Clothes for Pre-K Boy at DCPS

[Anonymous]

OK, so I know it's 99 degrees outside but I am fall clothes shopping. My son is starting Pre-K at a JLKM school and I don't know what to buy for him in terms of clothing. Yes, I know, play clothes, nothing that can't get dirty, etc. What I am wondering is what is the common "look" - jeans, collared polo? Collared woven shirts or character t-shirts? My MIL tends to buy a lot of his clothes and she sometimes heads for the more precious/preppy look and I want to give her some guidance. I realize, this is Pre-K and I am probably going to get flamed so please understand I am not trying to start a war. Not looking for status lables, just an idea of what most kids wear so he will feel like part of the group.

Shoe recommendations welcome, too please. Are those moccasin things in Lands End any good?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

My son just finished JKLM PK. Anything goes in terms clothing---kids do not dress up in the least. No collared shirts and few to no polo shirts. It wouldn't matter if your son did wear these things (his classmates won't notice at this age) but it's definitely not the norm.

My son wore knit track pants and long sleeved tee shirts (some striped, some character, some plain) during the winter and shorts with the same type of tee shirts (although short sleeved) during the fall and spring. He wore sneakers every day (no moccasins, no dress shoes).

His classmates wore all sorts of random clothing---over sized tee shirts, sports jerseys, sweat pants, pants with ripped knees, tees from summer camps, random give-away tee shirts, etc. etc. Anything and everything without any regard to matching, etc.

The kids all come from upper middle class families (and frankly all live in close to million dollar homes) but the dress code is completely "anything goes".

[Anonymous]

That seems more casual than his nursery school. Anyone else weighing in?

[Anonymous]

My son will also be entering Pre-K at a JKLM school this fall. I plan to continue to have him dress the same way he always has- a mix of polo type shirts and t-shirts (think t-shirts from Old Navy/ Children's Place/target) with khaki shorts, jeans, plaid shorts, etc. Basically a mix of preppy and casual/ comfortable. Sneakers every day. That is what he's always worn to day care so I dont see any reason to change it.

[Anonymous]

Your son gets dressed up for nursery school? What do you mean?

[Anonymous]

We go for the "school look."

This has to be a joke.

Signed,
JKLM of two boys

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That seems more casual than his nursery school. Anyone else weighing in?

yes, it definitely is.

My son went to a popular NW DC nursery school prior to JKLM PK and the standard of dress definitely took a nosedive.
I think the VAST majority (if not all) of the super coordinated/preppy/precious/collared shirt wearing crowd does private school (when choosing vs DCPS) after nursery school. The JKLM crowd is definitely a more "who cares what our kids are wearing", anything goes crowd.
Which is why we fit in so well.

[Anonymous]

This is easy peasy. You have a boy. You need short sleeve tee shirts, long sleeve tee shirts (superhero preferred), trackpants, soccer shorts, a sweatshirt, a winter jacket (Lands End, if you want to splurge go for Patagonia or Spyder), a pair of gym shoes and a pair of sandals (tevas or Keens). Hand-me-downs are fine.

[Anonymous]

Just buy him what he likes to wear so that getting out the door is as easy as possible. I have two DD in a JKLM. As one PP noted it truly is "anything goes."

[Anonymous]

OP here; this isn't a joke. I don't have any brothers, only have girls in my family and I want to buy the right things. I noticed his nursery school was more dressy than what the first responder replied so I just followed up to check. If it's more casual, great... less work for me, but I can still dress him in the collared shirt/jeans look I prefer that he wears. He has no preference at all and will wear whatever I put out for him, btw.

[Anonymous]

OMG - are you serious? They're kids. You're going to public school, I don't care if it's a JKLM or not. We are in private (2 boys) and I buy my sons clothes that I like them to wear and that are comfortable.

[Anonymous]

The clothes my son wore at age 4 to Pre-K were trashed after he wore them for the season. The knees of pants, no matter what bramd were totally blown out, stains on his shirts, etc. I think age 4 is when kids start to play rougher or more physically and the clothes just get wrecked. We saved lots of baby and toddler clothes for our second son, and now that second son is 4 and I just went into our storage closet yesterday to find hand me down size 4s. There's very little in there -- hardly anything was worth saving.

[Anonymous]

I kind of get the ?.

I have two boys. They went to private Montessori in NW and tended to wear much nicer things--very preppy look. Not a problem for us since my sister has 3 older boys and we have boxes upon boxes of hand-me down lacoste, polo, button-downs, dress coats, etc.

We moved - my older one now goes to public school Kinder (going into first grade). The little one is at a very play-based preschool with loads of dirt and outdoor play, etc. I never dress them as nice as I used to. I still don't send older one to elem school is sweats or gym shorts. He wears nicer shorts or jeans, cords, etc. However, I do send him in t-shirts, sweathirt, etc. I save all of the nice hand-me downs for special occassion, class pictures, etc. He is 7 now and is embarrassed to wear a collared shirt to school--not many of the boys do so I don't push it.

Little one wears really ratty looking clothes (IMO)--sweat shorts, graphic tees, etc. Key is they get filthy, he's happy and they are easy for a 4 year old to pull up and down.

I find knit polos too hot for DC summer/Indian summer so I do nicer tees. I want them to be comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here; this isn't a joke. I don't have any brothers, only have girls in my family and I want to buy the right things. I noticed his nursery school was more dressy than what the first responder replied so I just followed up to check. If it's more casual, great... less work for me, but I can still dress him in the collared shirt/jeans look I prefer that he wears. He has no preference at all and will wear whatever I put out for him, btw.

You never see children outside of your nursery school?

More importantly, no one will care what your pre-k son wears to school except him. What is HE comfortable in? Those are the right clothes for him.

[Anonymous]

Mocassins are only useful for bedroom slippers. But perhaps your boy is much gentler than 99% of the boys out there? I strongly recommend that you get him some sturdy sneakers so he can keep up with the rest of the kids on the playground.