Sale PSA: These useful rope baskets from Target, now under $10, a pretty tiered midi dress from Vince, now 40% off, a linen blend slip skirt from Madewell, now $70, and a cool oversized blazer from Dries Van Noten, now 50% off.
Earlier this year, my husband and I decided to send both our kids to in-person school this fall. They’d already missed out on a year of in person school, so we decided they had to go back. Obviously it’s kind of disheartening now as Delta is running amok…I really don’t know what the year is going to look like. I’m already hearing horror stories about how summer camp went. On top of that general sense I woke up this weekend and realized that school actually starts VERY SOON this month and I hadn’t prepared anything…so here’s a few items I picked up for back to school:
Kid Birkenstocks. Because my daughter always likes mine and I couldn’t resist even though I’m sure she’ll outgrow these in a minute. They are SO CUTE. Actually, I just realized I should probably buy my son a pair first, let him outgrow, and then have my daughter wear those. The practical (and cheaper) way. I’ll do that next time!
MASKS. I only recently realized this, but there’s a sort of battle to the death situation going on with kids masks! Apparently they are sold out everywhere. Including for my usual go to, Happy Masks. They are releasing batches as they come in onto their website, upon which they sell out in minutes (usually one or two). I managed to snag two in their last restock and it felt like I won some sort of cosmic lottery.
PS – I’ve received a few questions on IG – this is my favorite lighter mask provider (for adults). I don’t buy them for my kids though – I am more paranoid about them, as they aren’t vaccinated, so only do ones with a filter for them.
Backpacks. Because I realized this year, in summer school, that folders don’t actually fit in my son’s current mini backpack. So I upgraded to this great green color! I see now on the site that it is now backordered – when I ordered earlier it wasn’t (or at least I hope not). Kid backpacks are so adorable in general – I’m always tempted to purchase one for myself.
Little final update, before I hit “publish” on this post: as each day passes, I am becoming more nervous about sending my kids back to school. Each morning I feel as if there is more reason to panic…today I spent the AM reading this NY Times piece, about kids and long Covid. This was originally meant to be a quick and easy shopping post, with a few recommendations…but like so many things Covid as a topic just overhangs everything. So I’m doing a writing boo boo now, which is that I’m completely muddling the message of this post….but I feel that’s our world in general these days.
Ugh. How are you all feeling with back to school?
14 Comments
CL
August 9, 2021 at 12:33 pmWe respect other people’s decisions they make for their kids and families but for us, we will not be sending our kids back to school. School last year was challenging but long-distance learning and online school is insignificant a hardship compared to what other generations have had to go through in times of war and other disasters. Our kids losing out on “normal” school years is such a small cost compared to permanently damaging their health for the rest of their lives. There are many ways to combat learning loss such as summer school, extra tutoring, even repeating a grade that are preferable to permanent lung damage and other long-COVID symptoms caused by the coronavirus. Having survived cancer for both my husband and me have taught us that health is of the utmost importance. Best wishes to you and your family. May you stay healthy and safe.
Elizabeth
August 9, 2021 at 1:30 pmI have that Vince dress in another color and although at 5’2″ I had to hem it, I love it! Thanks for the link.
We don’t ave kids yet but I truly feel for the hard choices parents are making.
Bun (you know who!)
August 9, 2021 at 2:51 pmMasks work 🙂 Enjoy school!
Abby
August 9, 2021 at 6:44 pmWe are going back to school! Our district did a wonderful job enforcing rules last year and my kiddo was much happier being in school. It is so deeply frustrating that this mess is self inflicted at this point (and don’t get me started on the double standard between masks and reproductive rights). Wishing you guys a calm and uneventful start to the school year!
Abby
August 9, 2021 at 6:47 pmAlso, I have to say that oddly enough the line from your book that has stayed with me is the description of a woman at Whole Foods having zero style. I resemble that remark and it has caused me to change clothes before leaving the house at least once, which is a good thing!
