School Uniform Wardrobe Review for a 3rd Grade Girl

What's in our School Wardrobe?

It's been a while since I looked in my daughter's closet, took inventory of what's in her school wardrobe and shared a full school wardrobe review. My last full review was 3 years ago when I shared our Kindergarten School Uniform Wardrobe. This year, I really didn't do much back to school shopping. She hadn't grown much, so many items from last school year were still in good shape and still fit. But we have added a few new items that I picked up on sale.

Since the year started, we've transitioned all of her shirts rotating out all of her girls size medium shirts (7-8) to girls size large (10-12). The list below shows the types of wardrobe items in the school wardrobe including which brand. I think it is a good example of how diverse her wardrobe is by brand. A handful of these items were received complementary for evaluation in a review, however, most were purchased from the family budget. Disclosures are included in the full review posts, when relevant.

Girls School Uniform Wardrobe Inventory

• 3 short sleeve polos (Dockers, Classroom, French Toast Waist Tuck)
  
• 3 long sleeve polos (Lands' End Peter Pan, Cherokee, Children's Place Ruffle-Placket)
  
• 3 pair of Cherokee Flat Front Uniform Pants (While we've tried other brands that I liked, my daughter prefers these bootcut basics from Target.)
  
• 6 scooters (Cherokee Pleated Scooter, Cherokee Uniform Scooter, Lands' End Ponte Button Front, Schoolbelles Side Pleat Skort, Lands' End Solid A line Skirt and a Dockers Scooter)
  
  Before you ask - Yes, its a fair question. Why do we have 6 scooters? If you're building a school wardrobe for the first time, I would only recommend purchasing one or two. We've acquired these over time. My daughter seems to get the most value from scooters as some of these skirts have been in the rotation for 3 years already.
  
  The Docker's one has been hanging in the closet with tags on it for since Kindergarten waiting for her to grow into it. It has an elastic waist, but it is not adjustable. The skirt may be too short once her waist grows into it. Lesson learned; adjustable waistbands are key.
  
• 5 sweaters (Lands' End Performance Zip Front Cardigan, Children's Place Uniform Cardigan, Primary Cardi, H&M, Gap)
  
  Again, you don't need 5 sweaters. My daughter now has a favorite which she now carries with her in her backpack daily. The rest hang in the closet and might be worn on the weekend. But it did take trying different brands and styles to find her favorite.
  
• 2 pair of Boot Cut Yoga Pants (Children's Place Bootcut Foldover Active Pants and Lands' End Yoga Pants)
  
• 4 short sleeve t-shirts (Children's Place t shirt, Primary Polo, French Toast v-neck T, French Toast crew.)
  
• 2 long sleeve t-shirts (Circo, Children's Place)
  
• 2 pair of shorts (Gap, Lands' End)
  
  Both of these were leftover from last year's wardrobe and will need replaced for Spring because she has finally outgrown them.
  
• 4 active skorts (Children's Place)
  
  Again, you surely wouldn't need 4 of these in a first year wardrobe. In fact, you might not need any. My daughter likes to wear the Children's Place active skort for PE days during warmer months. We have 4 of them because I kept buying them on clearance forgetting that I had already put one away in the next size up. Yep, that happened 3 times. Oops.
  
• Sneakers for PE (Striderite)
  
• Mary Jane style shoes (Striderite)
  
• Accessories : bike shorts for under the skirt (French Toast), cuff socks (Gold Toe), knee socks (Code Socks and French Toast) and tights (Circo and French Toast).

What's missing?

Jumpers or dresses. Simply because my daughter is not a fan. She has a strong aversion to jumpers, always has. Maybe it's hereditary since I'm not a fan either. I used to be able to get her to put on a cotton polo dress, but not since first grade. She simply prefers to wear separates. If your daughter likes dresses and jumpers, you'll need fewer separates.

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Stride Rite Cooper Lace Sneaker, a review

While a girls basic white sneakers are fairly easy to find, finding a supportive athletic shoe in plain white is much harder to find. So when I'm shopping for white sneakers for my daughter to wear to school with her school uniform, I head to our local StrideRite store and straight to the boys shoe aisle. She's on her 3rd pair of StrideRite Cooper Lace Sneakers.  She's worn them each year since first grade. Each time she outgrows them, we pick up a new pair.

