Let’s Get Ready with Cedar Valley Publishing

It’s back to school time. I couldn’t have said it any better than my dear friend Rachel Hamman.  She had a fabulous post and I’m with her!  I am so ready to practice the 3 R’s:  Relaxing, Recharging and Reclaiming!  To read more go to: http://rachelhamman.typepad.com.  

I learn so many great tips from observing homeschooling moms.  I saw this in action a few years ago, tried it last year and now it has become a family tradition with Heidi, 8 and Megan 6.  This is school shopping week at the Kannenberg household… 

Empower children to help make shopping for school supplies a fun game for everyone, instead of another dreaded chore that needs to be done. 

Every child gets to hold and cross off their supply list and is given a shopping basket.  Mom is in charge of helping and supervising the purchases before they can be added to Mom’s Approved Purchases (MAP) Cart. 

The rules are simple:

1. Everyone has to stay in the same aisle, so Mom can supervise purchases. 
2. Mom has final approval before the item can be put into Mom’s cart.

Tip: Empower older children to help younger children who might not be able to read the list, but can help find items and cross them off the list.  Everyone is involved in the process regardless of age; even a toddler can help search, find and put
the item into the basket for Mom’s approval and help Mom get it into the final cart. 

Make it a fun activity and start the school year with some positive fun!

I enlisted help from our 14 year-old neighbor girl, Amanda.  It’s become a tradition to go school clothes shopping with her, and this year the long wait was finally over.  Instead of calling it clothes shopping — it’s “fashion show dress up.”  We went to a discount department store a few hours before the dinner hour.  We grabbed two carts, one for each girl.   We shopped together as a team and visited each area:  jeans, skirts, shirts, blouses,
underwear, tights, socks and shoes.  We pushed our carts into the dressing room area, assigned each girl to a room and handed them each a complete outfit minus underwear, tights, socks and shoes to try on and model.  Amanda and I emceed the event and asked them to come out at the same time to model.  My job was final outfit approval, making sure all approved items were placed in the correct cart or put aside as a “no sale.”   When the show was complete and purchases made, we had dinner at a nice restaurant.  We all had so much fun!  The girls have talked and giggled about it for the past year and were so excited that it was finally time to go again. 

Copyright 2007 - Stacey Kannenberg, Author of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!

Action Item: How about you?  Do you have any great tips to take the stress out of back to school time?  Let us know how you’ve taken a chore that used to cause tears and turned into one that creates cheers!  Inquiring moms are dying to know!

Tags: Back to School, Clothes, Empower, Girls, Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!, Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten!, School Supplies, Shopping, stacey kannenberg

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