Back to school!
After a long summer that wasn’t only relaxing, it is finally here: The first day of school!
It 
should be an official holiday for parents but unfortunately the first days are not everywhere the same. They differ between states, counties and even cities. Everyone goes back to school on divergent days. Private and public schools have different schedules and every school district might have a different calendar. In Germany at least every state or even a few states have the same summer vacation schedule. And the holidays only differ from state to state to have a better distribution of travelers and to avoid huge traffic jams on the already so busy German Autobahnen. You really don’t want to be stuck on the A 3 or A 8 going south in the middle of July!
Most children here seem to look forward to going back to school, to see friends, to have their routine and they totally need it after almost ten weeks of leisure! Our kids started asking about 3 weeks ago when they could finally go back to school. I honestly think that the summer break here is too long. It is helpful if you have family far away and you need the time to visit, but still, the length of this break is academically not reasonable. The US has in average a 180-day academic calendar while other industrialized countries have up to 240 days school in one year. “Kids score worse on standardized tests in early September than in late June.”
Anyway, now the majority of students in California are back in school and ready to soak up some school knowledge. To be appropriately prepared for that, you obviously need the right outfit! That’s why everyone goes “back to school shopping”. That is a big deal here in the States. For lots of retailers the BTSS is one of the best-selling times of the year besides Christmas and Easter, it makes about 17 % percent of the full-year retail sales. In the Old Navy commercial Old Navy commercial they call the first day of school the “red carpet” of the students. Insanity! I don’t really know if the BTSS has the same status in Europe, but I definitely can’t recall that my parents took me shopping to get a fancy outfit for the first day of school and a new backpack with an engraved name every single year. Well, I know that has been a long time ago, but it seems that in Germany the school supplies still have a greater role in BTSS than the clothes. I found this great blogpost about German BTSS on “An Adventure A Day”. The peculiarity of German BTSS seems to be the sale of the “Schulranzen” or “Tornister”, which you get before your child enters first grade. But this backpack-like piece is meant to last for the whole four years of elementary school. The German kid explicitly picks a pattern and the parent buy not only the single bag, but the matching gym bag, pencil case, drinking bottle and lunch box. And these sets cost a fortune!!
I’m happy that we are done with the BTSS. My kids got a few new clothes in Germany, shoes and school supplies here and a skirt from Old Navy! If you’re not done with your shopping yet, hang in there! Maybe these do’s and don’t for back to school shopping can help you get through it.
Shoot! I forgot that I have to fill out these enormous pile of forms tonight… oh, I hate the first night of school. But the kids are super tired, will go to bed early and there is always wine!
Happy first day of school!
