Parenting Packs: Starting School

For an overview of the Book Bundles and Parenting Packs early literacy kits, please visit the original post. The cost listed is the list price of each item, regardless of whether or not we got it on sale/discount. The activity sheets and resource guide amount was calculated by cost of binder clip + lamination sheets.

Itemized List

• Carrying Tote ($15.99) — The Container Store
• Foxy by Emma Dodd ($14.99) — Baker & Taylor
• Helping Your Child Overcome Separation Anxiety or School Refusal by Eisen, Engler, & Sparrow  ($18.95) — Baker & Taylor
• Maisy Goes to Preschool by Lucy Cousins ($6.99) — Baker & Taylor
• Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten by Hyewon Yum ($16.99) — Baker & Taylor
• Lil Movers School Bus by Fisher Price ($17.99) — Amazon
• Ready, Set, School! ($32.99) — Amazon
• Vinyl Bag ($2.99) — The Container Store
• Activity Sheets & Resource Guide ($3.00) — created in-house

Total: $130.88

For the kids books: Foxy addresses school anxiety and that was really important to include. Then, I decided to have one book that focused on starting preschool (Maisy Goes to Preschool) and one book that focused on kindergarten (Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten!).

For the caregiver: Just one book on separation anxiety. I know that is one of the major concerns with parents and I thought that the book Helping Your Child Overcome Separation Anxiety or School Refusal really made a lot of helpful suggestions.

I included the Lil Movers School Bus because of previous attendance at one of our school’s kindergarten registration. Most of the questions from the caregivers are about taking the bus. “Where does the bus stop?” “How long will the driver wait?” “What if I’m not there to meet the bus?” “How many days a week can they take the bus?” “Who do I call if they’re not going to be on the bus?” Since caregivers are nervous about the bus, I know that the kids will pick up on this. Hopefully the Lil Movers School Bus can be used for some dramatic play to help talk out those concerns.

The “Ready, Set, School!” kit comes with lots of material. I included: safety scissors; dry-erase marker; all of the spiral-bound books; and the shoelace tying kit. I removed the consumables, crayons, and stencils to make this useful for the Pack. These items will let kids practice many of the school-ready skills that they will need.

It’s the end of May and the Starting School Parenting Pack has gone out 3 times since launching at the end of November! This doesn’t surprise me and I expect that this Pack will see a lot more use over the summer and into the beginning of the school year.