The second you’ve packed away the Christmas tree and polished off the last of the ham it starts: the back to school drama. You can see parental heads spinning as the ads ramp up. Pencil cases! Lunch boxes! Grey shirts! Laptops! USB sticks 5 for $24.95 (is that good value? Is it? Who knows?).
Then there are the school lunch guide lift outs. Use them if you must, but take it from a veteran – if you want an empty lunchbox and a happy kid, skip the salmon, kale and hummus pinwheels and whack in a vegemite sandwich and an apple. The apple may well come home, but give it a rinse and send it back the next day. Honestly? Some of the fruit at our place could qualify for frequent flyer points.
Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by Shoes & Sox. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.
I have lived through eight back-to-school periods so I feel qualified to offer some advice on issues that trouble many parents. Two are a waste of energy, oxygen and cash and one deserves some thought.
1) School book covering.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: EXERCISE BOOKS HAVE COVERS. They are also largely disposable. Every year my kids bring home the dozen or so exercise books they filled (and some they didn’t) and every year I am glad I bucked the parental trend to spend the last precious evenings of January wrestling with Con-Tact.
Text books are a bit different – especially if the plan (or hope) is to pass them onto younger siblings. In my experience, that doesn’t happen so much any more. If the issue is one of identification, a couple of stickers will do the job, or you could be really radical and you know, write their name on the front. On that, sticky (expensive, custom) labels are largely a waste of money.
Many a year 2 child has whiled away a maths lesson peeling the natty name labels from every felt pen in his pencil case. In most cases, a permanent marker will do the job. And here’s a tip: a Liquid Paper pen is great for marking dark clothing. And it NEVER comes off.
2) Your kid’s teacher.
The dramas! The tears! The angst! People, it’s one year. One of life’s lessons is how to get on with people who you don’t like and who might not like you. Be positive and upbeat about your child’s teacher even if you’ve heard they’re not very good. If you’re worried, your kid will be worried and the downward spiral will begin. Let the teacher get on with the job and start the year with more smiles and less hand-wringing and who knows? You could be surprised.
3) Shoes.
This one (and not because it’s a sponsored post) I do take seriously. Feet are funny things and deserve some love. Sore feet, as we all know, can ruin your day.
If your feet are still growing, the wrong shoes can be more than uncomfortable, they can cause lifelong damage. I saw ads to this effect when I was a kid. I believed them then and I believe them now.
I will happily shop around for the cheapest lunch-boxes and USB sticks but I won’t fit the kids’ shoes myself from a rack at a discount shop.
It takes a bit of time and it may cost more money to have shoes fitted, but there’s value in healthy feet. Much more than in, say, a prettily covered exercise book.
Readers can get 20% off ALL school shoes until 9th Feb in store or online using the code BACKTOSCHOOL and exclusively to Mamamia readers can get 25% off everything online only using the code mamamia from 10th to 29th February- this excludes school, sports and sale items.
It is widely recognised that children’s foot care is an integral part of their overall healthcare, and properly fitted shoes are one of the keys to healthy feet. Children’s feet are not fully formed until they’re in their late teens. Until then they need properly fitted shoes that give their feet room to grow healthily and happily.
At Shoes & Sox, “we fit feet right” – our Clarks Trained Fitting Specialists have extensive training, and over 25 years of experience in the development of children’s feet and fitting. We carry the widest range of black and brown school and kids’ sports shoes in Australia, in full and half sizes, and up to five width fittings, from a narrow D through to the widest H. Shoes & Sox is a specialist children’s footwear retailer with 24 stores across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, WA and the ACT.
Top Comments
Im on holiday and walked passed a "cheaper" shoe retailer yesterday with extremely well priced kids shoes that actually looked like very good copies of other brands so i had a look at them to see how they compared to the more expensive brands such clarks etc. They claimed to be made of leather but it seemed to be very thin and like it would peel easily. Also the sole which seemed to be made of more plastic than harder wearing rubber flexed in the mid foot not where the toes flex, so I put them down immediately. No i do not work for Clarks or the company this post is sponsored by but I do believe in the importance of looking after children's feet by purchasing decent quality kids school shoes. The poor man pays twice my good friend always says and i believe that to be true of buying inferior cheaper school shoes.
It's important to understand that every teacher/student combination is different. So no matter what you have heard about a teacher you need to see how they work with your child, as does your child. That said, some combinations really don't work. I am a teacher and there are some students that no matter what I try, I am not the right teacher for them. I just kind find the right connection or approach. It happens, and as this article says, it's one year. However, if things aren't working and you child or you don't think they are progressing enough (or will struggle to catch up) then a year can be a really long time. Then it is worth finding a solution. it is worth noting that a solutions is rarely found in accusing the teacher of being crap, demanding they change classes, schools, or telling your kid teacher sucks and don't worry about it (because they will take that into class, tell the teacher repeatedly so and the chance of a decent relationship with the teacher. Schools rarely move students for this reason, especially if you walk in without a 'here is the problem, let's work on a solution attitude.
I have had parents put in official complaints about me being a cruel, mean teacher who ridicules their child and refuses to help her and her learning was suffering and I should be fired. None of this I had any idea about (and consider myself to be the opposite, usually even on those really bad days). What I discovered after directly talking to the girl was that I read her signals wrong and she was too scared to directly ask for what she needed... Simply I didn't connect well with this particular girl and she was jealous that I did with her friends... 6 months down the track I was her favourite teacher. Conflict resolution is not just about demanding to be
Keep in mind that the vast majority of teachers are good at their jobs but they are not mind readers. Mention things early, stay involved and support the learning environment. Don't assist your child in forming a negative opinion of a teacher and help them try to resolve the problems. To be honest there is nothing worse than a parent who blindly supports their child and doesn't look at the big picture or the real problem. The phrase 'my teacher sucks' can mean anything from 'they made me sit next to someone I don't like' (read my teacher sees the benefit of learning how to interact with everyone in the class and to not exclude people), 'they write too small on the board (read: maybe I need glasses), 'they make me stop talking' (read: maybe the work is a bit hard and if I don't listen then it wasn't my fault I didn't learn anything) to actually 'the teacher isn't teaching this very well' (read: oh my god teachers don't always no everything like their life depended on it... Yes... You do not want me teaching your child economics but schools keep pairing it with history and geography so it is going to happen... I will either rely on the kids in the class who actually get it, documentaries or dragging another staff member in to answer the questions... If you have a problem with that remember that I am teaching your kids that it is ok to not know everything and to go looking for answers!)
Kids don't always know how to say what they need to say and as all individuals perceive things differently... your child's experience is valid but not always the only story.