5 clever ways for making back-to-school season easier for kids

For kids, the end of summer usually means the fun is over for yet another year . . . or is it?  Using a few clever tricks, you can fill your child with anticipation for the brand-new school year instead of dread. Here are five ways that really work.

[Image credit: iStock.com/Kirbyphoto]

Just as you would to celebrate any festive occasion, such as Christmas or a birthday, an environment fixed up with colourful decorations can help set the mood for your child to really feel that school time is just around the corner – but in a positive way.

• To help add to the excitement, decorate your child's room with school-themed ideas, like a collage of best school moments that could include a school play snapshot, a drawing of a favourite teacher, an A-grade homework assignment or last year's class picture. The only limit is your creativity!

You can readily extend the mood to the kitchen with book-shaped cookies served on bright lunch trays. Yum!

Take kids along when shopping for new school supplies, bags or shoes. Although they might not be thrilled at first to go to the mall, the setting will get them excited quickly enough.

• Malls are bound to put up inviting school-themed decors and colourful posters, while stores creatively dress up their windows and pack their shelves with bright, new merchandise in time for the school opening.

After shopping, take the kids out to lunch at a place they enjoy to reinforce the upbeat day.

Letting kids decide what to buy makes them more motivated to get into that school spirit because they will be using something that they actually like, not what their parents think is right.

• Just remember that not everything has to be new. Moreover, you don't have to spend a ton of money to buy that enthusiasm from your child.

Your school may have its own school food program to meet the mental and physical demands of schooling, but there's always room for your home-prepared snacks as a great motivator.

• Create a fun list of school (or after-school) snacks with your child and personalize each one by giving them fun new names, such as "Little Annie's Big Monday Cookies" or "The Best Buttered Toast on Earth." You could even go grocery shopping together for that first stock of homemade snacks.

You can make your kids look forward to opening their school books again with regular trips to reading rooms in the weeks before school starts.

• There are libraries, bookstores and book clubs that offer reading and storytelling hours for children.
• Choose activities or settings that offer a fun and friendly atmosphere. As well, feel free to invite your kids' friends or classmates to tag along.