Anonymous
August 9, 2021 at 6:47 pmI am also planning to send my kids back to school in a few weeks and also have not prepared any supplies/clothes. I am going to try out KN95 masks made for kids, as I heard this brand is comfortable (although pricey). My kids have been at home the entire pandemic, and they did not even have a social pod. They squint and want to go home if exposed to the sun….no joke! Their school isn’t planning to offer remote learning in the fall, so we’ll try out in person and simply hope they make it through without long-term health issues related to Covid.
Anne Davidson
August 10, 2021 at 6:46 amThose kid size Birks are adorable! I wish they had been around when my girls were little. I think Birkenstocks are the healthiest option for all feet.
Professor
August 10, 2021 at 6:55 amOur kids went to school all of last year minus six weeks in winter, when school went online. We are in a blue state in the midwest and these are private schools we are talking about. There were *no* positive cases from school last year. Masks work. My daughter’s ballet class had a dancer test positive but nobody else got it because they were wearing KN95 and six feet apart. We are worried about delta but the rates of getting long covid and the scary stuff is very very very low. Not sending to school has worse outcomes for the mental health of older kids. It is a tradeoff and so we have decided to send them in masks, tell them to be super careful about distancing and hope for the best till the vaccine comes out for their age group. It is scary.
JK
August 10, 2021 at 9:48 amWe also had a ton of anxiety earlier this year when we sent our toddler to daycare (where the kiddos don’t wear masks because they’re too young). It was a huge relief to see him flourish and so far so good as far as no exposure to covid.
Now that we don’t have to juggle a 1.5 year old while trying to maintain our work productivity, we’re both happier and less stressed overall.
Read this in the NYTimes today & it may help: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/opinion/covid-schools-masks.html
mtl
August 11, 2021 at 3:23 amWe are sending our kids back to school in the fall. We live in a blue area of a southern state and our kids go to a private school that had extensive safety protocols all last year and during summer camp. We completed the entire academic year with 4 days in person learning (including after-care) with zero on-campus transmission. We sent them to 2 months of summer camp at their school, where there was much more inter-mingling of different children, with also zero on-campus transmission. Masks and social distancing works. While there are risks with long term symptoms etc, they are much lower than getting into a car crash when you drive them to school.
Lisa Richards
August 11, 2021 at 2:51 pmWe live in Ontario and have a government that is cutting the education budget and so our options are in-person school or hybrid learning. Hybrid learning is when the teacher teaches a class full of kids and uses a camera to let a virtual class follow along. After 1.5 years of no learning, we are sending my son to school in-person. Unfortunately, he is not vaccinated (too young). But we have bought N95 masks and a portable air purifier with a HEPA filter and arranged for him to eat alone. Expecting a lockdown by October and then back to online but at least then he will do virtual with his own teacher and class, instead of some random teacher from the board. Filled with anxiety. Didn’t have to be this way. There were plans for smaller class sizes to allow physical distancing but the government doesn’t want to pay for it.
Kat
August 16, 2021 at 7:04 amI’m so sorry to hear this – I’ve heard the same from other Ontario friends as well.
Jo
August 11, 2021 at 7:38 pmWe buy lots of the Uniqlo airism mask in size S for our toddler and stitch up the ear loops because it is a little too loose. It just comes in black or white though, no fun designs. In Singapore, we’ve been back to school since our lockdown mid last year and things are generally under control. The school implements checks upon entry (temperature, inspect mouth/hands/feet) and the children wear masks during the school day.
revanche @ a gai shan life
August 15, 2021 at 9:01 pmWe don’t get any online or hybrid learning options so I’ve been a wreck this month but we have JB in quadruple layer masks, one of which is a filter layer, and the school seems to be (we can’t say for certain since parents aren’t allowed on campus, which I hate though I know we’d overrun the place if we were) serious about enforcing masks. I think JB would let us know if they weren’t good about it. They’re keeping the kids outside and spaced apart for lunch as well.
I’m not ready to relax and say that it’s going to be fine, but I’m glad we seem to have the biggest most important precautions in place. I still wish we had an online option though.