August brings with it the end of summer vacation and starting prep for the new school year! While that may sound like a lot of work, as a family, you can make it fun! In fact, our theme for the month of August is family fun month. There are tons of fun back to school traditions that can help your kids start off the new school year with a positive attitude while wrapping up the holidays on a high note.
1. US Coast Guard Day
4 August is US Coast Guard Day – a day dedicated to commemorating the formation of the US Coast Guard in 1790. The Coast Guard performs important maritime military duties including search and rescue operations as well as environmental protection and law enforcement at trade ports. To celebrate the day as a family you could:
- Take a tour of your local Coast Guard museum
- Listen to stories of Coast Guard experiences on YouTube or podcasts
- Listen to the Coast Guard band
- Watch movies that centre around the Coast Guard which include Double Jeopardy, Deepwater Horizons and Man of Steel to name a few.
Do you have any special National Coast Guard Day family traditions? Let us know in the comments!
2. Sisters Day
Sisters Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August each year. It’s a day dedicated to anyone lucky enough to have a sister or sisters. Sure, you may disagree and argue sometimes but sisters will always be there when we need them most! This family-centric day is the perfect excuse to start a new family tradition to honor the sisters in the family! Some ideas include:
- Watch movies that have sisterly themes or famous sisters as stars such as anything by the Olsen Twins, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Pride and Prejudice and the list goes on!
- Take a roadtrip with your sisters to one of their favorite destinations
- Have a professional photoshoot with your sisters to cherish forever
- If you’re far from your sisters, give them a call to let them know you’re thinking of them
- Give each other a fun social media shoutout
3. National S’mores Day
We just LOVE that there’s an entire day on August 10th dedicated to the deliciousness that is s’mores in all their warm and gooey goodness. We’re 99.9% sure your kids wouldn’t object to celebrating this fun day as a family. Create a fun summer vacation memory by making and enjoying s’mores together as a family. You could each make your own s’more creation and reconvene for a tasting. We doubt scoring the creations is necessary…you can’t really go wrong with chocolate and marshmallows! For a little inspiration for your own eat s’more-ish invention, check out Lou’s delish no-bake s’mores bar cake. If you would like to take those delicious s’mores to the next level have a look at our FREE S’mores Bar printable set… I mean why not?
4. National Tooth Fairy Day
The 22nd of August each year marks National Tooth Fairy Day – a day that’s sure to delight little ones desperate for a visit from the mysterious tooth fairy! Start a new family tradition on this mystical, magical day with some of these fun ideas:
- Create a backyard fairy garden to invite the tooth fairy to pop by for a visit. We covered the ins and outs of this in our recent blog post and have the laser cutting fairy garden decoration files ready for you to download here. (*include image of fairy garden)
- Send your kids a special letter from the tooth fairy with our super cute fairy mail printables. The download includes a pint-sized editable letter and fairy-sized envelope so you can wow your kids with a special note just for them from the tooth fairy. Pop them under your kids pillows or in the fairy garden you created together. (*include image of fairy mail)
There are also a bunch of adorable tooth fairy printables to make those visits from the tooth fairy extra exciting! Printables include a letter from the tooth fairy, tooth receipt, lost tooth report and welcome sign.
5. National Dog Day
If you’ve got dogs, we’re sure you’ll agree that our four-legged friends are an important part of the family! So, no arm-twisting is needed to dedicate a day to our special fur kids on the 26th of August each year! National Dog Day traditions could include:
- Taking the dogs for a walk or hike together
- Giving the dogs a bath together
- Spoiling the fur kids with homemade pupcakes (pooch-friendly cupcakes)
- Watching dog-centric movies together with the doggies, of course. Some ideas include 101 Dalmations, Marley and Me or Secret Life of Pets.
6. National Eat Outside Day
August brings with it the last of the warm, summer weather so what better way to mark the end of summer and the holidays than National Eat Outside Day on August 31st. Make it your yearly tradition to head outside in the early evening and enjoy a barbecue or potluck together.
7. Back To School Celebratory Dinner
We came across an anecdote of a mom who throws a back to school celebratory dinner the weekend before school starts again. She goes all out, setting the table with her finest china, napkins and all the bells and whistles. She makes her kids favourite meals and the family share their hopes and dreams for the school year ahead. We think this is such a special back to school tradition and the perfect way to mark the end of the summer and the start of the school year.
To spruce up your own back to school dinner table settings, we have these editable place setting printables on a kraft paper background, which includes name cards, a menu and napkin rings. All the text is editable, so you can personalise them and edit them to suit the theme of the evening.
