Back to School Shopping Guide

Ah, August. It’s time to think about back to school. Whether you’ll be sending off a brand new kindergartner or are prepping your middle and high school students for a new year, this picks can help you prepare for the new school year.

We received a variety of samples and/or compensation for this post. All opinions are our own. 

Learning Time

Make the most of the kids after school time with a Fire HD 6 Kids Edition. This powerful tablet gives your kids complimentary 1-year access to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited. FreeTime gives them unlimited access to curated, kid-friendly content including their favorite TV series, apps and games, and e-books so they never run short on content to enjoy. Parents have the ability to set up security settings including time limits and can even enforce that children have to read before having access to apps, games, and video content. We set up your Kids Edition tablet with a 30-minute reading setting before the other content becomes available to help our kids meet their daily reading goals for school.

Just because your kids are not old enough to be headed to elementary school doesn’t mean you can’t use this time to start them on the path to educational success. As a parent you are the most important teacher your child has! Teach My provides learning sets for baby to preschool age children. These easy to use sets help your child get a head start on basic skills, things like; the alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers, reading and even math! They encourage early learning, parent child interaction, self-esteem and help children to develop fine motor skills and excellent hand eye coordination. Just 20 minutes a day could make a huge different in your child’s life! You can find these affordable, effective Teach My kits at Walmart and ToysRUs.

Believe it or not, kids really do love to learn. If you make learning fun and hands-on, they quickly absorb the information and it sticks with them. Tin Toy Arcade offers a variety of fun toys and games including items that are perfect for teaching your children with. Like their Cosmic Rocket that uses baking soda and vinegar to create a blast-off explosion that teaches about science and reactions. Use a fun Doodling Robot Kit to explore art, robotics, and construction all in one! Use the code MOMSTAKE15 to save 15% off your order.

Time to Unwind & Play

Challenge your kids with games that are both fun and educational. They’ll provide a perfect transition from a school day to at home play. Winning Moves Games offers a whole selection of retro games that are perfect for parents to think back to their own school days and strike up a conversation with your kids while having fun. Try Scattegories: The Card Game to work on vocabulary and spelling or take as spin at Monopoly: The Mega Edition to work on money concepts. Some other perfect games to try are No Stress Chess and Aggravation for some serious competition. Winning Moves Games has a few new games that are fun to try like Water Works, Moose Caboose, and Fish, Fish, Squish. Whatever you play, it’s going to open up conversation and laughter! For a chance to win Winning Moves 3 new games, enter below!

Encourage your children to be creative and express their emotions and personality through art and learning. Compendium Live Inspired creates beautiful one-of-a-kind products that can inspire your kids while letting you preserve a piece of their childhood. Use their My Ideas Journal, My Art, or My Writing workbooks to conserve their creativity in a book that will be easy to store and treasure. Want to send them with something fun in their lunchbox? They offer adorable Lunch Mail cards with a variety of themes including pets, monsters, and superheroes to show your children you are thinking about them during the day. Start a love of stories with their And Then.. story starters that include the beginning of a story that lets your child fill in the rest of the storyline. For a bit of pure fun, pick up a Boogie Monster Dance Kit and get a dance party started as you read to your child! Visit Live-Inspired.com for even more unique products your family will love.

Kids can explore, create, and challenge themselves with the toys and games by Thames & Kosmos. They have kits for delving into interests like growing crystals and similar science related discoveries. Or utilize their hands-on engineer kits with different themes like Automobile Engineer that comes with directions and parts for making a variety of different cars including a race car, tow truck, and hoe. Challenge the family to a game of Ubongo where everyone races to complete a puzzle challenge and collect points each round to win the game. Thames & Kosmos has lots of fun and interactive toys that will spark their imaginations and give them a creative outlet for play.

Ready for Snacks!

Get your kids an after-school snack that’s filling and good for them, but still easy to serve. Kids Gourtmet Slammer Snackers are a great choice that combines 7 grams of protein per pouch with a full serving of fruit and vegetables! They have creative flavors and are designed to feel like a snack made for school-aged kids, not a pouch for toddlers! Try their Pomegranate Grape Crush or Watermelon Kiwi Burst for a whole new flavor experience! You can find Slammer Snackers at Target, Safeway and other select grocery stores.

