How to Keep My Sanity When My "Little" Guy Starts School

Get a bin and only put the things you ABSOLUTELY want to save.
Get a bulletin board and hang it up where it's easy to access. Put important notices on it and favored art work to display.
Keep it updated weekly.
Keep a family calendar and write down things like half days and family fun night and art expo night etc etc.
Be part of the PTA if for no other reason than to stay in the loop on school happenings that you may otherwise not fully know are going on.
Find out who the class mom is and make sure you're on her email list and whatnot so you stay informed.
Enjoy!

Get a bin ( like an under bed bin)
He will bring home SO many papers you'll think he killed a forest himself!
Keep what you like/want in the bin.
Get a BIG magnetic clip for the fridge for school stuff for YOU.
Write every deadline/due date/dress like a vegetable day date on your calendar immediately. You will get multiple reminders.
Take his picture in the same spot on the 1st day each year.
Get vodka for that first day. Or plan coffee or lunch with a friend!

The biggest thing is to get stuff ready the night before, back pack, lunch, snacks, offer clothing choices and have them on top of the chair or chest of drawers right after dinner. Making lunches arond here is the big deal - get the bags properly named and in the fridge beofre we sit down and relax for the evening.
Kids bring home piles of paper as big as them and going through them and gleaning out what to keep is another process. Don't.put.it.off.even.a.day. School papers are known to multiply if left in a pile on the side table and the permission slips and PTA forms vanish into thin air. Most of the stuff should be thrown out. Use the basement stairwell as the art gallery and take most down (& throw out) and make room for newer and better. Try to only keep one masterpiece per year. Do the same with really good tests - display on the fridge then toss. Your child will get another 100% test grade - I promise. there will be days that you can't imagine another 100% again - but there will be!
And expect to cry as he heads off into his classroom as you walk away. It's the beginning of preparing them to grow up. hard to do but it's our job :-(

We hang the backpacks on the front door on a hook. The kids are not to touch them once they are ready for school the next day.

I have learned that getting things ready the night before is really the best way to do things (at least for me). It eliminates the stress and rush in the morning.

Before your son goes to bed, pack his backpack together. Make sure he has everything he needs - notes signed, homework finished and put in the bag, old papers taken out of the backpack, etc. Make his lunch/snack and have all of the non-perishable food already in his lunchbox. Have a designated spot in the fridge for the rest of it so you can easily grab it all at once in the morning and add it to the lunchbox.

My son and I even choose his clothes the night before so that he can just get dressed in the morning.

My son starts kinder this fall too. I can't wait!