Back to School – The Big One!

Schools in Edinburgh went back today, but it wasn’t just any old ‘back to school’ day for us. It was ‘The Big One’ – the day our youngest started school for the first time. I am now officially mother to TWO school boys!

As I have mentioned here on the blog before, first day of school is a big deal in German tradition. I mean, your kids starting school is a big deal here in the UK too, but in Germany it’s a BIG deal, celebrated with much fanfare. Our eldest, who started school in Berlin, had a grand enrolment ceremony at school, and a garden party after to celebrate. We didn’t want our youngest (aka Mr Fox) to miss out on all of this completely, so we had a little celebration with some friends and family last weekend – sadly no garden party due to torrential rain, but we had a cosy wee celebration in the kitchen instead.

And then of course there was the ‘Schultüte’ which I have mentioned extensively here on the blog but for those who missed it, it’s a large cardboard cone filled with treats and gifts that German children receive on their first day of school. Mr Fox had requested a shark themed one. I enjoyed rising to the challenge, and am happy to report that he loved it!!

I shared the tutorial for the shark Schultüte and some ideas on what to put in a Schultüte in my previous posts. Here’s Mr Fox unpacking all his goodies…

And then we all had fun being eaten by sharks, haha!

Mr Fox also wanted to share the tradition with his new class, so we made a bunch of mini Schultüten which the teacher handed out at the end of the day.

Do you have any special traditions in your family to celebrate starting school or going back to school? I’d love to hear about them!