Common Sense, Dancing

• Remind them how many days until the school bus comes
• Ask them to pack away their camp bags until next year
• Make them go to bed early beginning a week before school to “practice”
• Bag the lunches every day one week ahead of the start of school – again, good practice
• Unearth the school shoes and set them by the door, ready for that first morning
• Nix any plans for sleepovers and partying close to the first day of school
• Calculate how many hours they’ll be in school this year; have them help with the math
• Treat everyone to a fun trip to Staples for school supplies
• Index all possible school lunches for easy pickings; place list prominently in the kitchen
• Offer to do dry runs to school before that first day, just to practice
• Unwrap new packages of pencils and get the kids to sharpen them
• Smile to yourself as they roll their eyes and moan about not being ready for school or complain about all the practice

WOW! You might also like (or need): The Forecast.

Days until school starts: 55

Number of children requiring new uniforms: 3
Number of different school logos: 3 (middle school/lower school for boys; middle school for girl)
Colors of uniform shirts:  4
Shirts per child: 4*
*Number of stained shirts per child: 4
Pairs of Pants per child: 3*
*Number of ripped knees per pair of pants per child:  greater than or equal to 1
Number of kilts per child: 2 (but there’s only one girl…phew)

Number of boxes from Lands’ End:  greater than or equal to x, where x is the number of shipments that LE will use to deliver the boxes, based on a complicated algorithm of monogram/logo time.
Dollar amount on the invoice from Lands’ End:  greater than $600 (and this includes $0.01 logos and free shipping)

Number of days in the school year when a child will announce, just before the bus arrives, “I don’t have any uniform _______” (fill in the blank: shirt, pants, kilt):   **

**This is actually a trick question. The answer will depend on several variables, including but not restricted to:

1. The degree of uniform required: is it a field trip day? a Mass day? a casual day?
2. The amount of “hurry up” expended that morning: did alarms go off on time? Does Mom seem particularly crazed this morning?
3. The number of stained/ripped/otherwise out of commission uniform pieces that have not yet been shown to an adult in charge.

The learning never ends.

Images from landsend.com.
(I may own part of that company by now.)