What are your back-to-school traditions?

I am a single, divorced working mother with two boys, and my back-to-school ritual seems very boring and unimaginative to me, but it has made a surprising impression on my boys. What I do, simply, is always stay home on the first day of school so that I can pick up the boys after school and go out for ice cream. In our case, this is a special luxury, and a memorable one.

This tip is from Real Simple reader WENDY MCCURDY, Westfield, New Jersey