8. Back To School Self Portraits
While we love the idea of fun back-to-school photographs of the kids, there’s something even sweeter you can do with the kids as an add-on! Get the kids to draw a self-portrait and date the drawings. It’s amazing to see how our kids perceive themselves and how that perception evolves each year as they grow older.
If you’re going the first-day-of-school portrait route, you most definitely need a cute personalised prop to mark the occasion! We’ve created these editable back to school posters for your kids to hold up in their first day of school photographs. With a chalkboard background and colorful doodles, you can reuse this poster every year because the text is editable! What a fun way to remember important moments and watch their likes and dislikes change each year!
9. Back To School Party
As summer vacation draws to a close and a year of hard work looms, it’s a fine idea to give the kids one last hoorah! Throw a “back to school party” and invite new and old classmates to allow the kids to bond and get excited for the upcoming school year.
We have 2 super cute back to school party invitations to help you end off the summer in style. For kids who love being outdoors and are fans of camping, a back to school campout is the perfect way to get the gang back together for a night of fun.
For crafty and creative kids or tweens and teens, our preppy doodle back to school party invitation is a cool way to invite your kids friends over for a back to school hangout. Fire up the grill and leave the kids to chill out around the pool or listen to the latest tunes.
10. Prepare New Teacher Gifts
Teachers are so special and such important people in our kids’ lives! Now, we’re not advocating being the teacher’s pet or sucking up, but it’s a lovely gesture to surprise your kid’s teacher with a thoughtful gift on the first day of school. Attach a tag with a short and sweet message such as:
Dear Mrs Smith,
I am so excited to have you as my teacher this year and look forward to a great year ahead!
Love From,
Timmy
You can attach the note to freshly baked cookies or brownies, flowers picked from the garden or a candy bar.
11. Friendship Week
The third week of August marks friendship week – a whole week dedicated to appreciating the wonderful friends we have in our lives…many who are like family! Take the opportunity by using Friendship Week to teach your kids the importance and value of friendship by finding ways to honor special friends this week. Some fun Friendship Week traditions could include:
- Making friendship bracelets
- Doing a fun activity with friends such as visiting a waterpark, theme park or zoo – anything you all enjoy doing together!
- Watch a Friends marathon with your best friend (or any of your other favourite movie that hero friendships)
- Have a Friendship Week barbecue, brunch, pot luck or breakfast
12. Be Kind to Humankind Week
The last week of August is dedicated to being kind to humankind and let’s be honest, our world could certainly use a healthy dose of kindness! Teaching your kids the importance of kindness and paying it forward is a very valuable life lesson. Use the week to encourage your kids to perform random acts of kindness and make it an annual tradition every August.
We have these editable, printable Acts of Kindness cards with prompts to help direct your actions over the course of the week. Some random acts of kindness actions could include:
- Babysit for overworked parents
- Make a meal for a family in need
- Volunteer at an animal shelter
- Hand out sandwiches to the homeless
- Give a stranger a compliment
- Pay for someone’s coffee/parking/meal anonymously
Not only will you feel good for making a difference in somebody’s life, you’re brightening someone else’s day and you never know just how much they may need that!
13. Stationery Shopping
Anyone else who loved shopping for stationery for the new school year or was that just us? If your kids are stationery fans like us, end of the vacation with a school stationery shopping spree. We’re big believers in stationery playing an important role in kids going back to school enthusiastic and excited. I mean, if some glitter pens can make us excited about math then why not get ’em all!
Fun Days To Celebrate in August:
Here are some fun and wacky theme days and holidays to celebrate in August with something for every age group to enjoy and participate in!
1 August – Respect For Parents Day
3 August – International Friendship Day
6 August – Water Balloon Day… family water balloon fight, anyone?
8 August – Wear Your Mother’s Jewellery Day
9 August – Book Lovers Day…head on over the granny and grandpa and have them read their favourite book to the kids
12 August – International Youth Day
14 August – Middle Child Day
16 August – Rollercoaster Day…visit a theme park and ride some roller coasters with your kids!
19 August – World Photo Day…definitely the perfect day to get the whole fam together for some family portraits
21 August – Senior Citizens Day…make sure your grandparents feel extra special today or if you’re far away from grandparents, volunteer at a retirement home for the day.
Phew! There are so many ways to create new family traditions and back to school rituals, it can be hard to choose which ones you want to incorporate into your own family! Well, you don’t have to choose, you could do them all if you wanted to! But we’re sure some resonated more than others and we’d love to hear from you which ones you’ll be starting this year.
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