Welcome to part three in our back to school series. This time we are looking at the often arduous task of naming your children’s belongings for school.

How do you label your children’s things? I’ve tried a range of things myself in the past and seen other parents use a range of methods as well, including:

• Name tags that iron in
• Name tags that sew in
• Name tags that stick in
• Ink stamps with the children’s names
• Just writing their names on things in pen

My preferred option is an ink stamp from Stamptastic. I have one for each of the children and I find that uniform can be labelled at speed, but also that the stamps can be used on everything that needs labelling such as lunchboxes, water bottles, shoes, clothing, bags and pencil cases.

Despite clearly labeling things, things can still go missing or get mixed up. An extra way to prevent this us to have your child’s things personalised. This both looks great and avoids things getting mixed up.

Zazzle have a superb range of items that can help with this, and they offer personalisation.

So for example, you could have kit bags personalised with your child’s name. Not only are there some gorgeous options to choose from in terms of themes on the bags, but this will help your child easily find their bag in a mass of others in a cloakroom or classroom. We like these bags because of their size as well. Lots of drawstring kit bags out there are quite small. By the time you have a pair of trainers in them, there tends not to be much room for anything else. These bags are a great size and can fit both indoor and outdoor kit in the same bag – perfect! There are loads of options in terms of colour and theme, depending on your child’s interests, so you should be able to find something that suits their personality or interests.

If cooking is part of your child’s learning and they have to provide their own apron, how about these cute personalised ones to stand out in the crowd? These wash and iron really well and are made from quality fabric. We cook a lot at home as well so these can come in really handy. Rather than using adult aprons and wrapping them around several times, the children enjoy having their own to look the part. Putting on an apron and washing their hands is a good routine to establish before getting busy in the kitchen. They now do this without really thinking as it is just part of the approach we use.

If your children have to provide their own stationary then it can be really useful to get it personalised. Named pens and pencils can really help and this avoids mix ups. As do personalised notebooks and diarys. We have found that this only really applies when the children get into the junior classes, but it may well be different between areas or schools, so it is worth checking what the system is at your child’s school.

The products Zazzle produce are superb quality and the options available for personalisation are across so many different kinds if products, it can really make life easier for both us parents and our children.

Personalised products make things unique and that can really help in the back to school season.

How do you label your children’s belongings for school? Would you consider personalising some things to make life easier?