School is back in session

I hope everyone had a fabuLyss summer making lots of memories to last a lifetime. My boys had the best summer at sleep-away camp, and the last few weeks before school we were beach bound.

Make the first day back to school special for your little one. I love shopping for back-to-school clothes and backpacks with my children. Get new notebooks, sticker books, agendas, pens, and much more.

Check out the brand ban.do for the cutest products ever. The sticky note set, “You’re Straight Up Magic,” is adorable and useful with a to-do list section, and seven others for their daily notes.

Want to make their notes even prettier? Consider the “Gel Yeah” pen set with five neon gel pens, one metallic gold gel pen, and one black with silver glitter gel pen. Their notes will look so good!

Also, if your students need to organize their day the old-fashioned way — on paper — look at the “I am Very Busy” agenda. All of ban.do’s products are so cute and affordable!

Visit www.bando.com.

• • •

Looking for a fabuLyssly fun new Broadway show?

Take the kids to see “Cats” now that it has returned to Broadway, and let the memory live again with your children.

“Cats” at Neil Simon Theatre (250 W. 52nd St. between Broadway and Eighth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, www.catsthemusical.com).

• • •

Diva Mom’s Book Club is back in September with another fabuLyss book. Jill Kargman, creator and star of Bravo’s “Odd Mom Out,” will be launching her new book, “Sprinkle Glitter on my Grave,” with us! On Monday, Sept. 12 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, Kargman will be signing books at the beautiful Armitron Showroom.

Jill Kargman at Armitron Showroom (411 Fifth Ave. between 37th and 38th streets in Korea Town) Monday, Sept. 12 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. RSVP @ Divamoms.com. Space is extremely limited.

Lyss Stern is the founder of DivaLysscious Moms (www.divamoms.com).

Back-to-school deLysscious cookie recipe

My kids LOVE going back to school with personalized notes in their lunchbox and these sugar cookies from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe. (I confess that I only make the cookies for the first day of school. And then again for special occasions. Most of the other times they are store bought.)

INGREDIENTS:

Cookies:

1 (16.5-ounce) tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough (recommended: Pillsbury)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

Frosting:

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 pound powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup water, plus extra, as needed

Assorted food coloring (see Cook’s Note)

Special Equipment: assorted animal-shaped cookie cutters, about 4- to 5-inches long.

Decorating suggestion: multi-colored sprinkles, colored decorating sugar, mini chocolate chips, small candies, mini marshmallows

DIRECTIONS:

For the cookies: Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the cookie dough and flour until smooth. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick. Using animal-shaped cookie cutters, cut out shapes from the dough and arrange, about two-inches apart, on the prepared baking sheets. Form the scraps of dough into a ball, roll out to 1/4-inch thick, and continue to cut out animal shapes. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are lightly golden brown. Cool for two minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 15 minutes.

For the frosting: In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth, about 20 seconds. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup water. Beat on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to high and beat until the mixture is smooth, adding more water, as needed, one teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is spreadable.

Divide the frosting between three small bowls. Color the frosting by mixing in one drop of food coloring at a time, until the desired color is reached. Spread the frosting over the cooled cookies and decorate.

Cook’s note: I suggest watching how to make this recipe online. Also, if using natural food coloring (such as Seelect brand), be sure to shake the bottle before adding the coloring to the frosting.

Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/animal-sugar-cookies-recipe.html

Bay Ridge Prep

An Independent K-12 College Preparatory School. With a student-centered environment and fresh approach to education, the school provides an enriching academic experience in a socially mature environment.

The Language Workshop For Children

After offering both group and private lessons for many years and analyzing the results over&nbsp;time, The&nbsp;Language Workshop for&nbsp;Children, founded&nbsp;in1973, has decided&nbsp;to emphasize private remote lessons at shorter intervals.&nbsp;Our skilled educators&nbsp;will&nbsp;focus their attention exclusively on the&nbsp;unique needs, learning style, and interests of your child.&nbsp;This allows a&nbsp;bond&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;between teacher and student, which&nbsp;has been&nbsp;shown to&nbsp;drastically improve retention.&nbsp; OUR METHOD&nbsp; Developed by the pioneers of language education for children, our programs bring decades of&nbsp;experience to your living room with individualized, active language classes. Each lesson is based on proven methods and materials perfected to capture your&nbsp;child&rsquo;s attention during the ages when he/she absorbs information the fastest. &nbsp;&nbsp; While other online language classes rely on videos for passive learning, we deliver interactive, and engaging lessons with native-fluent teachers. In addition, all our teachers are certified in the Thibaut&nbsp;Technique which has been featured&nbsp;in the New York&nbsp;Times, the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal, and many other well-respected&nbsp;publications.&nbsp;&nbsp; Our short one-on-one lessons give kids the chance to focus, hear pronunciation clearly, and practice speaking in their target language.  THE PROCESS&nbsp; First, students have a short meeting with our Director&nbsp;Francois&nbsp;Thibaut, in&nbsp;English, with&nbsp;their parent(s)&nbsp;present.&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut&nbsp;will determine&nbsp;the best course of study, including&nbsp;class length and&nbsp;frequency, the&nbsp;right&nbsp;teacher, lesson&nbsp;format and materials (or action games for younger students.) Then the learning&nbsp;begins!&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut will continually check in on your child&rsquo;s learning to assure they are getting the most&nbsp;of&nbsp;their&nbsp;classes.&nbsp; OTHER OFFERINGS&nbsp; We can also help your child prepare for: the French subject tests for SAT, AP &amp; CLEP, the European DELF/DALF, the Canadian TEF and other standardized testing, college entry exams, studying or traveling abroad,&nbsp;cultural changes when moving abroad,&nbsp;and much more!&nbsp; &nbsp;

The Knox School

The Knox School is Long Island&rsquo;s oldest established private school. An inclusive environment provides students with a broad world perspective and a wide range of skills to prepare them for success after high school.&nbsp; A Knox education unlocks every student&rsquo;s potential.