{Junk in their Trunk}: Some of My Favorite Back to School Ideas!

Here's a collection of some super cute ideas I've seen on blogs lately about "Back to School":

First of all, I'm totally doing this Back to School Family Home Evening lesson idea I saw on Blue Skies Ahead. I am in love with everything about it. Seriously how cute is it and what a great way to get to talk to your kids about always being a good example and standing up for what is right!

I want to try and make these pancakes (from Blue Skies Ahead) for my kids on their first day of school. They will probably die of shock that I cooked them breakfast!

And I'm loving these checklist placemats featured on Family Fun. My kids could ALWAYS use more reminders of what they need to do each day!

I'm seriously trying to figure out a way to create this in each of my kid's closets. I think my girls would especially love it. This idea was from Family Fun too.

I don't know about you, but packing lunches gets very mundane for me. I'm always looking for ways to spice them up and make them more interesting. For starters though, this lunch chart idea from Family Fun is fantastic. Why didn't I think of this already since my girls are constantly making up menus and love taking everyone's orders on the weekends? They will totally love getting to 'place their order' each day and it will make my job a tad easier.

Speaking of lunches, I've read many fun ideas of how to keep their lunches fun as well such as packing in little notes, comics, puzzles, etc to give them something fun to do while eating and just to let them know you care. Here's a link to a great site with free printable notes from Alphamom:

or this fun lunch survey from June Daley they can fill out & then talk with you about at dinner time!

And of course eighteen25 has a version as well - which is nice when you want to write your own personalized message.

And look at this cute snack you could make for their lunches or for after school (from Family Fun - they have tons of ideas):

or this one from Tiny Prints:

And although I've seen many back to school teacher gifts, these two stood out for me. First there's this one from The Blackberry Vine (and featured on Sugardoodle). Super cute, but haven't tried making one to see how hard they are to make. It is so cute you could make them for all kinds of different events at school.

And then there's this one from eighteen25.

Heidi here...I am sneaking in on Tiff's post to share a couple ideas of my own real quick!

Love this idea from the fabulous Becky Higgins, having all your lunch fixins prepared and ready for the kiddos to pack themselves!

I don't know about you, but my boys aren't very talkative about school and what happened each day. I ask how school was and they reply, "Good." and that is the end of that conversation. So I am loving this idea by The Crafting Chicks...