August 1, 2018

Ways to help your child’s teacher out

This post was sponsored by Kleenex Facial Tissue, but all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own!

I’m almost crying as I write this because 1. Summer is already almost over 2. My child is going to Kindergarten and 3. I’m not emotionally ready to fork out tons of cash for the dreaded yet exciting back to school shopping. This school year, we will have three kids in school. RJ (my oldest) will be in Kindergarten, Elias (middle child) will be in Pre-K 3’s and Joel (the baby) will be in a ‘Mom’s Morning Out’ class. To make all the back to school shopping easier on our wallets, I’ve partnered with Costco and Kleenex® Facial Tissue.

As exciting as it is to have them all in school, back to school slowly hurts my bank account. After I have this baby, I will be staying home full time, and we will be very cautious with how we spend our money. So, we are working on sticking to our budgets so when I’m permanently home, it’s second nature for us.

Unfortunately, we parents aren’t the only ones who fork out loads of cash for back to school time. The wonderful teachers that have the honor of taking care and nurturing the minds of our little ones do, too! It’s sad, but most teachers pay for all their supplies to keep our little ones engaged.

They pay for the class prizes, which keep our little ones motivated. And they also pay for basic hygienic items like hand soap and tissues. They pay for all those things because they love what they’re doing and want to make an impact in our children’s lives. So, this year, I made a vow to help my children’s teachers out as much as possible, to make their job a little easier.

How I plan on helping my child’s teacher out:

Help purchase hygienic items: I took a trip to Costco, so I could get the most bang for my buck! I found a huge 10-pack of Kleenex Facial Tissue (230 count) for only $17.99 (prices vary per club). I knew that by buying these tissues, I’d have enough to give a couple to RJ’s teacher, Elias’s teacher and one for Joel’s. Kids always seem to have runny noses, especially around fall time, and as fall approaches, that’s something every teacher can benefit from. The Kleenex Facial Tissues from Costco come with 43% more tissues than the best-selling tissue box in the rest of market (160 count). Plus, you will receive 15 Bonus Box Tops for purchasing it in bulk from Costco!

Save Box Tops: To piggy back off Number 1, the Kleenex Facial Tissue packages come with Bonus Box Tops. If this is your first school year and you have no clue what I’m talking about, I’ll explain! When you purchase certain items from the store they may have a little logo on them that says, “Box Tops for Education.” When you get home, or before you throw the box away, make sure you cut out the “Box Top.” You will then send your Box Top cut outs in a plastic baggie with your child to school. Your child will give it to their teacher, who will turn it in to the school’s designated Box Top collector. He/She will then send them all in. And for every Box Top turned in, the school will get 10 cents. Let’s just say, if everyone in the school turned in 10 Box Tops per month, and there were 18 students per classroom, and 5 classrooms per grade… That would be about 9,000 Box Tops at the end of a 10-month school year. When you multiply 9,000 by .10 you get $900.00! You may think one Box Top isn’t doing anything, but when you look at the big picture, it really is!
Volunteer to be a room mom: I’ve been a room mom for RJ’s classroom for the last two school years and being active in the school is so beneficial for my children, as well as the teacher. I love being there and knowing everything that’s going on and always being in the loop. And I also love helping the teacher out as much as possible – from coordinating birthday surprises, cutting paper , or even offering to make copies for the teacher. Little things like that go a long way. Now that RJ’s in an elementary school, I will also chaperone as many field trips as possible.
Prepare my child to learn: A pep talk on the way to school can be helpful, but it’s not enough. Ensuring your child eats a well-balanced breakfast and goes to sleep early enough will set him or her up for success. I don’t know about you, but I can’t focus if I’m sleepy or if I’m tired, so how would you expect a child to do the same? Also, I like to reinforce classroom learning at home to help with retention.