What a milestone in the life of a child and us parents: School enrolment! As soon as we started kindergarten, the next goal was immediately clear to our kids. The first grade of elementary school!

Ok, first of all, become a preschool child and gain your first, exciting experiences towards school in this group. Until then, it is important to play school extensively with siblings and kindergarten friends; School child and teacher as a role in exchange. How exciting, as a mother, to watch these little plays!

The satchel - my experiences & tips

And then at some point things really get going: We fish the invitation to the school entrance examination out of the mailbox and – bang – it immediately feels a little bit like the “serious side of life”. The desire to choose a school bag can then hardly be tamed. With a pencil case, the first pens, a sports bag, umbrella, neck pouch and school bag. But what do you really need? The offer is absolutely huge. You can find countless testimonials online and great specialist dealers around the corner who give really good advice. In addition, there are school satchel fairs where an incredible number of models in classic patterns as well as in trendy children's motifs are shown, ranging from cheap to expensive to ergonomic or sustainable.

My experience when buying a satchel can be summed up quickly: The children chose a pattern and declared with absolute conviction that this model sits best on their back. Complete. And I also think it's perfectly fine if the satchels are in sight of the pillow for the time being, so that they can be seen equally well when falling asleep and waking up.

Plan the enrollment party

During the "Ranzentag" in the kindergarten, the kids proudly wore their satchels for the first time and showed them to all their friends there. What a first little party full of anticipation. I myself really enjoyed organizing the school enrollment party - which often takes place on the second day after the summer holidays.

• Who would the child like to have with them?
• Who do we parents want - or have to - invite? The grandparents, godparents, aunt and uncle, neighbors?
• And how does that fit with how many people are allowed to come along? Or find a place in our home?
• What do we do after school?
• Do we eat out or do we eat at home?
• Are there fixed school enrollment rituals in the neighborhood? At friends of ours in Ried, Hesse, children get a large "school pretzel" made of sweet yeast dough - and everyone who brings a small greeting to school gets a piece of the school pretzel.
• … these are just a few of the questions that I have clarified for myself.

Send the perfect invitation to start school

I have already sent the date in good time as a "Save-the-Date" whatsapp invitation to all the guests with whom we wanted to celebrate the enrollment. So that they really have time! I chose the final invitation card for the school enrollment party together with the respective school child and their preferences or desired motifs.

• What colors does my child like?
• Is it important to my child that the egg training card matches the satchel motif?
• Do you have a favorite motif? Very popular school enrollment motifs are still: unicorn, football, pirate, vehicles, rainbow, apple, horse, cat or cherry
• What text should be on the invitation?
  Hooray, I'm going to school
  School child at last!
  We're celebrating school enrollment
  Invitation to school enrollment
  Drum roll & bang: I'm coming to school
  1, 2, 3 & ABC... soon I'll be a first year

In my shop you will find many great digital school enrollment invitations that I have designed so far. There is also a template for an invitation that you can write on yourself. If you don't find the right design, I'll be happy to design one - at a fixed price - according to your ideas. My team and I will be happy to fulfill your wish to have one of the existing eCards in a different color: just write to us via our chat or email.

What goes in the school cone?
School cone: DIY or just buy it? What goes in there?

Some kindergartens offer - with or without children - making the school cone together. Parents or children choose (mostly complicated) patterns from many templates, which are then tinkered with construction paper and other materials on the blank. In the meantime, passionate hobbyists are happy to take on the task for you and offer great school cone models on creative websites such as etsy or on ebay/ classifieds. Some children would like to be surprised on the school day, others have precise ideas of what their school cone should look like.

But what goes in the school cone? A few of your child's favorite sweets are certainly part of it. But I've also collected a few gift ideas for you, which I think are really great as content for the school cone:

• Lunch box
• Water bottle
• Pens, sharpener, eraser
• Name tag/sticker
• Candle for school enrollment
• Chocolate Gifts
• Tart or cake pops
• A book for beginners/first readers
• For the break in the schoolyard: rubber twist, skipping rope, marbles
• For the way to school: reflectors
• Remembering elementary school: A book of friends
• A little worry eater or stuffed animal

Ideas & wishes for the enrollment party

Anyone who has known me for a long time knows that I love decoration. I just think it's great to decorate the table to match the occasion. Since I am a mother of boys and girls, I naturally always paid attention to the wishes of the child. Meanwhile, there are not only serviettes & Co suitable for the start of school. In keeping with your child's motto, there are certainly many small details that you can use to decorate the laid table: It can be a small dinosaur or a large bowl full of juicy cherries, lots of shiny little animal pictures (many remember them as wafers from our youth ), crayons & sharpeners, small mini school boards as name tags, mini school cones, colorful balloons or mini pennant chains.

Every child in your friend or family circle who is going to school would be happy to receive a small card from you on starting school: Let your heart speak and wish the future first graders:

• a good start to a great school time
• new friends and great classmates
• The breaks are also part of school – that was our favorite school time! Enjoy them and learn to love learning!
• Have fun discovering & learning
• dare to find an answer to every question
• we are sooooo proud of you and look forward to accompanying you through your school days
• Attention, school, get set, go - we wish you all the best!
• Arithmetic, writing, reading - you will learn all of that now. We hope you enjoy it!

With this in mind, I wish you and your future first grader a good start to everyday school life and an exciting time at school,
your Anja