up front | advice
Great Start Traditions can make the first day of school a special treat
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hen I was little, I would come home on the first day of every school year, and there was always a new book on my bed. For my mother, a young widow raising four children alone, life wasn’t always easy, but she lived for tradition — especially on holidays and birthdays. Knowing how much I loved to read, a new book was the perfect way to start off each school year for me, and
30 BACK TO SCHOOL | 2020
it was a reminder of how much she cared. I carried my mother’s thoughtfulness into my own children’s lives. When it was time for them to start school, we began our own traditions that I hoped would mean as much to them as mine meant to me. For us, it was all about our favorite pizza at dinner and High/Low, a game in which the kids shared their best and
not-so-good memories of that first school day. They loved the game so much they made me share mine! Of course, my low point was always missing them, but they caught on to that after a few years. The start of a new school year can be exciting or scary for your children, but creating a tradition that they will always remember can help to beat the first-day-ofschool blues.
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BY LISA IANNUCCI