Each Monday on the Pure Purpose blog, I feature This Week’s 7, a simple list about an everyday topic, giving you ideas and encouragement. This month marks the kickoff of another school year for many. The beginning of school brings excitement, anxiety, opportunities – a myriad of mixed emotions and experiences. Personally, my youngest is beginning her senior year of high school, prompting me to reflect on the many years of memories. So this week’s list includes fun ways to celebrate the mark of another year beginning – full of opportunities, accomplishments, and growth.

1. Pack a lunch together. Put together some of your favorite foods and pack them in school lunch boxes or brown paper bags. Spread a blanket in a local park (or backyard), kick off your shoes, and savor the moment and memories.
2. Write a letter. Record the memories of the past year and your hopes for the future in a letter to your child (or grandchild). Tuck it into a baby book or other safe place to be discovered later. Be sure to date and sign it!
3. Paint the memories. One of my daughters’ favorite things to do was finger painting with shaving cream. It was clean and inexpensive! Squirt a pile of shaving cream on the table (or other safe surface) after several days of school and chat about your child’s classes, teachers, and friends. Young children will often speak more through their paintings than their words.
4. Pack the notes. I know, most kids will tell you the notes their moms tuck into their lunchboxes are silly, but small reminders through the day can bring a smile to a face. Tuck notes in other places, too, such as a homework folder, backpack pocket, or pencil case.
5. Say it with stickers. Do you want to know how your child’s day has gone, but you can’t seem to get much information from him? Create a sticker system, where the child chooses a sticker from a wide variety and places it in the same place everyday. You can use smiley (and frown) faces, speech bubbles with various words, or other stickers, depending on your child’s age and personality.
6. Make a date. We schedule school, childcare, and a variety of lessons and other obligations. Face-to-face time with your child is important. Set aside a specific block of time to connect on a regular basis to lsten to what’s going on in your child’s day.
7. Take a photo. Yes, most of us have those standard stand-in-front-of-the-house-or-bus-the-first-morning-of-school-and-smile photos. Have a dress rehearsal a night or two before school and take photos during a less stressful time. Plan ahead so you can be in the photo, too. Or, take the photo in a way you can string together for a masterpiece later. I know someone who takes video of his children as then run around the corner of the house each year. He plans to string all the video together someday to make it look as if the children are running around and around the house but getting a year older with each lap!

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.  (Clay P. Bedford)