Can you believe that there is over 20 million plastic lunch baggies trashed per day? That’s no only a lot of waste, but a lot of money, too! You can make a big difference by choosing a green solution with reusable fabric lunch, snack, and sandwich bags by LunchSkins. They have bold, colorful prints that parents and kids will love and high quality pouches that come in your choice of velcro or zipper closure. This reusable bags are SO cute that it really makes snack time fun. I like to use them to portion out snacks for each kid and they know exactly which pattern is their’s, so no bickering when their bag runs low that someone else took their snacks. Another favorite is their fabric lunch sack that folds down really slim when not in use. Visit LunchSkins to check out all their selections.

A water bottle is an essential part of your child’s back to school gear. Get them a personalized water bottle that expresses their personality and will hold up to a full school year! Since you can personalize their water bottle with their name and pick a bottle that will be totally unique to them against all their classmates you won’t have to worry about stolen water bottles or a classmate sharing. My two favorites are these two styles by Personalization Mall: All Mine, where you can customize your phrase and name, and Marvel Retro Portraits with your favorite superhero pick and your name. Visit Personalization Mall for quality products you can personalize with your child’s name in tons of different categories!

Treat the kids to the taste of homemade. It will be a fun way to spend the after-school hour with your children and hear about their day while making a yummy treat. Nostalgia Electrics makes an assortment of really fun small cooking appliances from quesadilla makers all the way to donut hole bakers and everything in between. You could make your own soft and fluffy shaved ice treats or your own slush drinks with their Electric Shaved Ice Machine. Or, whip up a batch of homemade peanut butter and you’re ready for packing back to school lunches. Make it an opportunity to build memories together and reconnect after their long day away from home. You can find Nostalgia Electrics products at most major retailers including Target, Walmart, Sears, Amazon and more.

Little Students

Help aid your little student’s transition out of pull-ups with B Sensible‘s fitted sheets. We all know that potty training is an important part of making sure your little one is ready for school. Helping in the case of nighttime accidents, B Sensible’s fitted sheets provide a soft and absorbent place for your child to sleep. This fitted sheet also doubles as a mattress protector and quickly absorbs any nighttime wetness; providing your child with a dry bed. Perfect for a crib, toddler, twin, and full size mattress, B Sensible‘s fitted sheets provide a breathable, fresh, and noiseless fitted sheet/mattress pad combo. Machine washable, your little student will sleep with ease and comfort.

Growing up, each year, one of my favorite parts of “back to school” was choosing a new backpack. Carrying on that tradition with my new preschooler, he can’t wait to wear his Lassig Wildlife Mini Backpack to school. Designed for kids ages 3+, HABA’s whimsical animal designed backpacks and lunch boxes will make a statement traveling to and from school. Small enough to fit perfectly on your child’s back, yet large enough to carry everything needed, your child will fall in love with Lassig‘s 6 wildlife designs: tiger, owl, elephant, rhino, giraffe, and turtle. At only $29.99 Lassig Wildlife Mini Backpacks are perfect for every budget.

Although my little student is coming up on 3 years old, we still use video monitors in our house to keep an eye on things. Whether he’s playing in the other room, working on school work, or sleeping during the night, I worry less when I can watch him through his video monitor. Here to help provide a little extra reassurance, Angelcare Digital Video, Movement, and Sound Monitor helps me to be able to hear AND see my son at any given time. As the leader in movement monitors, Angelcare has combined its under-the-mattress sensor pad with high quality sound and video. This sensor pad detects movement and will alarm if no movement is detected for more than 20 seconds. The incredible features of this video monitor are endless: night/day vision, 2 way LCD touch screen, temperature display, zoom features, and rechargeable parent unit. Help your little student sleep in safety with Angelcare Digital Video, Movement, and Sound Monitor.

Dressed for Success

Get them styled from head-to-toe with the perfect back to school look. The Children’s Place has cool looks no matter their style. Pick from active wear, school uniforms, or the hottest trends to make the most of your school wardrobe. You can find incredible prices on their clearance section and The Children’s Place always has hot sales prices that let you dress your kids in style on a budget. August is free shipping month at The Children’s Place, so you can find great styles and skip the shipping fee!

Prepare your kids for the rain and snow to come with all-weather shoes that will keep their feet warm and dry! Kamik rainboot series, like their Stormin2 are 100% waterproof with a soft neoprene upper and waterproof, lightweight, injected rubber shell and rubber outsole.They are comfort rated to as low as -22ºF. Moms will love that the boots have an antibacterial, removable footbed. Kids will love that they can put on their boots and head outside to stomp in puddles without coming in with soaking wet feet. Visit Kamik’s website to find all their rainboot styles as well as sandals and hiking boots. They have styles for mom and dad, too.

Which of these picks would help your family this school year?