Schultüte

Here it is! Not being religious people, we're always on the lookout for a good tradition that suits our family. I've been learning about schultüten for a few months now--one of those things you spot one obscure place, get interested in, and all of a sudden see everywhere. It's a German tradition to give first-graders these cones filled with treats and school supplies on their first day. School is important to us and definitely a cause to celebrate, so we decided to make reusable cones for first days of school in our family and to make it an annual tradition. So here is Clara's! I couldn't find a tutorial I liked, so we made one. Should you like to make a schultüte of your own, visit our Flickr tutorial! There are comments for each photo explaining the steps.
My favorite of the contents are her new backpack and lunchbag, the backpack featuring an embroidery of one of her recent bear drawings and the lunchbag inspired by these. She liked them, too.

Her first official day is next Monday, but tomorrow is her first time in the classroom for an introductory lesson with her teacher. We needed some time for her to practice working her backpack, lunchbag and bento box by herself before she has to use them in the classroom next week, so decided to give it to her tonight. We've been doing trial runs with her other lunch supplies that are harder to open for a few days. She was already excited about school, but this tradition added a special component to this milestone. She is already talking about when Ellis will be old enough to get her schultüte.