1st day of school traditions

Last year I gave my kids a Schultuete on the first day of school. This is based on a German tradition where parents would give their children a "school cone" filled with school supplies and goodies on the first day of school. Well, my younger kids really enjoyed this and decided that we should do it every year.



Some of the items that I put in their cones last year were: pencils, erasers, glue sticks, scissors, colored pencils, pencil grips and highlighters. I also had a few items that were too large to fit into their cones. So, I created a treasure hunt for them with clues in Morse code. The treasure box contained some moon sand (found on sale at Walgreens), small wooden logic puzzles and a few pre-packaged science experiments (found at a local homeschooling conference). They really had fun that day setting up their school desk, playing with their new treasures and performing science experiments. We topped all of this off with ice cream sundaes.

So, what will go in their Schultuete this year? I'm still working on it, but here is what I have so far:

• Younger boys - fun or special pencils, erasers, glue sticks, scissors (we always seem to loose or break these by the end of the year), colored pencils, markers, pencil grips and highlighters.
• Older son (who doesn't really care for all of the fuss) - mechanical pencils, extra lead, erasers, pens, White-out, highlighters, Post-It notes/flags and a thumb drive (to back up his files and papers).

I haven't decided yet what I'll put in the treasure box, but I know that I'm going to make the treasure hunt more difficult and complex this year. I really want to make it a challenge and it sure makes going back to school more fun.