It’s that time of year again! School is just around the corner and we’re getting ready with some fun Back to School Writing Prompts. 

This post is sponsored by BIC and The Motherhood. I received BIC products for review purposes. All opinions and experiences are entirely my own and we are pretty darn excited about all these new pens and pencils! 

While I wouldn’t say we are excited about summer ending, I can definitely say that stocking up on school supplies is an activity we all look forward to! There’s something about freshly sharpened pencils, empty notebooks, and fabulous new pens that gets us feeling energized and excited about school. I’m not even the one going back to school and I was downright giddy about new notebooks and pencils!

To help the kids build excitement for school next week, I let them pick out their own special notebooks (not the boring ones off the school supply list), which is how we ended up with the gold glitter. It did the trick though because the kids had so much fun. And when I said we we’re going to do a few writing exercises to get back in the school mood, they were totally game!

The kids were so enthusiastic about the plan (the promise of new pens really does that to them!) that they wanted to go to the library to make it feel more “school-ish.” Obviously, I was happy to oblige. 

At the beginning of the summer, everyone got a new workbook to keep a little structure in our mostly carefree summer days. I also picked up some handwriting practice books for the kids to work on. I knew my older girls would have fun with it, but I was hopeful that the practice would actually help my 6 year old.

I know that handwriting is an essential part of a child’s education and helps them express their creativity and develop their best self. Adelaide, my 6 year old, will be heading into first grade this year and I knew she needed a little extra writing practice to be ready. Luckily, she loved the practice books and worked on her handwriting throughout the summer without complaint (for the most part).

However, when we sat down to do a few Back to School Writing Prompts this week, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much her writing had improved over the summer. I know that research shows that handwriting promotes critical thinking, reading comprehension, fine motor skills development, creativity, and even self confidence. Still, it was surprising and exciting to see it all in action in my youngest daughter. I was thoroughly impressed! I also felt a lot better about the upcoming school year.

This year, my kids will be attending a new school. For the past five years, we’ve attended a wonderful Montessori school across town. We’ve had a great experience there, but this year we needed to make some changes. The nice thing is that the kids will be attending school a lot closer to home. However, we’re all still a little unsure and a little nervous about what’s ahead.

Heading to the library, armed with our new notebooks, pens, and pencils, I had high hopes that doing a fun writing activity and answering some open ended questions would help everyone feel a little more relaxed about the big changes happening next week. 

 

Back to School Writing Prompts

While we may have been doing these Back to School Writing Prompts to get everyone back in school mode, it turns out they were just a lot of fun. They prompted serious conversations about the school year ahead, as well as a lot of giggling and good silly fun. Their answers and doodles to all the questions were humorous, and revealing, and adorable. I quickly stashed away all of their answers to use as fun keepsakes and perfect reminders of who they were at 10, 8, and 6.

These are the Writing Prompts we used:

• What would you do if you were principal for a day?
• What are you looking forward to most this school year?
• What is your favorite subject?
  • What do you like about it?
• What is your favorite activity at recess?
• What are the two places you like most on the playground?
• What is one thing you learned last school year?
• What is one thing you want to learn more about this school year?
• Who is your favorite teacher and why?
• Who is your best friend at school and why?
• Do you think math (or any subject) is too easy or too hard? Why?
• Can you write and illustrate a favorite vocabulary word that you learned in school?

There were a lot of gems in the kids’ notebooks but I had a few favorite answers. If Eila were principal for a day, she’d put a pool outside, build a very big tree house and an indoor aquarium, and fire all the mean teachers. She also expressed her fears and excitements about the new school, which were so sweet. She surprised me by saying she’s most excited about learning Math this year – I wouldn’t have guessed that!

Her favorite BIC writing tools: BIC® Velocity® Side Clic™ Mechanical Pencil and BIC® Atlantis® Bold – because of all those fun colors! 

Adelaide is my child that is the least enthusiastic about school. She’d rather play. Still, she was a good sport with the writing activity (largely because she really adored the BIC® XTRA-Fun #2 Pencils with Stripes, no joke). My favorite Q & A: What is one thing you learned last school year? I did not lern anything. Well, there you have it. She’s pretty good at making me laugh.

And if Esme were principal for a day, she’d divide the students by their level of IQ. Perhaps I’m raising a bit of an evil genius here? Hmm. She also had a lot of fun writing out her favorite spelling/vocabulary words and illustrating them. Chrysanthemum anyone? (And don’t worry, I definitely had to check the spelling on that just now).

Her Favorite BIC writing tool: Definitely the BIC® 4-Color Stylus and Pen. She commandeered it as soon as the package was open and hasn’t let go of it since. On the other hand, I’m just as obsessed with the BIC® Cristal® Xtra Precision Ball Pens.  They are classic favorites and I like to always have a package or two in my desk drawer. I really do love a good pen! 

You can check out all of BIC’s fantastic Pens, Pencils, and Highlighters here.  When it comes to writing supplies, they really are the best!

BIC’s If I Were Principal For a Day Contest

Not only can you do some fun Back to School Writing Prompts with your kids, but BIC has a writing contest they can enter.

What would your kid(s) do if they were principal for a day? Have them write out their ideas and you could WIN a $10,000 scholarship! Visit BICFightForYourWrite.com now through August 15th to enter BIC’s If I Were Principal For a Day Contest and learn about more ways to celebrate handwriting. No purchase necessary. U.S. only, 21 +. Ends 8/15/16. Click here for Official Rules and details.