These sneakers are great for school because they hold up to wear and tear on the playground.  They are available in solid white or black making them a great choice for uniform kids.  They have a leather upper and mesh lining.  Big kids, and younger kids that take pride in the ability to tie their own shoes, will like the lace up style.  For the preschool set, and those that prefer not to fuss with laces, will appreciate the Cooper Hook and Loop version of this shoe. They come in sizes ranging from Preschool sizes 8 - 12 and Kid sizes 12.5 through 6 and come in three widths of medium, wide and extra wide.

The care instructions advise you to brush off dry dirt and to clean with a damp cloth with a little mild detergent.  I have cleaned my daughter's sneakers in this same manner several times.  Once they got very dusty from a visit to a playground, so I removed the laces and hand washed them with soap and water.  Overall, these are very low maintenance shoes that just continue to hold up well and look good.

They are excellent quality.  They are worth the regular retail for $42.00.  If you can catch them on sale, even better!

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French Toast Refreshes their Website

The big news from French Toast this past fall was that they were again offering additional children's clothing items that are not part of the "standard student attire" of uniform clothing. Now, you can find children's graphic t-shirts as well as print and pattern dresses for girls and patterned shirts for boys. I might call it - weekend wear. The boys items are appropriate for church or other occasions when you have to dress the boys in something nicer than a t-shirt and sweatpants. The girls items are cute for a weekend birthday party or family outing. But different from the boys, the girls non-uniform options don't rise to the occasion of church or special occasion outfits. They are firmly in the casual category.

To better promote the new offerings, French Toast revamped it's website to make it easier for us to navigate the school uniform items and their entire collection. The site still features main navigation menus for Girls Uniforms and Boys Uniforms, but now also features more inclusive general labels such as Boys and Girls. I like that they still included a easy way to navigate right to the Shop by School and the clearance items.

The new site makes it much easier to find the non-uniform items in their offering. While shopping for holiday gifts this year, I ordered a few of the boys non-uniform items for my nephew. I ordered a stripped polo and patterned collar shirts, both long sleeve and short sleeve. While I haven't been able to witness how well they have held up to wear and tear, I gave them a Uniform Mom quality inspection before wrapping them up as gifts. The quality of the items was comparable to other items I've previously ordered form the uniform selection. Great colors and fabric with solid seams with no loose threads. I also ordered a few of the girls t-shirts, some for school and others for weekend wear.  I will share more abut them in a later post, but my quick opinion is that French Toast non uniform clothing items are similar to the uniform items in that they are a great quality for the price.

Featured Basic: Circo Girls' Long Sleeve T-Shirt

My daughter wont wear basic Unisex t-shirts,  like a basic (think Hanes) crewneck. We have a bunch, mostly received via hand me downs featuring logos of our local sports teams and a few we've purchased for her from the PTA that feature some school related program. The ones sold by the PTA are approved under the uniform policy for PE days. Regardless, she won't wear them.

In Kindergarten, she loved the organic cotton basic t-shirt from H&M. But the next season, we moved away from that brand because the organic tees became really hard to find and the regular basics were tissue paper thin and cheap looking. We switched to the basic tees from the Children's Place. Like the H&M ones, they came in both a short and long sleeve version, so they were an easy go-to item to pick up each season. But this winter, I came across a basic Girls Long Sleeve T-shirt at Target (update - this item is no longer available) that we like better.  It is a Circo brand soft knit jersey that is 60% cotton and 40% poly.  The fabric is very soft like some of her best interlock polos.  It is a heavier weight t-shirt giving more warmth in the colder months.  It is also very stretchy.  The detail around the crewneck collar adds a feminine touch. It is offered in fresh white, black, mint and purple.  The fresh white is perfect for uniform kids to wear under jumpers or by itself on PE days.

