5 Back-to-School Shopping Tips

Last week a postcard showed up in my mailbox informing me that Middle School Orientation is in 3 weeks. THREE weeks, people! Didn't Summer just begin??

While I'm sad for the Summer to be coming to a close, I'm equally excited {if not more so} for the kids to go back to school. When I was a kid growing up, back-to-school season was my most favorite! Freshly sharpened pencils, crisp notebook paper, and a Trapper Keeper {!!}. Kids these days have NO idea what a Trapper Keeper is...only the greatest notebook of all time! Children of the 80's, am I right??

I'll have four kids in school full-time this year. While I'm no expert in what's right and wrong in back-to-school shopping, I have learned a few things along the way. After all, Jake will be starting 9th grade this school year. Including preschool and VPK, that's like 10 years of solid experience.

Today I'm sharing 5 Back-to-School Shopping Tips that I've learned along the way.

/1/ Start Shopping NOW! - Back-to-School supplies sales begin to pop up the weekend after the 4th of July. For real. It seems early but, it's great for a multitude of reasons. Keep reading. Each week, pick up a Sunday paper and scour the ads for the best deals.

/2/ Shop Often - Every week each store will have different school supplies on sale. This week you can buy pencils for next to nothing and next week might be 1-inch binders. The more often you go, the less money you'll spend and the less crowds you'll have to fight when it gets closer to the first day of school.

/3/ Shop Tax Free - Check and see if your state offers a tax-free weekend for back-to-school shopping. If it isn't offered in your state, drive to a neighboring state {if gas cost is significantly lower than the tax savings} or contact your local state representative to see if he/she can get the wheels in motion on bringing that savings to you for following years!

On top of the store's sale prices, saving your state's tax percentage is an added bonus! Since I like to shop for supplies each week as the sale ads come out, I usually take advantage of tax-free weekend for the kid's clothes. After all, the clothing is the most expensive part of the shopping list. Also, tax-free weekend is a great time to buy the supplies that are "wants". You know the ones, the FROZEN folders or the more expensive mechanical pencils that they insist are far better than the ones you bought for $0.48 or the fancy-schmancy pens. Basically, anything not on the "official" supply list is generally bought during this time for an added savings.

/4/ Know Before You Go - I noticed this past school year that my kids' school puts a supply list in their end-of-year report card. Genius! This way I'm armed with a supply list weeks before the sales begin and I can make a plan. I can buy more than I need, if the price is right. If I didn't have my list I might wind up buying 3 folders at that amazing sale price when the kids actually need 4...and then I might end up paying full price for the 4th. It's nice to have a list!

/5/ Price Match - This is my most recent back-to-school shopping, "ah-ha moment" tip. In years past I would check out Sunday's paper, make a plan to go to each store that had what I needed at the best price, and go to each store. {let's not even think about the amount of gas was used in this school shopping adventure...} This year is different. I check my Sunday paper each week, gather the sale ads with the items circled that I plan to purchase, and then head to my local WalMart and utilize their Price Match Policy. It's a one-stop shop. Best of all, if the item is Buy One, Get One Free then it's 9 times out of 10 going to be cheaper on the Buy One. For instance, XYZ store had Crayola markers on sale BOGO for $2.98. WalMart's price was $1.27. This means, I was able to get the BOGO offer at $1.27 instead of $2.98. Make sense? {I was able to get each item for 64 cents, instead of $1.49.} It's truly easy and saves SO MUCH MONEY!

Are you ready for Back-to-School? What shopping tip would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments.

Kindergarten, Here She Comes

On August 19, 2013 I took McKinley to her first day of preschool. I expected her to learn her ABC's and 123's, colors and shapes, and maybe to read a few words along the way. Little did I expect her to enter pre-k a little four-year-old and finish the school year an all-grown-up five-year-old. She is ready to enter kindergarten, for sure!


{This was McKinley a week or so before school started last year. Look at how little she was!}



McKinley made lots of new friends. Her best friend is Aaron. Every morning they walked in to school together and every afternoon we walked out to the truck with he and his mom. We ALL became friends.




{The little boy is her best friend, Aaron. The woman was one of her teachers, Ms. Kim The little girl is Aaron's sister.}


{McKinley and her other teacher, Ms. Natasha.}



I'm excited for our Princess. She's going to do great in kindergarten!

Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas that are A+

Did you know the first full week of May is the official week of Teacher Appreciation? It's the Hallmark holiday, if you will, to show the teachers in your life that you appreciate them!

Having four kids in school with a combined 14 teachers for all of them I like to spread gifts out throughout the school year. Our kid's teachers deserve to be loved on. After all, they love on our children all day, five days a week.

Most years I'm really good about sending in either homemade edible treats or small "thinking of you" gifts. One year Jett's teacher had a classroom theme, the Thompson Turtles. Every time I saw a turtle office supply, like a pad of Post-Its, I'd pick it up for her. She was easy to love on. Another year I sent a series of gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas. That was a lot of fun for me and I got really great feedback from those teachers. {I even had a mom from that school contact me so she could do it for her kid's teachers the following year.}

I think having a baby at the beginning of this school year really through a wrench in my gift-giving self. That, and being without income for months...ya know, when Hubs lost his job. That isn't to say that I don't appreciate our teachers and what they do for our kids. They are super heroes in my book!

Today I've searched some of my favorite blogs for Teacher Appreciation gifts that you can make for your kid's teachers.


/1/ "Thanks for Making Us All Smarties" - You can fill a reusable plastic tumbler full of Smarties and Lifesavers, or even a Mason jar!


/2/ Movie Card Gift - Teachers could ALL use a break. Give your teacher a gift card for her local movie theater so she can relax while catching a newly-released box office hit.


/3/ Target Gift Card Holder - Teachers spend so much of their own money on our children. Give them a gift card to their favorite store so they can go buy themselves something nice.


/4/ Tote-ally Awesome Teacher Gift - Are you crafty with your sewing machine? Whip up a tote for your teacher!


/5/ Best DOGGONE Teacher Gift - This idea is one that I've loved since the first time I saw it. If your teacher is a dog lover it's fur sure a great gift idea!! You can find little plastic dogs here.

Remember, you don't have to wait until the first week of May to love on your teachers. You can do it all year long. Your child's teachers will be thrilled with each and every small token of thanks you send their way. Trust me, I know.

Want to see more great ideas? I've rounded some up and posted them on Blissfully Domestic, too!


{There are a couple of Amazon affiliate links within this post. That means, when you click through and make a purchase I get a small percentage to help support my little{{or big}}family.}

This Is Gonna Hurt.

Remember when your parents said "this is gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt you" to you all those years ago??  It usually came before a good spanking.  Oh, how the times have changed.

Now, we don't so much say that as much as we think it.

Two grading periods ago our oldest, fifth-grade son brought home a report card that two generations ago would've warranted him going out and picking his own "switch" off the bush.  Instead of a good, old-fashioned whoopin', our son got grounded until his grades were brought up.  GROUNDED!!!

NO video games,
NO sleepovers,
NO friends over,
NO iPod,
NO cell phone,
NO television {unless it was something his little brothers and sister was watching},
NO NOTHING!!!

To him, his life was O V E R!!!

This goofball kid had his world brought to a screeching hault!


We, as his parents, were NOT his favorite people.

We made him do CHORES.  Oh, no!  Not chores!

And when he wanted to play outside he had to play WITH his brothers and sister, NOT his friends.  The TORTURE!!!

A couple of weeks, though, something happened.  After all of those weeks of him surely having thoughts of hanging each of us by our toenails for making his life so miserable {HA!} he came home with an A on a paper.  An A!

And then a couple of days later he brought home a 100% paper.  And a smile on his face!

Two days ago he told me of a report that he needed to do to make certain his Social Studies grade would come up.  He needed to do this paper.  And he was telling me about it.  That's progress, people!

Best news of all??  Yesterday he bounced into the truck, reached in to his backpack and shoved a perfect spelling test in to my face exclaiming that he LOVED Social Studies and the states!  He spelled each of the United States correctly and THAT paper would bring all of his grades to A's, B's and C's!!!

Bestest news of all??  He is PROUD of himself.  HE did that!  {of course, if it weren't for us TORTURING him by taking his ENTIRE life away he probably would've been content just "skating" by in his grades...}

Moral of the story?  That lesson hurt.  Making our son understand that making good grades comes FIRST {before his social life and video games, that is} HURT.  Not being able to send him outside to play and run off the energy that about made me crazy HURT!  It DID hurt me more than it hurt him.  It did!

Tell me what parenting lesson has HURT the most in your household.  I bet we could all share some doozies!