s changed.
tweeted http://twitter.com/spalka/status/3574731779
blogged http://beenamommy.blogspot.com/2009/08/blogher-acer-aspire-head-of-class.html
The computer is the biggest tool my kids have that I didn’t have!
Blogged!
http://thehomeschoolway.blogspot.com/2009/08/laptop-giveaway.html
Advances in technology make back to shool shopping much more costly.
Tweet: http://twitter.com/samasam/status/3629178305
I posted giveaway on my blog: http://stephie-stephsblog.blogspot.com/
My little one is not ready for school yet, however, since I grew up in Europe, the whole school thing will be very different and new to me.
New crayons were our ritual – my kids get new computers!
For sure the decision of which backpack for my 2 girls to buy. My 9 year old checks with her friends first to see which ones they bought then she decides. I don’t think I even carried a backpack to school.
I’m right there with ya’, Sistah! The Trapper Keeper was the Holy Grail of backpack organization. With that, a Walkman and a new outfit, the first day of school was a breeze.
My kids? Thank HEAVENS they’re still little kids who don’t care too much about the source of their clothes. And they’re as likely to find answers on the internet as the library.
It’s a whole new world!
one ritual i remember is going shopping for back to school clothes and i hated it! lol
but now, the kids just do it online for the most part…and they like it! lol go figure.
thanks! freaaa@gmail.com
My school supply list in school consisted of a package of notebook paper, some folders, pens & pencils. There wasn’t much to it and I carried it to school in my arms along with any books I had brought home to study with the night before.
Now I’m criss-crossing town in search of the “mandatory” items on my daughter’s list of supplies for junior high. There’s specific colors, sizes and brands and even a scientific calculator…we were never allowed to have calculators when I was in school.
Tweeted:
http://twitter.com/auntiethesis/status/3642338273
Blogged:
http://auntiethesis.blogspot.com/2009/08/inspired-by-acer-aspire.html
When I was young, I looked forward to going to “the big city” and getting my annual back to school outfit and new pair of shoes! Back to school supplies were so much simpler then too. Now, since we live in the city, shopping is just a fact of life, and there’s less excitement about making a trip to the mall…and the back to school list of supplies is miles long.
My kids are still too young for school, but I remember all the shiny new pencils and erasers more than anything else!
I don’t have kids, but my niece and nephew love to shop for school supplies and to sort and organize their work spaces. Not very different than when I went to school. Having new clothes & backpacks, anticipation to see your friends again, thirst for learning etc. is pretty much the same
The difference is that they have way more cool gadgets today!
tweeted:
http://twitter.com/ktanjatk/status/3652855592
When I was younger we waited till the week into school to get our supplies, when the teacher gave us a list, now you have a list sent in the beginning of July, and all sales start at the same time so you get the supplies then.
Well, I don’t have children yet so I can’t tell you what they do. But, I always triple checked everything was packed in my bag and spent time the night before picking out the perfect outfit. I guess I haven’t grown up too much. Old habits die hard
Maybe it’s because I graduated in 1995, but honestly the back to school rituals appear to be the same. The Trapper Keeper is replaced by a 5-Star notekeeper, the backpacks are still a huge, huge deal, and we still need to go around for clothes and a new perfected haircut before school starts.
Maybe if I had boys, there would be a difference?
My most expensive tool was a graphing calculator – but these days it seems like a laptop is a requirement.
back in my day, it was a pen and notebook. nowadays, its laptops and blackberrys!
There is so much more that kids need now to start school with. When I was a kid, it was some pencils, notebooks, binders, a backpack and maybe a few new outfits. Now they all need so much. And everything is so much more expensive than it used to be.
I tweeted here: http://twitter.com/crazeypoet/status/3657582263
I don’t have kids yet, but I do still have back-to-school (or beginning of the semester) rituals: I have to make sure the registrar has everything lines up, that I have enough copies of my syllabus, etc.
