Know and Tell Friday: Back-To-School Edition

Hey, there! Reese here. My 2 oldest kids went back to their American on-base schools on Monday. I now have a 7th grader and a 9th grader. I'm still quite in shock over Sean being in high school. When did my little baby outgrow diapers and a pacifier and start taking algebra classes?! It seems too impossible to be true, but only 4 short years from now he will be off to college. I shed silent and random tears at that prospect.

Sean starting high school is overshadowing dear Kristine's entry into 7th grade. Seventh grade was a big deal when I was a kid because it meant being in junior high (that's what we called it back then) which meant lockers and different teachers and choosing electives. Oddly, in Germany at the base we were at, middle school started in 5th grade. That means middle school is old news to my girl, though she is now a "big" seventh grader who looks down her nose at the "tiny" 6th graders (middle school starts in 6th grade here). She can barely believe that those little babies have been allowed into middle school! LOL!

Zach and Ian won't start their English school classes until next week, and they won't be full time for a couple of weeks after that. I like that though the kids start a bit younger here, their ages are taken in to consideration and allowances are made. They start slowly and will accommodate any kids who need more time to work into the swing of things. I like having the freedom to tailor the start of schooling to my individual children.

To recognize the end-of-summer ritual of going back to school and all that entails, we've cooked up a back-to-school edition KATF. If you don't have kids in school, answer the questions for yourself when you were in school.

Cheers!

1. How far in advance do you start getting ready for back-to-school (whether for your own kids, or for yourself when you were in school)?

2. Do you have any picky eaters who need special considerations for lunches? What does a typical bagged lunch look like in your house?

3. What school supply items do you skimp on and what are you willing to shell out the big bucks for?

4. Do you get your kids up, or do they get up on their own? Any snooze-hitters that have trouble waking up? How about the opposite, any kids that are up at the crack of dawn?

5. Any cafeteria horror stories? Is school food as bad as they say?

6. How important is it to you to make sure your kids have the latest styles and trendiest accessories?

7. Remember the movie Kindergarten Cop? If Arnold Schwarzenegger was your child's new kindergarten teacher, how would you feel?


Heather's answers:

1. How far in advance do you start getting ready for back-to-school (whether for your own kids, or for yourself when you were in school)? We still aren't ready, and school starts on Tuesday. We have all of our school supplies to buy, haircuts to get and random clothes. I really hate the start of the school schedule, it means the goodbye to warm weather and a flexible schedule.

2. Do you have any picky eaters who need special considerations for lunches? What does a typical bagged lunch look like in your house? No one is overly picky, but they have very bland lunches. It always consists of a Peanut butter sandwich for Mark, no sandwich for Amanda. Then they are allowed two snacks and a drink. The snacks are usually peaches, string cheese, granola bars, carrot sticks. I realized that McKenna will now be needing a sack lunch this year...that will be my interesting one!

3. What school supply items do you skimp on and what are you willing to shell out the big bucks for? That's a good question. I'm really not willing to spend a lot of money on any items. I figure pencils, pens and glue sticks can always be bought again. I think the one item I will be willing to spend a little more on this year is backpacks. Last year each kid went through 3 backpacks. That is unheard of, I usually make them use one all year but they literally fell apart. I guess I will buy better quality ones this year.

4. Do you get your kids up, or do they get up on their own? Any snooze-hitters that have trouble waking up? How about the opposite, any kids that are up at the crack of dawn? I get the kids up, and I am the snooze hitter. Last year was the first year that my children were not late for school, and my oldest was in the 7th grade! Getting ready for school is always hard on me. The trick that I had to use last year, due to my husband's work schedule, was all the clothes had to be ready and waiting in the bathroom. By having everything ready the night before, we weren't searching for lost items every morning. It saved us a ton of time.

5. Any cafeteria horror stories? Is school food as bad as they say? My kids definitely say the food is bad. As of last year, even the pizza is terrible. That's pretty shocking. They all prefer a brown bagged lunch over cafeteria food, so it must be bad.

6. How important is it to you to make sure your kids have the latest styles and trendiest accessories? Not important at all. Luckily none of my kids are into that. They buy what they enjoy and aren't worried about all the trend setters. I remember when I was in school I wanted all the expensive clothes and I feel very lucky that my kids are not following in my footsteps.

7. Remember the movie Kindergarten Cop? If Arnold Schwarzenegger was your child's new kindergarten teacher, how would you feel? At first very freaked out! I actually think in the end it would be pretty awesome!

Reese's answers:

1. How far in advance do you start getting ready for back-to-school (whether for your own kids, or for yourself when you were in school)? As I said here, this year was the worst. Usually I start buying school supplies about 2 weeks before school, so I'm not a big planner but I usually get all I need. In Germany we were at a small base and the school supplies always ran very, very low right about the time I went to buy. You'd think I would have learned my lesson after the first year, but do you really think that happened??!! NOPE!

2. Do you have any picky eaters who need special considerations for lunches? What does a typical bagged lunch look like in your house? My kids eat the cafeteria food. Despite the fact that I have no complaints about our military pay (some people do complain alot), we qualify for free lunches. I think it's because Tim's not an officer and we have 4 kids. With free lunches, I don't see why we should pay the money for bagged lunches or deal with the hassle. Occasionally, they won't like what's being served and they'll take a sandwich, a piece of fruit, a sweet of some sort and a drink.

3. What school supply items do you skimp on and what are you willing to shell out the big bucks for? Like Heather, this year it was backpacks we paid more for. My kids' bags are usually shredded by the end of the school year, and sometimes even need to be replaced mid-year. Sean got a sling backpack in the luggage department and Kristine got an actual carry-on business type bag. They are both black and not in the least frilly, but they both got the ones they wanted.

4. Do you get your kids up, or do they get up on their own? Any snooze-hitters that have trouble waking up? How about the opposite, any kids that are up at the crack of dawn? Sean has been getting up on his own for years. He's very much the oldest child, very responsible and with it. Kristine inherited her dad's night-owl-can-hardly-wake-up-in-the-mornings condition. She regularly sleeps through her alarm, and she's even slept through the sun shining on her when she slept with the shade open so the sun would wake her up! Poor girl often has to wake up to Sean's loud chiding.

5. Any cafeteria horror stories? Is school food as bad as they say? There are some things the kids love at the cafeteria, some they hate. Some days Kristine will come home famished because she refused to eat whatever the school was serving. She swears they served tuna surprise at her last school, though that seems a bit far fetched, doesn't it?!

When I was in middle school some of the food was awesome. If I remember correctly, I liked the pizza. One of my clearest memories of middle school was one I wasn't there for; I heard about it from my friends and it stuck with me: we had science right before lunch and one particular day (when I was out sick) they were dissecting sheep's eyeballs. From that experience, my friends went to lunch were the entree of the day was spaghetti and meat balls! Jenny barely made it into the bathroom where she proceeded to be very sick!

6. How important is it to you to make sure your kids have the latest styles and trendiest accessories? Thankfully, that's not very important to my kids. This year Kristine earnestly requested white shoes, all decked out with silver thread and little shinies here and there. Apparently, all her friends have them. Judging by the vast selection of white, shiny shoes they must be popular this year. Other than a few little things every now and then, it isn't that important to them.

7. Remember the movie Kindergarten Cop? If Arnold Schwarzenegger was your child's new kindergarten teacher, how would you feel? I'd request a transfer for my child. Why would a massive man be teaching kindergarten unless he had ulterior motives?!

Ok, have at it ladies! Don't forget to visit each other's blogs and get to know each other!

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