How Celebrity Parents Prepare Their Kids to Head Back to School

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How Celebrity Parents Prepare Their Kids to Head Back to School

Been there, done that! These celebrity parents know all about preparing their kids for the back-to-school season and are sharing their expert tips. Vanessa Lachey told Us Weekly exclusively that the transition for her and Nick Lachey’s kids — Camden, Brooklyn and Phoenix — hasn't gotten any easier with time. “That would be lying because there’s always a monkey wrench you don’t know about,” the Top Chef Junior host told Us in July 2019. “You just prepare as much as you can.” The Dancing With the Stars alum added, “Camden’s going into first grade and he’s good, but Phoenix is 2 and that will be harder emotionally for me because it’s the first time I’ll be leaving him by himself for three hours. It’s only a few days a week, but he’s got a backpack and a cubby and a lunch box. I’m excited about having the morning to myself, but they’re not your babies anymore.” [jwplayer LbPXhX0F-l3ahXupL] So what are some ways that the former Miss Teen USA gets her brood excited for the big day? She doesn’t think that part is too hard — at least while her children are young. “Kids are excited at this age,” Vanessa explained. “They aren’t jaded until they’re in high school taking pre-calculus, but I love adding layers of excitement to the first day.” The model does that by letting her little ones pick out their outfits and find the perfect back-to-school backpack for their school supplies. Keep scrolling to see what other tricks Vanessa has up her sleeve ahead of the BTS season, along with Hilary Duff, Tiffani Thiessen and more!

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Christina Milian

“Fourth grade is when they definitely kick [homework] up a notch,” the singer told Us exclusively in September 2019 at the H&M x Sesame Street Partnership Celebration. “We try to make it fun, though. School is different for every kid and they’re all so different. Math, that’s one of her harder subjects, so whether we have to make up a song or play memorization games, those things really help. So every kid is unique and we try and figure out some things.”

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Ashlee Simpson and Evan Ross

“Bronx helps Jagger put her shoes on in the car [before school],” the “Pieces of Me” singer told Us exclusively in September 2019. “He’s so sweet.”

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Ali Fedotowsky

When it comes to dressing her daughter for school, the former Bachelorette loves using kidpik, a subscription box that “TRULY saves time.” Fedotowsky explained, “It’s one less thing to think about when I am trying to get Molly out the door. Since the boxes are pre-styled and the pieces can be mixed and matched, I can just grab them from her drawer, throw it on her and get her out the door. No one at school needs to know that kidpik was the one that styled Molly in the morning and not me.”

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Tia Mowry

“I love going back-to-school shopping with him, getting the new outfits, backpacks and everything together,” the actress told Us exclusively in September 2019 of her son, Cree, at Scooby Doo's 50th birthday celebration. “I started out making lunches, but he was like, ‘Mommy no, the food is really good at school and all the other kids are doing it.’”

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Nev Schulman

The Catfish star “had to come up with a way to calm [his daughter, Cleo] down so she would be comfortable going" into school, he told Us exclusively in September 2019. “In order to get her to take some deep breaths and relax, I hold up my fingers and I pretend like they’re birthday candles I tell her to blow them out, and every time she does one, I put one finger down," Schulman explained. "[After] four breaths, she usually sort of calms down and maybe I get a smile.”

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Rachel Zoe

"I always look forward to getting them backpacks that they get to pick out and that they're really excited about because their backpacks are a big thing to them because they hold everything that matters to them," the fashion designer told Us exclusively of her sons' style.

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Tiffani Thiessen

The Saved by the Bell alum created a homework haven for her daughter. "It’s outfitted with tons of bins filled with all types of paper and supplies,” she explained. “And everything is labeled, of course."

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Vanessa Lachey

The former beauty queen echoed Zoe, telling Us, "I think that, at this age, backpacks are a lot of their identity. This year, [Camden’s] a big boy. He said, ‘Mom, I want a gray or black Jansport backpack.’ Phoenix is like, ‘Forky!’ and Brooklyn likes anything with horses, unicorns, glitter or princesses.”

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Hilary Duff

The night before sending her son to school in January 2019, the Younger star laid out outfits for both Luca and his newborn sister. The actress said this was "essential" to getting them out the door on time.