Back to school

This post is brought to you by Officeworks

 

This is a special year for me.

This year my youngest son starts big school. I would like to consider myself a pro after seeing my older two off to school – Big M is going into Year 5 this year and Miss J will be in Year 4. With three kids starting school things can get a little expensive.

The school has a brand new sports uniform so all three kids will need a brand new one and I will also be up for three sets of school shoes. Big M will go through at least two pairs of school shoes, not sure what he does with them, maybe he just has a gift 🙂 the gift of destroying school shoes with ease.

But aside from school fees and uniforms there is also the ‘Class List’. That list of items your child needs at the beginning of the year. Pens, pencils, ruler and now with computers and the introduction of iPads they even need things like earphones and usb sticks.

It can all add up, especially with more than one school-aged child.

This week we got the Officeworks catalogue in the mail and I was really impressed with not only the range but also the prices. Officeworks has touted itself as the “One Stop School Shop” and I would have to agree, they seem to have everything we need.

This year is a big year for Big M as these will be his last couple of years in Primary School. My husband and I really want to get him into a good routine for home work and study so we have set up his desk. Rather than being a bit of a mess for toys and rubbish we have transformed it into place where he can do homework and study. The only thing we need is a chair – he wants one like at Dad’s office. The Charlie Chair (below) is perfect and super cheap – YAY! – only $29.

The Charlie Chair from Officeworks, $29.

Miss J loves to cover her books with fancy contact and covers. Officeworks have a huge range brilliant school book covers. The ones below took Miss J’s fancy and are only $1.88 each.

Book covers from Officeworks, $1.88 each.

This year Grandad has promised to take all three kids to Officeworks to get their ‘school stuff’. (You’ve gotta love Grandad!) The kids will all take their class requirements list and they will have heaps of fun wandering around Officeworks with Grandad getting all their brand new supplies for the school year ahead.

Take the hassle out with the free school list service.

If wandering around a shop searching for things isn’t your idea of fun then you’ll be happy to know that Officeworks offer a free school list service. You just drop your school list into an Officeworks store, they will pick & pack your items for free and call or sms when they are ready to collect – hassle free.

Plus…they offer the Parent’s Price Promise.

The Parent’s Price Promise means if you find an identical stocked item on a quoted school list at a lower price, Officeworks will beat it by 20%.

Everything for growing minds.

This month Officeworks has launched it’s Growing Minds App which has fun, cognitive learning games for kids in primary and secondary school. The app is great for keeping kids engaged during the school holiday period plus helps them ease back into school after the long summer break. The app has three games and a further three games can be un-locked when you visit an Officeworks store (activated by geo-location). It’s free and will be released for Android on 1 Jan 2015, and is also available from iTunes.

The Officeworks Growing Minds app

And apart from having everything we need for back to school, at reasonable prices, the Glebe Officeworks store will again be supporting the Smith Family Back to School Appeal. The appeal which runs from 1 Jan – 15 Feb 2015 helps disadvantaged young Australians get the most out of their education. Last year the Back to School Appeal, in conjunction with the Glebe community helped raise $80,000 worth of school supplies for The Smith Family. A National Fundraising Day on 12 February 2015 will see all 153 Officeworks stores host various fun activities for their local communities.

To be a part of this great cause you can head into the Glebe Officeworks store and purchase a stationery donation card, write your name on it and place it in the store window to show your support. Donations can also be made at the register or online.

Do you have any tips on how you get your kids ready for the new school year?

 

>>>>UPDATE: Below is a picture of all our goodies we picked up from Officeworks. We even have a brand new Charlie Chair (Big M wanted yellow). Happy to report that all was in budget which made Grandad happy because he was paying!!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post brought to you by Officeworks. However any opinions expressed in this post are my own.