Ask some of the other parents in your neighborhood to collaborate on a bus stop breakfast on the morning of the first day of school. Ask each parent to contribute a dish, whether it's orange juice, pancakes, cereal or some other breakfast food, but try to balance out the sweet and savory items so you don't end up with a table full of sugar. Set up a folding table by the bus stop if weather permits, or choose a house that is nearby to host the breakfast. Ask the kids to go around the table stating the things they're most looking forward to for the school year; this will hopefully boost confidence and lighten the mood.
Use washable sidewalk chalk to write encouraging messages leading from your doorstep to the bus stop. Do this project early in the morning before the kids wake up to surprise them as they walk out the door. Write messages that will boost your kids' confidence; if they are too young to read, tell them what each message says as you walk them to the bus stop, or simply use drawings to make them smile. Ask neighbors with school-age children to help contribute to the effort so that each child in the neighborhood will feel special on the first day of school.
On their birthday, one of the best parts for children is being able to blow out the candles on the cake to make a wish. Try adapting this method to the first day of school. Stick some birthday candles in a stack of pancakes and have your children blow them out while thinking of a back-to-school wish. Sing a back-to-school song before the candles are blown out, and remind your kids to keep the wish to themselves to ensure it comes true.
The day or night before the first day of school, have a movie marathon in your home. Screen classic movies that have to do with kids in the classroom and portray school in a good light. Serve snacks that play with the idea of school lunches; give each child a brown paper bag filled with peanut-butter-and-jelly finger sandwiches, a carton of milk or juice box and other foods that are typical of traditional school lunches.