It’s been back to school for many families for a week or two while others started the traditional day after Labor Day, like we used to do in my kids’ school district. This year my kids started for the first time before Labor Day.
And, as is a tradition, we did our annual back-to-school shopping spree at Target. We’ve gone to other stores in the past, but Target has become our favorite back-to-school supply list destination in the last few years.
I love the experience of back-to-school shopping with my children. It’s fun watching my kids hold their grade-specific lists of items they need for the upcoming school year. So much excitement. So much anticipation. So much enthusiasm and wonder. Over new colored pencils and three-ring binders!
To know the upcoming year holds so much promise. A clean slate. New opportunities. A fresh clean new classroom. A place to grow, to learn, to make new friends, to see old ones, to do well in school.
As my 12-year-old and I were making our way through the list, checking those items off the list, we looked over and saw a father with his 9-or-10-year-old working the aisles as well. Only this 9-or-10-year-old was sitting in the shopping cart busying himself on his I-Phone rather than helping find the items on the school-shopping list.
And I thought, dear parent, please get your kid off the phone and have him find the items on the school supply list. It’s an important part of back-to-school.
Some parents might look at getting the items on the school supply list as just another thing to check off the long list of to-do’s in their busy lives. Get it done, and get out. One mom friend told me that she did her kids’ back-to-school supply shopping for her kids without her kids altogether. ‘”It went so quickly, it was so easy,” she told me.
I get that. Trust me. With my oldest child now 25 and my youngest 12, I’ve been doing this back-to-school shopping with my kids for 20 years now!
Yet, here’s the thing. I see back-to-school shopping as more than just something to check off of your to-do list. It is an important ritual to experience with your kids. A time to ring-in fall. A time to do life together. A time to get excited together about colored pencils and three-ring binders.
I look at it as I try to view all areas of my life, as if it is an adventure, as a time together, as an experience.
A time to share.
It’s also a way for our children to be involved in their own education, to take responsibility for their own learning and growth. I believe it’s a way to share the excitement about the upcoming school year.
So much of our lives can be about accomplishing and checking items off of our list rather than the experience of the event.
I want to model this for my kids, to have them learn the art of experiencing, the art of taking responsibility, the art of being present. It’s not just the “fun” things we should do with our kids, but it’s also the “work-ish” things.
The start of a school year is the opportunity to begin again. With a clean slate. A new teacher, a new schoolroom, a new grade, a new year.
Here we go. Another adventurous year ahead for us all to experience. Together. . .
