What to Wear to 3rd Grade & 4th Grade

Oscar & Betty B2S 2014-1544

Photos and text by Gabrielle.

Well here is a post I don’t think any of you are expecting. Hah!

Last fall, I never got the chance to shoot our annual What To Wear To School Posts. There was Sweden, and a move to France and England for two of the kids, and it simply didn’t happen. The kids were bummed, but understanding. Then, throughout September and October I kept getting requests from readers for those annual posts, and I decided that maybe I didn’t have to abandon the posts after all. I mentally filed away the idea that we might shoot them in January, when everybody was home again.

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So we did. There was a Saturday in January between my trips to DC and Alt Summit where we happened to have a laid-back schedule, and we made it happen!

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This week, I finally started processing the photos and I have to say, I’m so glad we did the shoots! Partly, it’s the satisfaction of keeping the tradition, but it was also a reminder of how often we end up using the photos throughout the year — for ID photos, for social media profiles, for school projects. We used one for June’s preschool valentines this week!

All that, plus the kids LOVE having an overall snapshot of how they looked on any given year — their clothes, how they stood, the way they wore their hair. They like to see which pieces get handed down and then make an appearance in a future shoot. We end up referencing our What to Wear To School posts frequently.

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I realize it’s February and “back to school” is far from anyone’s mind, but I hope you’ll indulge me as I share the images. I’m going to publish the photos in 3 groups — today is Oscar & Betty. Then, next week, I’ll share a second post with Olive & June, and a third post with Maude & Ralph. I hope you enjoy them!

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OUTFIT ONE

Betty is wearing 3 hand-me-downs — a dress and socks from Gap Kids, and a yellow jacket from Ismodern (sadly, it’s no longer in business). Shoes are by Cole Haan (similar here). T-shirt from Target.

Oscar is wearing a plaid button-down (similar here), lined trousers, and a puffy vest (similar here) from Gap Kids. Shoes are Adidas from Crewcuts.

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Betty is the third person to wear that yellow jacket. It made its first appearance on Maude in our Central Park photo shoot so many years ago. It’s fun to see how great it still looks!

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OUTFIT TWO

Betty is wearing a flannel dress from Gap Kids. Layering tee and tights are from Target. Shoes are Cole Haan (similar here).

Oscar is wearing a raglan tee from Target, dark wash jeans from Old Navy, and grey hoodie from Gap Kids. Shoes are black Vans.

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The bike was Oscar’s Christmas gift.

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OUTFIT THREE

Betty is wearing hand-me-down jeans from Old Navy, plus a hand-me-down western-style button up — if I remember right, we found it at TJ Maxx when we lived in Colorado. The jacket is from H&M, and the shoes are the same Cole Haan suede low boots (similar here).

Oscar is wearing a graphic tee from Gap Kids, yellow jeans from Old Navy, and a grey striped hoodie from a French shop called Sergent Major. He’s also wearing the same black Van slip-ons shown earlier. His socks are from H&M.

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Layering is pretty much a daily thing here — tees over or under other shirts or sweaters or hoodies.

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OUTFIT FOUR

Betty is wearing a pale pink jumper and striped pants, and New Balance sneakers, all from Crewcuts.

Oscar is wearing an Oxford button-down from Old Navy — with painted cuffs he added himself. The striped top is Mini Boden, and the green khakis are from H&M. Adidas are the same as shown earlier.

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I should note that I especially love the details on Betty’s pink jumper — the diagonal zippers have tiny ribbon pulls!

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OUTFIT FIVE

Betty is wearing a yellow striped sweater, and cropped jeans from Mini Boden, a navy polkadot top from a French grocery store called Carrefore, and socks from H&M. The sneakers are New Balance for Crewcuts.

Oscar is wearing green jeans and a navy striped top from H&M. His button-down is from Old Navy — it’s covered in a pattern of eye-glasses. Cute! He’s also wearing the black Vans you’ve seen earlier.

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Voila! This is what my kids are wearing to 3rd Grade (Betty), and 4th Grade (Oscar) in the school year 2014-15. I hope you enjoyed the tour. It was interesting for me to see how little French clothing we have left. Time for another trip! : )

I’d love to hear, do you have a favorite outfit? And would your kids like wearing clothes like these? If no, what do they like to put on in the morning?

P.S. — You can find all the What To Wear To School posts from over the years here.

11 thoughts on “What to Wear to 3rd Grade & 4th Grade”

  1. Love this post. I’m a big fan of clothes that illustrate kids being kids. Comfortable, colorful, and fun! Side note–As the mother of a 14 month old, I haven’t accepted that my child will eventually BE a 4th grader. Do you ever miss their baby days? X, Anna

  2. We just celebrated the 100th day of school here, I was thinking – already? This post is right at my pace! The post I’m waiting for though (and hope I didn’t miss) is your adventures with your Fit Bit, or whatever version of sleeping, walking and such data tracking. I’m super curious. I wonder if I need this type of info on how many steps I’m taking in a day, type of sleep, … and what I would do with it but I want to hear your take 1st.

  3. I had to laugh when reading this post. My 4th grade boy would rather die a thousand deaths than wear anything but sweatpants. He even tries to pair them with polo shirts (!) and when we have functions like weddings, church, etc, he slinks unhappily along in his “fancy pants.” Lands End and I are best friends when it comes to boys sweatpants. I just hope that one day he’ll turn into more of a clothes horse!

  4. Super cute! I miss Carrefore so much! We used to make special trips to France and Belgium when we lived in Germany just for the Carrefore!

  5. I have missed these posts! So fun! I recognized that yellow jacket immediately – I love seeing the clothes passed down.

  6. Pingback: Design News / What to Wear to 3rd Grade & 4th Grade

  7. Thank you for this lovely post, Gabrielle! I love love love seeing pictures of your beautiful children and I have missed this series. :o) Oscar and Betty have really grown so much… You and Ben are so lucky (OK, I know it’s not luck, but you know what I mean… ;o) to have such happy, handsome, and beautiful children! Have a great weekend!

  8. Love the outfits and the whole idea of the shoot! What a great record of each stage of the kids’ lives. We have the same target tees; the gray/white striped and the raglan in a different color. I freezer paper stenciled on them for Christmas, and no joke, I just barely blogged about them an hour ago. Ha!

  9. Love the classic styling, and the hand-me-downs incorporated every year!

    My son wears a uniform to school, but loves to personalize with cool shoes and his glasses (he a red pair, a clunky navy pair and a pair with wire frames). On the weekends, he will layer striped hoodies with Star Wars shirts – he doesn’t get to wear them to school so he MUST wear them on the weekends! :)

    However, I’m lucky that he’s also open to dressing up for events or when I request it for family outings. His favorite “fancy” outfit is a blue checked long-sleeve shirt with a blue polka-dot bow tie, blue skinny pants and bright green high tops! Sometimes he wears it with a sweater vest, sometimes not. He looks adorable and I LOVE this outfit.

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