Preparing Your Kindergartner for the First Day of School
Shopping: Take Advantage of the Sales and Stock Up
School Clothes
It's always a great idea to buy what you know you'll need early, if you can. Go through your child's wardrobe and weed out everything she's outgrown. By reducing the clutter, you will be able to get her dressed quickly and easily.
Keep in mind school dress codes while shopping. Some schools prohibit short skirts and tank tops for girls and "sagging" (baggy trousers that hang low) for boys. Schools may also have rules regarding printed words or phrases on clothes.
School Supplies
Although it's difficult to predict what different teachers will require, you can get ahead of the game by buying certain staples. Here's a general list of items that elementary school students usually need:
- Glue stick
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Washable markers
- Eraser
- Box of crayons
- Kleenex
- Pocket folders
- Drawing paper
- Construction paper
- School box (for storing supplies)
- Scotch tape
- Backpack
Nutrition: Start off the School Year by Planning Healthy Meals
Get creative with easy, healthy ideas for school day meals. If you plan and gather what you need on the weekends, you'll make life a lot less stressful and meals more nutritious during the week.
Breakfast
Remember the most important meal of the day. Fruit smoothies make a quick and healthy addition to the usual fare. How about making a yogurt fruit parfait or a breakfast burrito?
Lunch
If you will be packing a lunch from home, be sure to have a sturdy lunch box or a supply of paper bags on hand. Here are some quick and creative ideas for making school lunches healthy and fun:
- Use cookie cutters to make sandwiches into interesting shapes.
- Sneak vegetables like lettuce, cucumber or zucchini slices into sandwiches.
- Buy baked chips and low-fat crackers or pretzels. Avoid items with trans fats in them such as packaged cookies, snack cakes and regular chips.
- Choose 1% or fat-free milk or 100% fruit juices.
- Make fruit fun to eat by cutting it into slices and putting it on a skewer or include small containers of applesauce or pineapple packed in its own juice.
- Write a surprise message or draw a funny picture and put it in her lunch.
Dinner
Plan dinners for the week ahead and shop on the weekends to avoid last minute trips to the grocery store.
