It's almost time for school to begin, and each year I struggle to find cute signs for the children to hold up for their first day photos with English school year titles on them.  So this year I've made my own, and they'll be easy to print out for each school year (even at the last minute!)


This year Ivy is starting Reception!  But we've made signs for Nursery and Preschool too, no one should miss out on the first day of school photo fun!   (You should be able to right click on the photos to open them up larger and print them out).


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The children are going back to school in a few weeks time, so it's time to start preparing!  I always loved back to school shopping when I was little, so it's one of my favourite things to do with the children as well, to let them choose a few things that they like to get them excited about the school year ahead.  





It's fun to stick to a theme and to let the kids choose characters that they love, and as Ethan is absolutely Lego mad, we thought that we would round up a list of all of the most fun Lego stationery and other back to school supplies that we could find!

Lego Stationery

• pencil case
• stationery set
• pencils
• pens
• markers
• ruler
• journal

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I was doing a quick search for some first day of school signs, and I couldn't find any for 'Reception' or 'Year One' the terms that we use here in England, so I've quickly made a few of my own and thought that I would share them in case anyone else wanted a quick sign to print out.





Click on the title to download and print the image (please get in touch if there are any issues downloading)



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I recently realised that I rarely manage to post about the gifts that we give to the children's teachers because it's always such a busy time of year that I don't have the time to write about them.  So I thought I'd dig out some photos and try to share a few of them now.  I don't know about you, but we think it's really important to give a little something to the kids' teachers to show our appreciation.  Even if it's just a handmade card, we always say thank you to their school teachers, swim teachers, ballet teachers and all the others.

End of Year Gifts for Teachers

When Ethan finished his first year of nursery we really wanted to express our gratitude, so we put together some flowers and a card with a Thank You for Helping Me Grow theme for his teachers.




Last year we gave each of Ethan's preschool teachers a summer themed gift and used the fruit infusion water bottles as a base.  I then found some fruit themed stationery (a pen and a notebook) but unfortunately I can't find a photo of them anywhere (I may have to make another one for someone!)

We often contribute to larger class gifts now that Ethan has started proper school, but we still like to make a little something for his teachers.  So this year we are using Kilner drinking jars, decorating them with glass pens and filling them with tea bags (for iced tea), a really nice hand cream and other lotion for another summer themed gift.  I also found these adorable tags and printed them off from Everyday Savvy (I often search around to find tags designed by some very clever bloggers who are much better at this sort of thing than I am!)

Christmas Gifts for Teachers

For Christmas we often like to bake for the teachers and present them in some sort of jar or cup.  When Ethan was in nursery we made these mugs full of Christmas goodies for the teachers which Ethan loved helping to prepare.



We also like to give gloves, hand cream and hand sanitiser as a Christmas gift for the teachers tied all together with a bow, it's just the perfect thing for cold hands at that time of year!

This past year we went back to our original theme though and filled some jars with homemade cranberry shortbread cookies and fudge for each of the teachers that help Ethan's class.

Easter Gifts for Teachers

Ethan made Easter baskets out of yogurt pots for all of his teachers! He wrote 'thanks for being an egg-cellent teacher' on the handles and the cute tags we printed out from @lovetheday Then he filled the baskets with Easter grass, decorated with stickers and put chocolate eggs in (dairy free for one teacher, @lindtuk and @cadburyuk creme eggs for the others!) 🐰🐣 Happy Easter break!!!

A post shared by Niki - Play & Learn Every Day (@playandlearneveryday) on Mar 31, 2017 at 5:02am PDT

Beginning of the Year Gifts for Teachers

When the children first start in a new class it's nice to give the teacher a little something to say hello, and for them to get to know the kids a bit better.  We made this A is for Apple Teacher Card for Ethan's first teacher and also included some information about him on this For My New Teacher Transition Booklet that we printed out from Twinkl.



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I may have mentioned it a few times already, but Ethan is starting school soon and it is seriously time for us to get ready!  We've done everything on our to do list and now it's just time to wait for the big day to arrive.  I know that Ethan is ready, he's nearly 5 now and he's very confident at preschool and definitely excited for the next challenge.  It's me that's not ready, I'm going to miss my little boy every day and I literally have no idea how we're all going to be up and out so early five days a week.



So, I've got a plan!  For me it's all about being organised, so I've got more lists to get me organised the night before and on school mornings.  We're also going to get up early and go through our routine the week before Ethan starts school so that we're not panicking on the first day.

In the evenings I will be setting up everything that we'll need the next morning.  Breakfast things will be out (except for milk and fruit which will come out of the fridge in the morning). Clothes will be set out in the kids' rooms and I'm even working on making our own school day launch pad after being so inspired by this launch pad from The Organised Housewife and this backpack station from Life as Mama.