I was the youngest of 4 girls and we were poor so my back to school ritual mostly consisted of “shopping” in my sisters closets. I shared a room with one so my Mom would sit with me and go through their clothes to see what would fit at the time. I was pretty thin then due to a medical problem so the majority of my pants had to be the polyester ones with the elastic waist band. My sisters used to joke with me and say they were going to send away for a butt for me because I had none.LOL Back then I didn’t think it was too funny but now I chuckle about it. My children get a few new outfits and shoes and we always do our back to school shopping at least 3 weeks before school starts so we are not stuck digging through the leftovers on the racks. The “good” clothes, as they call them, are always gone if you wait too long. I also make sure everything is at the door ready to go. All of their supplies are labeled with their names and placed in their book bags so there is no mad rush in the morning. They also get to bed early the night before also. We don’t want any grumpy pants in the morning!
bellameisha at gmail dot com
I tweeted here: http://twitter.com/MiBellaMia/status/3658731379
When I was schooling, I remembered my mom combed my hair, put me new uniform and packed with lots of books to school by bus. That day was very hard to carry it daily from home to school. Nowadays, kids are very lucky that they only carry homework folder and one book if needed.
Blogged here http://momsfocusonline.com/acer-aspire-timeline-as3810t-6415.html
tweeted @momsfocus
Totally different from then to now, as far as school supplies and gadgets. But as far as kids being kids, not much has really changed. We had cliques back then and we still have cliques now. There was peer pressure then and there’s peer pressure now. There were “cool” kids then and there are “cool” kids now. (the words may have changed but the concepts are the same) I think that as long as the basic ritual of children going on a daily basis to a separate building away from home to be taught in groups, “school” will virtually remain the same. Once classrooms are done away with and students are “plugged in” at home (or anywhere, really) that’s when things will have changed beyond what we all know and love about school days.
I’m following you on Twitter
tnshadylady
We always had a really early bed time, my kids get to be flexable and stay up later on certain nights.
Just yesterday I was talking with my cousins about the fact that when we were kids there were no School Supply lists. You just got a few new pencils, whatever box of crayons you wanted, maybe a couple folders and that was about it!
When I was a kid my Mom and I used to go shopping everywhere for my clothing and shoes. Today half of the shopping is done online. Online shopping is less intimate but it saves time and gas.
Blogged: http://winwithjinxy.blogspot.com/2009/08/win-acer-aspire-timeline-as3810t-6415.html
tweeted http://twitter.com/ThriftyJinxy/status/3660485697
I think our least favorite back to school ritual has always been to get back on the early to bed, up at the crack of dawn sleep schedule. Oh summer, where did you go!?
Oh man, when I was a kid I thought I was high-tech with my fancy Trapper Keeper, graphing calculator, mechanical pencils, and Jansport backpack. Nowadays the kids have netbooks or notebook computers in elementary school, cell phones with GPS and wi-fi, digital tablets for artwork and design, and solar-powered backpacks. It’s both sobering and exciting to see all of the amazing advances that have been in the past couple decades, though I’ll admit it’s comforting that though the supplies might have changed, the traditions of back-to-school (the jitters, the excitement of meeting new teachers and seeing old friends, etc.) stay the same!
gkaufmanss@yahoo.com
I tweeted about the giveaway: http://twitter.com/guettel78/status/3660563169
gkaufmanss@yahoo.com
I blogged: http://slavetoacademia.blogspot.com/2009/08/acer-aspire-laptop-giveaway-at.html
gkaufmanss@yahoo.com
When I was a kid we shopped for shiny new shoes, knee socks, and dresses…no pants were allowed. My favorite part was picking out a new lunchbox for the year along with the paper, pencils, and crayons. My kids…it’s jeans, tees, athletic shoes and a cool binder, paper, CDs, and a thumb drive!!
I tweeted this giveaway!
http://twitter.com/sendtocindy/status/3661563865
I didn’t have a lot of back to school rituals growing up. We went shopping for school supplies, and that was about it. I try to do more with my kids. We shop for school supplies, and I always let them pick out a few special clothes. We also try to have a special breakfast on the first day – bacon and pancakes.
Oh my, the trapper keeper. I thought it was a thing of the past but much to my surprise my son has used what he calls a binder *coughtrapperkeepercough* for the past few years because his teachers requires diiferent style pencils (?!!?!) paper, notebooks, folders, reading for pleasure book, colored pencil…you get the idea. And there are no locker breaks and no backpacks allowed in classrooms so he’s expected to carry everything from classroom to classroom.
Sheesh, we just had desks.
I love back to school clothes shopping!
I love back to school clothes shopping! @beestar13 on Twitter!
Now it seems to be all about the clothes and how you look! LOL..I could have cared less when I was little. I also didn’t have a cell phone or lap