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When my oldest son, The Goof, was little I always imagined I would be the mom that always volunteered in class. I would be there weekly to help in the room, heck, maybe I would even be room mom. Oh the ambitious visions I had.
When my oldest finally started elementary school, I had eighteen-month-old twins. And the school has a policy of no younger siblings in the classroom. My plans of room mom, let alone volunteering weekly, were no longer a viable option.
I am not going to lie, that first semester of his Kindergarten year, I felt like the un-involved parent. I sent items for the class, I emailed with his teacher about things, but I still felt like I wasn’t doing enough. Maybe it was mom guilt, but it definitely was not a feeling I liked having. So I set out to find other ways to help support my son’s school, without being in the classroom.
How To Support Your Kid’s School When You Can’t Be In the Classroom
I wish I could be in the classroom for my son, but for me, twin toddlers keep me from being able to do so. Some parents have to work, others may not be able to be int he classroom for health reasons. Whatever the reason you can’t be in the classroom, here are some alternative ways to support your kid’s school. (Plus I have a super easy craft and free printable to help at the end.)
Participate In Theme Days
The first thing I did that made me feel like I was support my kid’s school and being an involved parent was when they had their first week of themed days. You know the ones I am talking about, right? Hat day, pajama day, and of course crazy hair day.
It may seem like something so trivial, but the organizers put a lot of thought into the theme of each day and many times there are activities in the classroom surrounding the theme. Making sure your child participates in the theme (if they want to, not forcing them to) is a great way to support your kid’s school.
Hit Up The Grocery Store
One of the easiest ways to support your kid’s school is to just go grocery shopping. Confused? Let me explain how you can support your kid’s school with a trip to your local Walmart.
When you are doing your grocery shopping at Walmart, simply look for your favorite General Mills. When you are looking for them, check the packaging to see if they have Box Tops for Education on them.
These were so easy to pick up as we already use many of these food items in our home. I know my kids love yogurt, so instead of buying individual ones, I simply picked up the Yoplait® Original Fridge Pack. We like to have a family taco night, so the Old El Paso™ Taco Dinner Kit was a great way to take care of dinner for a night, plus support my kid’s school.
Between the items we always get and special treat items like Totino’s™ Combination Pizza Party Pack and Mott’s Medleys® Fruit Snacks I was able to get quite a few Box Tops that my child can turn into his school.
If you make sure to purchase 5 items (which really, is not hard because we eat a lot of General Mills products) you can earn 50 Bonus Box Tops!!!
That is a lot of support for your child’s school! So how does it work?
To start, you will want to download the Box Tops Bonus App from iTunes App Store or Google Play for Android devices. The app is totally free. You will use it to scan your receipt when you buy participating items and then you will earn 50 bonus Box Tops. That is equal to $5 for your child’s school.
It really is as easy as 1-2-3.
- Buy 5 participating items. Many of them were even marked with this special offer on the box at our local Walmart
- Scan your receipt using the app
- Earn extra money for your child’s school
And, these Bonus Box Tops can be earned in combination with the Box Tops on the packaging, used with coupons or store discounts and promotions. So you don’t have to give up savings to support your child’s school.
This offer is available through 1/31/18
Keep reading to get a super fun and easy craft and free printable to help get your family excited about Box Tops after these tips on supporting your kid’s school.
Attend Family Night Events
One way I am supporting my kid’s school this year is by trying to make sure to attend most, if not all of the Family Night Events. Our school has an event about once every other month. While normally my toddlers are in bed before these events get over, I try to make an exception and let them stay up late these nights so that we can attend as a family and support our kid’s school.
Many of these events are free but have a fundraiser aspect. For example, family movie night is free, but the concession stand raises money for the school.
Just attending the event shows support for the faculty and parents that put in the time to plan all of the events. Sometimes that is just as important as financial support. We know how it feels to work really hard on something, and then have nobody show up. So just showing up for the few evening events can mean the world to those who plan it.
How To Get Your Family Excited About Supporting Your School
Now that you have some ideas on how you can support your kid’s school, even if you can not be in the classroom, how do you find a way to get your family excited about supporting the school.
That is another thing I love about Box Tops for Education. My entire family loves searching for the Box Tops in the store and then making sure we cut them out before throwing away or recycling the packaging.
The only problem I had is that I would lose the Box Tops before it was time to turn them in. So I am excited to show you this super awesome, and easy DIY to store your Box Tops, plus I have a free printable to help get your kids excited about collecting box tops.
DIY Box Tops Container
This container is so simple and easy. I took a Yoplait container from the fridge pack (which had Box Tops on it),washed it out, and cut a strip of paper to go around it. I let the Goof color the paper. You could use stickers or paint. Whatever you want. I made sure to label it with Box Tops so we knew what was inside.
I just used tape to attach the paper but you could use glue. I also traced the top of the container on a piece of card stock which I glued to the top of the container and cut a strip in it so that we could put Box Tops in.
I learned the hard way that this is an important step. And yes, it is important to glue the top on. It only takes one or two times being knocked over to realize you want that top stuck on there.
Then in order to know how many Box Tops we had, and for motivation, I created a chart to help us keep track. You can get the free printable at the bottom of this post.
Finally, I attached a magnet to the container so we could stick the container on the fridge.
I put both the container and the printable on our fridge where we could see them. Now when we use an item that has Box Tops, we simply cut out the Box Top clip and put it in the container.
Our school often has competitions for collecting Box Tops or they will call for them to be collected by a certain date. I have a spot on the printable for you to note the date they are due. When the Box Tops are due simple cut open or pull off the top of the container and take in the Box Tops to your child’s school.
Be sure to download the app to get those bonus Box Tops and then take the clipped Box Tops into the school.
Free Printable Box Tops Chart
This chart has been so fun for my son. He loves to keep track of how many Box Tops he has collected. We color in one star for each Box Top and if I need to, I print out a second chart. I didn’t put numbers on the stars so that you can choose how to color them in. Some families may collect enough Box Tops that they want a start to equal 5 Box Tops, so I wanted to leave it blank.
To download this printable you can click on the preview image or Download Here
A few things to know about our printables:
- They are for personal use only!
- If you want to share them, that is awesome! Please direct people back to this post in order to do so.
- In order to download, be sure when the preview screen pops up you then click the Download Button and choose to either save or open using a PDF reader. Once you open the chart in the reader, you can print it. Printing from the online preview can change the size of the printable, so this is a necessary step.
- Enjoy!
Start collecting those Box Tops and support your child’s school!
