Preschool Prep and a No-Sew Personalized School Bag

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Sharpie, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia  #StaplesBTS http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Forrest starts his first year of preschool in T minus 10 business days. Not that anyone’s counting, except that I am totally counting, and might I add: sing praises, all together now, hallelujah it’s almost time for preschool! When I signed him up, I had the option of placing him in a two day per week class or a three day per week class. And at the time, he was right in the middle of a super sweet, very adorable, obedient and well-behaved phase. Which I now believe was a carefully planned, expertly orchestrated ruse to ensure he was not shipped off for the maximum possible number of preschool days each week. Because I swear, the second—the very second—I checked the two day class box in a moment of flowery motherly weakness, thinking that I couldn’t possibly bear to be away from that sweet angel boy for three days each week, his inner demon returned and everything fell to pieces—tantrums, arguing, talking back, sending me to time out, the works. If it were an option, I’d send him to 7-day per week preschool at this point. (And yeah, I totally called to see if I could switch him to the three day class and nope, all the clever parents who knew what they were doing went for that class and it’s full.)

So yes. Yes, I am a bit excited for preschool. I’m not sure Forrest is entirely sure what it is I’m going on about as I try to pump him up for his first year of preschool, but he seems excited anyway. I think (and really, really hope!) he’ll love it—he’s very social and always excited about any sort of interaction—and I’m doing everything I can to make sure he’s looking forward to school. I thought he’d have fun spending a few minutes working on a little craft project together to help get him excited about preschool, so we worked together to make a special bag for him to bring each day. So simple and easy, but really fun for us to make together. And I’m telling myself that strutting through those preschool doors on his first day, carrying a special bag that he helped make and thinks is awesome, will help give him a little extra confidence. A trait he is certainly not lacking, but still. He’s my sweet little stinker, and I guess I’ll build him up however I can.

I briefly entertained the thought of sewing a tote bag myself, but when you get a 50% off craft store coupon in the mail which makes a plain canvas tote bag ring up in the $2-3 range . . . yeah. You change those plans real quick and go the store-bought route. While we were there, we grabbed two sheets of colorful felt, then swung by Staples to pick up some neon Sharpies.

Although it is always surprisingly difficult to let go of the reins and give full creative freedom to someone else (especially a pre-preschooler with limited motor skills and questionable artistic vision), I let Forrest go to town on one side of the tote bag, drawing and scribbling however his little heart desired. His preschool, his confidence at stake, his tote bag, and his artistic passion, unleashed.

He seemed super nervous about drawing on fabric, despite my insistence that it would be okay. I’ve put so much effort into drilling “we ONLY draw on paper!” into his little head, and never did I dream that I would have to convince him otherwise; that he could, in fact, just this once, go wild with Sharpies on a non-paper surface. It took some encouraging to get him to make that first artistic stroke on his canvas. But the artist finally emerged and he did a lovely(ish) job. (Just look at the expression—he absolutely thinks he’s getting away with something here.)

With his art filling one side of the tote bag, I took over for the other half. Each student in his preschool is assigned a color and a shape (what purpose this serves, I have yet to learn—I guess we’ll both be learning some new things this year). Forrest’s color and shape are a yellow star, so I figured they’d make a nice choice to adorn his tote bag. I cut a star as well as an F (for Forrest; hopefully not as foreshadowing of the preschool grades he’ll be receiving) from felt, and hot glued them to his bag. (I considered stitching them on by hand with colorful embroidery thread, but really. My hot glue gun was sitting right there on the counter. I didn’t want to hurt its feelings.)

Forrest seems pretty excited about having his own bag to bring to preschool, and especially excited that he got to help make it. Every time we do a craft together, I think, okay, this is more fun than I expected . . . why don’t we do this more often?

Just look at that artistic talent—undoubtedly the work of a prodigy, a budding genius. (Lest you think too highly of my at-home teaching skills, he did not write his name all by himself. He did, however, draw the happy face, and I think it’s pretty charming.)

If you’re in the market for Sharpie products for a back-to-schooler (or not—let’s be honest, any and all back to school shopping I’ve done so far has been almost exclusively for myself . . . oh, how I miss fresh crisp notebook pages and shiny new pens!), perhaps you’d like to know that all Sharpie Fine and Ultra Fine assortment packs and Sharpie Neon Marker packs are on sale at Staples through August 24th, while supplies last.

Happy back to schooling, everyone!