What’s Entertainment Tonight host Nancy O’Dell’s secret for beating the back-to-school blues? Arts and crafts, of course. “Make an album with your child,” says O’Dell, an avid scrapbooker, to the Charlotte Observer. “Over the summer, as it gets close to the time for back to school, sit down with your child and make an album or a scrapbook of the previous year in school,” she adds. “It will remind him or her of all the good times they had in school and it will get them excited about going back! It’s a great bonding project to do together and you have a wonderful keepsake for the family as a result.”
The same holds true for DIY school supplies, lunch boxes, and back-to-school outfits—your kiddos will be so hyped to show off their original works to their friends, they’ll forget all about those first-day-of-school jitters.
Not only will these fun craft ideas ease the transition to the classroom, they’ll help kiddos fine tune motor skills (very necessary for all the writing assignments to come), build confidence (so they won’t be afraid to raise those hands high and participate in class discussions) and, above all, stimulate their creative centers (and mentally prepare them for all the educational projects ahead).