Your years of convenient, year-round daycare are over. Get ready for summer camp. There are literally hundreds of camps, and some of the most in-demand start booking and fill up in January!

The on-campus aftercare service, Abracadabra, fills up and usually has a waiting list. Always apply on time. Alternatives include the daily after-school activities that can extend your child’s day to about 4pm, the on-campus Mandarin program, and other private aftercare centers.

Springer has Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but the best way to get important dates and details is the Friday Buzz Newsletter.

It may not be mandatory to attend, but it’s corny fun that raises a lot of money for Springer. You will be at Springer for 7-8 years—you might as well make friends with other parents, and this is a great place to do it while also buying your summer vacation package or the chance to make your kid Principal for the Day!

Even kids who hate exercise love the Walk-a-thon, a never-ending, oppressively-hot day of walking around the track to earn money for Springer. You will grow to love it as much as your kids do. They will not agree to leave early; they will not want to do anything else instead; and they will pull you around so many laps your Fitbit will not recognize you. Just give up and agree to love it now.

Arrive early, put up a tent, and invite the friends you made at the Auction Party to sit under it with you.

Other parents need a way to invite your kid to birthday parties or playdates! It's also nice to see which classmates live nearby for impromptu neighborhood bike ride facilitation.

Flu, colds, and lice go around, especially in the first few years of school. Make sure you have options if one parent must stay home from work or leave work early to pick up a sick kid.

The only way to really know if your kid is thriving in Kindergarten is to see for yourself! Note that the in-classroom opportunities decrease dramatically as kids get older, so get that literature docent (literally just reading a book to the class) experience while you still can!