One of my favourite US retailers Target (pronounced Tar-JAY) asked if I would pretty please come up with a few back-to-school tips.
A Modern Mother's top five tips for getting ready to go back to school:
1. If your child is feeling apprehensive about their new class (who wouldn't?) arrange a playdate with some classmates during the course of the summer. The summer break is a long one and regular contact with school mates will help to maintain stability and ease back-to-jitters.
2. Be enthusiastic about school. Point out all the fun they will have seeing their friends again and all the cool things they will learn and do. Children will take your cue, so the more positive you are about school, the more excited they will be.
The other day, quite of the blue, a man emailed to ask if I would like to judge a competition! I have never been asked to judge anything before so was curious. Why me? I wondered. The people at sofa.com were at the final judging stage for a competition they had launched for children in London, to design a fantasy sofa. They sent 4,000 A3 design template drawings to children at local schools and received an amazing 1,000 back. I agreed to go because I've never been a judge before and I actually need a new sofa as ours is eleven years old and so embarrassing that I even wrote about i in my Times column. I wanted to check out the sofa.com sofas as I've only seen them online before.
