Back-to-School-Style for the Big Boys

Thank you to JCPenney for kindly sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are honestly my own.

So, this summer break has become a pretty easy one for us. Red Bear has his own friends, either “in real life” or online, so besides attending some summer camps, biking, and swimming, he has been busy playing with his friends. On the other hand, we have a complicated feeling when we see him thinking and talking like a small man, and we realize that our little Red Bear is growing up and he truly and suddenly is a big boy now. And that means it is also time to step up his style! (And at 9 years, he has good ideas about his fashion — better than his dad does, we all agree!)

Compared with my style, Red Bear has a very SIMPLE yet practical style. He doesn’t like all the cartoon character prints anymore — “That’s for babies,” he says. And he also doesn’t like lace-up shoes — “Because it’s hard to tie the laces, and it wastes my time!” he says.

He has a very practical point of view. He likes good clothes than can stand wear and tear without getting holes in them, they must look nice, and be comfortable.

I remember a few years back, when Red Bear starting kindergarten, and they required a school uniform– navy shirt and khaki pants, to be exact. I found some khaki pants from JCPenney that fit perfectly and had a comfortable elastic waist, and it turned out those became his favorite pants ever! Since then, I have always like to shop for Red Bear’s back-to-school items from JCPenney. So when JCPenney asked me to work with them for a boys’ back-to-school style story, I immediately said, “YES!”

I like to let Red Bear get dressed by himself, because I think it helps him to get used to some personal independence, responsibility and creativity. (And he actually has a good eye for what items look good together — got his mom’s DNA there!) Today we actually chose these outfits together (in front of our computer). I have so much fun listening to his opinions about why he chooses this but not that. The best thing about letting him choose what he likes to wear is to make him feel like a little man! Of course, I gave him a little help, and sometimes, I gave him two options. For example, “Do you like these camouflage pants or this pair of blue jeans to go with this yellow polo shirt?”…Then he chooses one of them,and he is so happy he got to pick his own clothes in the end!

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