Back To School Memories

I don't have kids (I'm nearly still just a kid myself), so I can't really relate with a lot of the parents who are going through the back-to-school craziness right now. But it does make me think back to my own childhood days of going back to school. It was always an exciting, and slightly intimidating time: Would I enjoy my new teacher? Would I make any new friends?

One thing I could always look forward to, though, was getting a brand-new binder and folders, and a new backpack. I loved that part. And then, once school had started, we all had to cover our books and could get really creative!

I went to the same elementary school for all six years -- a small, private school -- so most things were pretty routine and predictable. But I went to a public school for the middle grades -- culture shock! And worst of all was that school didn't have lockers! Insanity! We had to guard our belongings with our lives!

I can't count the times I misplaced/lost things during that time. Nothing major ('cause, come on, who brings something important to a school with no lockers?), but it was still annoying. Perhaps if I'd had labels on my stuff, they would have had a better chance of finding their way back to me!

DYMO has a really neat label maker that is quite reasonably priced. I would have had so much fun with this back when I was in school. You can use lots of different types of labels with the same tool: for clothing, or sticking on items; metallic labels, color labels, even magnetic labels! The website has a lot of unique and clever labeling ideas. I have to admit, I'd have fun with those magnetic labels even now. But I'm sure kids would find all the label types endlessly fun and beneficial. I'm just imagining how blinged out my old school book covers could have been with some custom labels!