The two-week back-to-school countdown begins

Very gradually, we’re beginning the ramp-up to the start of the school year. I figure two weeks is a good amount of time for this. It feels early enough not to be rushed, but late enough not to be shortchanging ourselves of any of the summer. It’s certainly earlier than I’ve ever started before, but after five years on a public school schedule, I’ve learned that getting everyone back into the school year routine takes more planning than I previously imagined.

On Monday morning, I took Holly for a haircut. Tim resisted; he’ll have to go later this week or maybe next. He definitely needs to go before school starts two weeks from today, but he’s still so thoroughly entrenched in summer vacation mode that he just can’t bear to think about formalities like haircuts right now. So I gave him a pass. That’s an easy one, and there’s still plenty of time for it.

Having eased ourselves in with a couple of baby steps, on Monday afternoon we summoned our courage and attacked one of the toughest back-to-school challenges: school-supply shopping. As always, after 45 minutes I was cursing the school for sending home this list of ridiculously arcane items. How is it possible that a child apparently cannot pass third grade unless she has three 0.77-ounce glue sticks (goes on purple, dries invisible!) and yet Staples carries only 0.57-ounce glue sticks? How is it that the supply list from the school clearly states that sixth graders must have white plastic three-pronged folders and yet Staples carries every color in the spectrum except, that’s right, white? Is there any way whoever makes up these lists could actually be required to walk the aisles of an office supply store and prove that these items exist before listing them? (This is one of these days I sincerely hope my children’s teachers are not reading my blog. I love my children’s teachers and I know they take these lists seriously. I also know they are parents themselves and have to deal with similar aggravations from their own children’s schools. I’m just cross because ninety minutes of my life was spent today in a state of frustration at Staples.)

It’s a relief to be done with the school-supply shopping, but there are still enough back-to-school preparatory tasks to last us for the next two weeks. One of the biggest is getting the kids used to waking up early again. I’m determined to start waking them earlier by ten-minute increments throughout this week until I’ve backed them up a full hour, to a time approaching their school-day morning wakeup call. The same goes for me, too, of course. As diligent as I’ve been this summer about avoiding the temptation to sleep in, I need to get up 45 minutes earlier on school days than I have been recently.

Tim still has some pages in his math packet to do; he’s promised to spend at least three mornings this week on it. Holly needs to update her summer reading list. They both need to draw up a list of brown-bag lunch menu ideas they promise they’ll eat and not complain about.

But for me, the challenge is more mental than practical. I feel like it will take me far more than two weeks to feel ready to see a new school year begin. It’s not that summer has been so wonderful – some parts of it have; others were more mixed – but just that I don’t feel ready to summon the energy and initiative that the school year seems to require of me. I’m not ready to start running into everyone I know at end-of-the-day plaza pickup. I’m not ready to send out the room parent communications. I’m behind in organizing the publicity arm of the Sixth Grade Spaghetti Supper, and I’m barely ready to start putting together a plan for the October Walk-to-School Day event I’m heading up.

Even in a small town, summer gives me the chance to hide. So many people leave town, and without our regular school- and church-related events (being Unitarians in a small congregation, we’re church-free all of July and August), there are fewer opportunities to run in to those who stay. I love being part of a tight-knit community, but somehow it’s useful to have a couple of months of invisibility as well. I’m not sure I’m ready to launch into social mode quite yet.

Well, I still have two weeks. And I’m going to need it, even if the kids don’t. I feel like I need an Advent calendar, like the ones the kids have in the weeks before Christmas. Each day I could open a tiny paper door and see a different image: the haircut, the school supplies, the school snack choices, the Back-to-School Night reminder. For now, the temptation is to put off thinking about it, to focus on two more weeks of summer fun instead. But the start of school looms, and I know I need to be ready. So I’ll stop cowering behind my beach towel and get out there, new shoes polished and pencil case in hand. Wish me luck.