I can barely believe that in less than a month my girl will no longer be a preschooler! School in my district starts in August, so just days after her 5th birthday, my girl will be starting a whole new and exciting stage in her life: Kindergarten in a dual immersion program!

To tell you she’s excited, barely does it justice. She just can’t stop talking about all the new friends she’ll make, about how she’ll learn to read in Spanish and the teachers she’ll have. Of course, she already made me get her a new and bigger backpack — because “big” girls have big backpacks — and a lunchbox.

What she doesn’t know yet is that once she starts kindergarten she will need to fill that backpack with more than her blanket (she know she won’t even carry that one anymore! She took the news well.) and artwork she made in school. The backpack will now need to carry pencils, erasers, markers, notebooks, books, etc.

Last week we received a box from Crayola and Walmart filled with cool products to fill her brand new backpack and just have fun with. The Dry Erase board from Crayola is a great size for her to hold on her own and practice writing her letters and start making words. For now, she’s mastered her name and original drawings. It’s a great transition for kids to be able to use the special Crayola washable dry erase crayons on the board on either the white or black side. We also got traditional washable dry erase markers and each box comes with a cloth to wipe it clean. Love that there’s no chalk mess or strong marker odor!

I assume she won’t be taking a whole lot of notes yet, but she will be writing out letters and words in notebooks, so it’s lots of fun to be original and arrive at school with Wild Notes, Crayola’s unique pen and paper system that lets kids write in rainbow colors on notebooks, index cards and sticky notes. I think I’ll be borrowing those sticky notes from her stash to write her cute and love felt lunch notes en español.

Truly can’t wait for this new stage in our lives and excited to discover everything that comes with it — even fulfilling the back-to-school supplies list!

Disclosure: We thank Walmart for being our sponsor. 

We could have picked the shape she wanted from the elephant, dinosaur or pig.  Each box from Curiosity Kits comes with five vibrant colors, decals, stickers and more to help us creatively and easily put together a lovely piñata.  Imagine how proud your child will feel when he finishes this project!

Maybe next year I´ll go crazy and get many kits in all three animals and make it a party game.  Then we´ll have the kids stuff the piñatas with candy and take turns at them, or, more peacefully, have them take their piñatas home as a party favor.  Or I´ll just keep one around for those long rainy days perfectly suitable for some cultural arts + crafts and an improvised indoor piñata fiesta.  Que llueva, que llueva….

Find this Fiesta Elephant Piñata at the online toy store Action Toys, Inc.

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