When your kids are babies or toddlers, they don’t care how you dress them. Fashion is as foreign a concept to them at that stage as eating spaghetti without making a mess. But once those kids get to the age where they are heading to grade school they become more and more aware of fashion trends and fitting in. Keeping up with what the latest trends are in clothes for grade school kids can be difficult since they change rapidly, but we have some tips to bear in mind when you are out getting new outfits for your grade school aged children.

There are some timeless television icons that never go out of style, like the characters from the Muppets and Sesame Street, while other icons that grade school children have been trending toward recently include Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go, Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine, Veggietales, and Blue’s Clues. Getting your children outfits that feature the characters from any of these television shows is a great place to start.

Movies are another good source for finding themes and characters that will provide you popular clothes for your grade school students. As always, the good folks at Disney have great products that kids love to wear, from everyday outfits to Halloween costumes, school supplies, shoes and much more. Clothing featuring movie characters does have the drawback that it is somewhat dated material, while television characters are on continuously.

Aside from those options, you can always find outfits that don’t feature characters of any kind and are just your standard everyday wear. And my advice when choosing those kind of outfits is to keep it simple and keep it classic. Stick to the kind of fashions that never go out of style such as personalized hats and clothing like simple button downs and fun patterns are just fine, since your kids are still sprouting like weeds and will soon outgrow the outfits you buy today. So by choosing classic clothing, you can keep it around for any future children that may be coming along in your own life, or once your kids are done with them you can donate those clothes to another family and the new recipients will not have to struggle with dressing their kids in what could by then be outdated clothes.