Send Them Off With Love

How is it that summer goes by so much faster than the rest of the year? Here it is August already and summer will soon be over, and kids will be heading back to school. Target and Walmart are stocking the shelves with back-to-school items, teachers are preparing their classrooms, and families are enjoying the last few days of vacation (or eagerly waiting for school to start because the kids are climbing the walls).

In some ways I miss the back-to-school hustle and bustle. We enjoyed being able to meet the teachers and see all the work they did getting their classrooms ready. The kids enjoyed seeing their friends again and I liked the first-day-of-school pictures. Every year, I made a sign that had that year’s grade and the first day of school on it. The girls stood in the same spot each year with their sign for the first-day-of-school photo. It was fun looking back over their school photos seeing how much they had grown against the background of the photos. I also got them a back-to-school present each year. They couldn’t open the present until I got an acceptable photo, which meant a smiling photo. It made it much easier to get them to smile as they got older and weren’t as interested in that obligatory first-day-of-school photo. I couldn’t get that first-day photo once they started college, but I still made sure they had fun gifts as they went off to school.

Even though towels may not be the “coolest gift,” everyone needs them, and when you are in a college dorm with other students, it’s easy to get towels mixed up. Putting a monogram or fun design on their towels solved that problem easily.

Although my girls’ colleges included laundry in their fees, I knew they would still be bringing laundry home occasionally, so I embroidered a suitable design on a laundry bag to make it more personal.

When I was in college, we weren’t allowed to have microwaves in the dorms (and yes, they did exist back then), but the girls were able to, so I sent microwavable bowl holders in fabrics that matched things they liked. They also picked ones out for their roommates and everyone loved them! Soup is a big staple of college diets and it’s nice to be able to hold the bowl without burning your hands (and to eat ice cream without freezing them either).

Combine stress, lack of sleep, and lots of people in small areas and you have a perfect scenario for your child to get sick. Arm them with hand sanitizer that they can easily attach to their backpacks to prevent the spread of germs. You can even find a matching lip balm holder that will help during those winter months when everyone’s lips get chapped.

So, whether you are sending off your child for the first day of kindergarten or the first day of college, give them a hug, present them with a special gift, get your photos, and look forward to a fun, exciting year.

If you would like a custom, personalized gift for your child, please let me know. I would love to help you send them off with love.