Back to School Blog

There are a lot of shopping strategies when it comes to getting your child's school items. As Parenting Guide Laureen Miles Brunelli writes: I've been burned by the "wait until school starts" approach to buying supplies, sometimes waiting too long and discovering stores out of stock of certain items.

In those instances, not only did it mean an additional trip to the store, in some cases I ended up paying...choke...full price when items came back in stock!

So I've learned to shop smart but early. I layout the sales pages and my kids' school supply lists together and try to find the best spot to shop. But maybe it's just me and my kids' overly particular teachers. Do you think waiting until school starts is a good strategy? Tell us how you save on school supplies.

The media with its hype of back-to-school sales, back-to-school supplies and back-to-school clothes--starting while we're all still immersed in summer vacation--might have us believe that "back to school" is code for "buy more stuff."

It’s not.

As Parenting Guide Laureen Miles Brunelli writes, though, you might want to think of it as “get organized” season. Read more about getting ready for back to school.

Seems like every semester the kids have a really big project that's due. Sometimes it's a science project: one son made his entire project to compare bike tire types just to prove me wrong from an earlier discussion (he was right). Other times The Big Project is collecting and typing leaves or a bug collection. Read more...

What's the secret to getting kids to want to eat a good breakfast? I wish I knew. Although I've tried to be creative and offer healthy breakfast choices, only my daughter wants to sit down and eat a good breakfast. Read more...

I've been putting off Driver's Ed for weeks now, hoping my son will just be happy riding his horse around. Naturally, driving is all he can think about. So now I think I'm finally ready to let him learn how to drive. Read more...

This week I missed "Meet the Teacher" night, my daughter's stuffy nose and decorating the 4H float for this weekend's parade. Although I love my job (and honestly, I love to travel for it, too), I sometimes feel working mom guilt about being gone. I tried to make up for being gone by meeting some teachers ahead of time, blowing "mommy medicine" kisses over the phone and sending my oldest son to decorate the float. But still, it's never the same as being there yourself. Read more...

Mouthguards, physicals, personalized jerseys, cleats. Is your back-school shopping list for kids in sports as long as mine? Over the years my kids have done T-ball, hockey, football, soccer -- lots of soccer -- martial arts and gymnastics. I love what playing team sports teaches kids, but with all of the practices and games, it's sometimes difficult to balance sports and family life. Read more...

Angeline Jolie and toddler Zahara step out with matching Valentino Histoire bags (the grownup version retails for around $1600.) Little Suri Cruise not only wears the same labels that her designer-loving mom Katie Holmes wears, she shares a haircut with her mom. Although I'm all for letting our daughters learn by copying us, I'm kind of creeped out by celebs who treat their kids as fashion accessories. Read more...

Fashion guru Tim Gunn of "Project Runway" recently called Miley Cyrus' outfits "tarty." Surprised? I'm not. The "Hannah Montana" star is fair game for fashion scrutiny because she has so much influence: grade schoolers and young teens want to get the Miley Cyrus style for themselves. Read more...

The kids always look so cute in their new back-to-school clothes: boys neatly dressed in bright tees and fresh jeans, girls in adorable outfits complete with matching accessories. After a few weeks, jeans start to fray around the hems, tennies turn the color of playground dust and tee shirts start to fade. Read more...