We'll also have a few shortcuts up our sleeve just in case!  Ivy is not the fastest eater so I'm going to have some of our favourite breakfast cereal cakes ready in case we need to have breakfast on the go.  I'll also dress her in her cutest pyjamas those first few nights in case she has tantrums and won't get dressed for the school run, ha ha!



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We have been very busy getting Ethan ready to start school in September and planning out how our routine and our schedule will change.  Most of the emphasis is on our morning routine and getting out of the door on time, but I'm also thinking about what's going to happen after school.


I think it's really important to have a nice after school routine, a way to wind down after the busyness of the day, to reflect and share any stories about what's happened and to get out some of that energy from sitting still for part of the day.  The first priority when I pick Ethan up from school is going to have to be to make sure that he's had enough to eat and enough water to drink during the day.  I know that he can be a bit of a fussy eater, so I'm sure that there will be days when he doesn't eat much lunch, so I'll be ready with this Monsterosity water bottle full of fresh water and these Monsterosity snack boxes both from Paperchase, with lots of healthy snacks inside them.  If it's a nice day we can head over to the park to run around and maybe have a picnic with our snacks before heading home.


We're really lucky to live quite close to Ethan's school so we will be able to walk (or scoot) to and from school, and this will be a great opportunity to talk about what he's done that day. But just in case he doesn't feel like opening up on his own, I'll be asking open ended questions about the fun that he had and the friends that he's made at school.  Another great way to get kids to talk about things is through art, and we're loving this Wolf Gang ideas notepad from Paperchase that Ethan can draw his big ideas in.  I asked him to start off his new notepad by drawing what he wants to be when he grows up, so this is a picture of him as a deep sea diver when he grows up.  I'm hoping that he'll want to draw me pictures of the fun things that he's doing at school each day.


When we get home after school Ethan can change into comfy clothes and have some run around time in the garden and then some quiet time reading books curled up in our cosy reading area.  Then we'll have a big dinner and watch one of his favourite shows (probably Paw Patrol) before having a bath, bedtime stories and going to bed nice and early ready to start it all again the next day.


What's your after school routine look like?  Is there anything else that we should be doing each day?


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* This is a review post, we were sent the water bottle, snack boxes and notepad from Paperchase in order to use them and write our honest opinions.*

We are having fun getting Ethan ready to start school in a few weeks, he absolutely loved when we did some imaginative play of school lunchtimes so I was not surprised at how much he loved playing school and being the teacher!


We got this fantastic Pretend and Play School Set from Learning Resources that we have been playing school with.  It's a great set for imaginative play and so easy to use.  It folds up flat so it is easy to store and to carry around the house.  It's full of so many fun things to play with to make up all of the parts of a school day.


There's even little certificates that they can give to each other when they've done a good job at the end of the school day.  There's also a cute little bell that they can ring at the different times of the school day.  I encouraged them to play through these parts of the day as well, pretending to have play time, lunch time, story time and circle time.  When they play story time I step in to be the teacher sometimes and take the opportunity to read them stories about starting school.  Ethan absolutely loves being the teacher and I think that it's given him a real understanding of what to expect at school.  And I'm sure that we'll continue to play once he has started school and it will give me some extra insight into the things that he does each day.

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* This is a review post, we were given the Pretend and Play School Set from Learning Resources in order to play with and write our honest opinions.*

It is the perfect time of year to start thinking about all things apples, and we've come up with a fun apple play dough surprise activity that helps with cutting skills as well as counting and fine motor skills.



What you'll need:

• apple coloured play dough (red and / or green)
• beads
• pipe cleaners
• child safe knives

This post is part of a Kids Activity Blog Hop all about fun with apples, check out these fantastic ideas!






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We have been so busy this month preparing Ethan to start school in September and for Ivy to start nursery.  We've been having lots of fun playing and learning and doing so many different activities, but there is still more that we need to do, including back to school shopping (my favourite!)



So we've come up with a quick back to school to do list, it's got a few things that we've done already (I do love to tick things off my list straight away!) but mostly things that still need doing.  I hope that you find it helpful too!



For school uniforms it isn't easy to decide how many of each item to buy, so here's what's on my list:

• 5 school polo tshirts
• 2 white polo tshirts
• 4 pairs of trousers
• 2 pairs of shorts
• 2 school sweatshirts
• school fleece jacket
• hat
• book bag
• PE bag
• 2 pairs of PE shorts
• school PE tshirt
• plimsolls 
• socks
• school shoes

Now the important question, what am I forgetting?  I don't want it to get to the first day of school and realise that we've missed out on doing something very important, so let me know what I haven't got on my list in the comments.

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