An Exciting Way to Start the School Year

At the beginning of the school year we decided to have a school kick off party with our homeschooling friends to celebrate and help us all to start with fresh excitement.  For the kids it made the school year more exciting and lessened the realization of hard work.  For the moms it was a very nice way to celebrate our renewed commitment to our kids as we pledge to do our best and teach them at home for another 180 days.  We kept things pretty simple.  Everyone brought a sack lunch, and we ate and went swimming.  The kids loved it.

Create a Theme

My kids and I love to decorate, as it just makes things so much more special.  So we decided for back to school our theme would be Apples.  As traditionally kids bring apples to their teachers.  So I went and bought an assortment of apples to use as decoration as well as a treat for the kids.

We cut out green felt in the shape of leaves and hot glued them to red plates, to make apple plates.  I realize that they could also work as tomato plates for a pizza party, but the kids only saw apples that day so it worked out.

Then we blew up red and green balloons for each child and used them for decoration. Lastly, my boys made paper airplanes and we hung them up around the room.

Make it Fun

For fun, I had a bowl of erasers and each child guessed how many were in the bowl. They loved this challenge, and thought it was so much fun.  Even the toddlers got in on this game, and the older children loved their guesses of 3 or 4 as the total in the bowl.  The kids also each got to make their own paper airplane and see whose could fly the furthest.  We found out that green apples were preferred over red apples by this bunch.  They all enjoyed swimming too!

Get Others Involved

One wonderful mom brought a cake for everyone, and another brought a gift of school supplies for each child.  They each received a notebook and a pencil box with some pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, a notepad and a box of crayons inside.  All the kids were thrilled, and the moms were thrilled too!  This party was fun and simple and didn’t break the bank.  The kids take away did not include any junk toys or candy, but only useful things and an apple, that was actually quite the hit.