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The strangest reasons school kids were suspended, expelled or arrested

Because I follow news related to school uniforms, I frequently come across articles outlining efforts by school administrators to enforce the dress code.  Many of them are what you might chalk up as "major fails" where the schools makes decisions that are unpopular with students, and in many cases, the parents as well.

Those stories pale in comparison to these incidents where students have been suspended, expelled, and even arrested for some pretty crazy things.  Arrested in school for things such as  engaging in a food fight or hacking a computer to change their grades.  But those aren't as far fetched as the tales about the students that getting arrested for talking on the phone, texting, missing too many classes, passing gas, or throwing paper airplanes in class.  My favorite is the kid that got charged with a 3rd degree felony for having a plastic butter knife.  Check out this video:

25 Dumb Reasons School Children Have Been Suspended Or Arrested

I found a bunch of other useful articles for parents in the Kids Safety Network:

• What is Minecraft and What is all the fuss about?
• What every parent needs to know about water safety
• What is cyberbullying?

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The Hunt for Girls Boot Cut Yoga Pants

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We have been fans of the Bootcut Foldover Active Pants from Children's Place for several years. My daughter doesn't like tight fitting leggings, so she much prefers boot cut or flare yoga pants.  Both for weekend wear and for PE wear for school, she has worn and outgrown many pairs of these active pants. I shared thoughts about them in a previous post touting that they are great for PE days.

Over last summer, our daughter grew an inch or two, so her navy PE pants were getting too short.  I logged onto the Children's Place website to order a few new pair. Much to my disappointment, they changed them.  And these new active pants just aren't working for us.

In the past, the active pants came in numbered sizes (4 - 14) making it easy to move up a size with each growth spurt.  Now the active pants come only in sizes, XS thru XL.  This eliminated 3 sizing options for the girls from 8 sizes to only 5. My daughter wears a size 8 or 9 in most brands that offer numbered sizing. She is currently too tall for the medium size, but the large is too big in the waist and way too long for her.  The active pants in the size large seem as long as other brands pants in a kids 10-12 size.   I recall we had similar difficulty finding pants when she was between a 6X and a 7. There was a 4 inch difference in the inseam with most brands.


The Children's Place also changed the fit of the leg on the active pants. The bootcut pants had a "slightly flared leg opening for a flattering fit".  The leg of the Skinny Foldover Active Pant is a straight leg pant.

The Children's Place change in sizing of the active pants combined with the change in the leg style has us shopping other brands.  So, I then logged on to another of my favorite go-to sites, Lands' End. I was surprised to learn that the Girls Yoga Boot Cut Pants are now also only offered in XS - XL sizes. I reviewed them for the Back to School season in 2014 and at that time, they were offered in numbered sizes 4 - 16.

I am not liking this trend of eliminating the numbered sizing options.  I can understand that it is better for the retailer making inventory management easier, etc.  But as a Mom, this is frustrating.  Like most Mom's, I take care to provide appropriate clothing for my child to wear.  I don't like her wearing "floods", or pants that are too short, or shirts that are too snug with her belly hanging out the bottom.  On the other hand, I hate when the next larger size is so big it looks like she's drowning in it.

If I had the time and skill, I could alter the items to fit her properly.  But I'd much prefer to have the option to buy her a size that fits, with just a bit of wiggle room to grow.

As I end my rant and this hunt, I concluded the hunt after finding that the medium size Girls' Yoga Pants at Target were 2 inches longer than the size 7 Children's Place active pants.  I found one pair at our local store. Then, a friend gave us a pair of size 8 hand me downs from Lands' End.  This is getting her through her two back to back PE days each week, at least until the next growth spurt. Then while I was in a Children's Place Outlet store just last weekend, I found a few pair of the number sized boot cut active pants in navy that were left over from the previous season.  I bought 2 pair.  I would have bought them in the next size up, but sizes were limited. The boot cut style disappeared from the Children's Place website for a few months, but I see that they are offered again now.  I'm hoping this is a sign that they are coming back and not just a short lived, inventory clearance offering.

Are you noticing this trend too?  Have you had trouble finding leggings for school that fit properly? Tell us what your noticing and add your opinion in the comments below.