Amber 
(StatePoint) Back to school shopping can seem tedious and boring for some students. But you can help your young ones get motivated for a new school year by getting them more involved in the experience.
After an extended vacation, going back to school and getting back into the daily grind can seem stifling, but personalizing and accessorizing school supplies, lockers and work spaces can be a simple antidote.
With that in mind, here are a few tips and DIY ideas to get kids pumped about the new school year:
Notebooks
Why settle for the same plain notebooks everyone else has? Liven up math, history and English by decorating a notebook for each subject with its own unique design and color concept. Doing so isn’t just fun, it can help students find their stuff quickly during the rush between classes.
One easy way to decorate notebooks and reinforce them at the same time against wear and tear is with duct tape. Lay down a solid color duct tape along the cover of your notebook in rows, then use a crafting knife to cut along the sides, making the edges sharp and clean. After that, lay a few horizontal, diagonal or vertical stripes of patterned duct tape down over the base in fun patterns to make it your own.
Don’t forget to label each notebook with your name and subject!
Workspaces
A student’s work space should be a place that inspires him or her to do great work and be creative. But that can seem impossible when the space is colorless and uninspiring. To get your kids excited about homework, let them play a role in choosing where they do it and then allow them to decorate that area.
A place for friendly reminders and to-do lists above the desk can be a helpful study aid that keeps kids on task. However, rather than hanging a conventional chalkboard, create a portable version with 3M’s new Scotch Chalkboard Tape or Dry Erase Tape, which acts just like a regular chalkboard or dry erase surface, but is applied like tape and removes cleanly and easily from surfaces.
Be Creative
You provide the binders, notebooks, pencils and the crafting supplies and let kids provide the imagination. And now, kids can share their crafting talent not just with their classmates, but also with the world by entering 3M’s “Tape On” contest where they can submit their own back to school creations using duct tape for an opportunity to win prizes.
Feeling inspired? Channel that creativity this summer by submitting your own back to school project. Visit http://go.3M.com/tapeoncontest for more information on how to enter and to see the official contest rules.
Don’t let back to school shopping be a chore. This year, get the kids off to a great start by making school — and all the supplies that come with it — personal, stylish and fun.
