We started school a few weeks ago, then we went on vacation for 10 days. I know, it’s not the typical way to start the school year, but I needed to do it this way for various reasons. The girls were less than enthusiastic about starting two weeks early, so I knew I needed to give them a little incentive to get their juices flowing. So I decided to start a new tradition. I had mentioned in a previous post that we love family traditions. I have never done much with back-to-school traditions, however. We usually have a tea party within the first month of school (except for last year, when my poor post-40-year-old brain totally forgot), but that's pretty much about it. This year, however, the girls got a visit from the "Education Fairy".

For several years now, we have been involved with a "back pack ministry" started by a lady from our church. This ministry collects school supplies or monetary donations from various individuals, churches, and businesses in the community. These items are then placed in backpacks according to school and grade specifications and distributed to needy families in our town. As I was in Walmart and the Dollar Store looking at all the school supplies it struck me: with the exception of Grace’s first year in at a charter school, my girls have never had back-to-school backpacks. Yes, they have backpacks but they are several years old. Furthermore, I had never given them a backpack full of their own, new supplies – we have always just made do with what we had (which I’m all for, by the way), supplementing here and there with new supplies as needed. What also struck me is that throughout the years of helping with this ministry, my girls have never complained about not getting a back pack of their own. So I decided that I was going to start a new back to school tradition: The Education Fairy. Now, the Education Fairy may not always be as generous as she was this year, but she is determined to bring something new for school each year from now on. Anyway, I know many homeschool moms already have been doing this sort of thing for years, but this is the first year we’ve done this.

On the first day of school I made the girls one of their favorite desser– . . . I mean breakfasts: chocolate chip pancakes.

It was Brian’s day off, so he helped me serve each girl breakfast in bed. One of us carried a tray while the other carried the backback. "Look what I found. It looks like the ‘Education Fairy’ came this year." To which I received a variety of responses ranging from eye rolling accompanied by a smirk from my 13 year old and frenzied jumps of glee from my 7 year old. My 10 year old just simply said "thanks Mommy & Daddy". When I reminded my 10-year-old her that these gifts were from the Education Fairy, my 7-year-old (still giddy) responded with a huge sigh, a smirk and a slight eye-roll "Yeah, right, Mommy and Daddy. You ARE the Education Fairy.

In addition to the pencils, paper, crayons, binders, etc., I found back-to-school cards at Walmart. In each card I wrote a back-to-school blessing/prayer for each girl stating how I saw God working in their lives currently and how I hoped they would allow Him to continue to work in their lives this school year. Of course I didn’t sign the card "Love, The Education Fairy" – so my cover was officially blown! My 13 year -old was on to me. "Funny how the Education Fairy signs her name 'Mommy & Daddy'"