As students head back to school this fall, many will head out to shop for brand new, shiny school supplies. But some will not have the resources they need to be successful. That’s where you and Elmer’s come in. This year, let’s join together and Bag It Forward, by picking up an extra bag of school supplies and donating it locally in your community.

This summer, Elmer’s is teaming up with bloggers across the country to kickoff the Bag it Forward movement. These bloggers are gathering school supply bags for families, organizations and teachers, and encouraging others to join in. In addition, Elmer’s is donating one product for every “Like” on the Elmer’s Facebook page to the Kids In Need foundation, and an additional item for every view the video on the Kids In Need tab receives.

Join us in the #BagItForward movement and give someone you know a bag of school supplies! Together we can make a difference.

If your family homeschools, chances are you’ve just started a new school year or you’re preparing to begin after Labor Day. In additional to what’s needed at home, your children may have supply lists from a co-op or other outside classes.

Your shopping trip for those items is the perfect time to collect Bag it Forward supplies.

One day per week our family participates in Classical Conversations, a classical-model program for homeschoolers. I tutor (teach) a high school class. To get to know each other better and prep for the upcoming school year, the tutors recently had a sleepover.

Of the fourteen women who attended, three have husbands who are currently unemployed or only have part-time work. A family whose son attends my class is in the same situation. Thanks to supplies that have been given to me for the Bag it Forward program, our family was able to put together four bags of school supplies to donate to these families.

If your family can’t afford a complete second set of supplies, that’s okay; every little bit helps.

I hope that our family’s Bag it Forward story will give you ideas for helping others in your local homeschool group or community. Believe me, both your family and those you help will be blessed by it.

Submitted by Dawn Camp

As a former classroom teacher, I know that most parents care deeply about their child’s success in school.  And most teachers want their students to reach their goals, too.

Too often, though, we wait to develop a relationship with the educator until there is a challenge.  And at that point the conversation more easily devolves into an adversarial relationship: who did what wrong?

You can partner with your child’s teacher for back to school success by establishing a sense of teamwork early on in the school year.

• Introduce yourself to the teacher during the first week of school either with a quick phone call or a short note.  This is just a short greeting to let the teacher know that you are interested in supporting the teacher’s work with your child.  Forward the teacher a card with your child’s name, your name, your phone number, and your e-mail address, and a short note communicating that the teacher should feel to contact you at any time.
• If your child has an IEP, make sure that you have the most recent copy and that teachers have the pertinent information from the IEP.  IEPs must be accessible to classroom teachers but in many districts they are not distributed to the teacher due to confidentiality concerns.  If this is the case, you may wish to notify the district that you will provide a copy to each teacher or to highlight relevant portions.
• Share your child’s learning style with the teacher in a positive way but keep in mind that your child may experience the classroom differently than he does the home. Let the teacher know that you find at home your child needs a few extra seconds or a pen and pad to write out an answer before responding to questions but then allow the teacher, your child, and the other students to find their own rhythm together.
• Try to attend “Back-to-School” night but save any larger areas of concern for a parent-teacher conference.  This is an opportunity to match faces with names and to learn about the class.
• Make sure that you are receiving any communications your teacher is sending home.  Let your child know that if he or she runs into any difficulties at school that you will help solve them but that if they are hiding information you cannot help and your child will lose your trust.
• Contact the teacher at your first concern.  Approach the teacher as a partner (which will be easier if you said “hello” in the beginning of the year).  Discuss ways you can better support your child’s learning.  Have your child show you his assignment book and check in with your child as he works on long-term assignments.
• Remember that you have a one, possibly several kids in the class but a high school teacher may see 150 or more students a day.  If you need to check-up on assignments, rather than then demanding the teacher e-mail you at regular intervals, schedule a reminder to yourself to contact the teacher.  Let him know that you have not seen a quiz grade in a few weeks or that your child says there has not been an essay assigned and ask him to verify if that information is correct.
• Encourage your child to work towards age-appropriate independence and resist the urge to always save her from her own mistakes.  Identify areas for which your child can be responsible: a kindergartner must remember his backpack, an elementary school students should write down assignments in a notepad, a high school students should be able to meet long-term deadlines with a minimal amount of reminders.  Discuss expectations and provide plenty of practice, building towards eventual independence.

Start off on the right foot and you and your child’s teacher will be able to work together as a team.

Submitted by Candace Lindemann

I did my shopping and whrrl and blog posts for the Bag it Forward campaign. At the time I did my shopping, which included grabbing a few things here and there along the way over the course of a few weeks, I really didn’t have a child or family in mind. I approached there families during that time but they had either already purchased supplies or their school sold kits and they had purchased those.

I simply took the list for kindergarten and doubled it so that I could give to a child in one of the classes (there are 3)

Last night as I came rolling in from after another day at the baseball park I was beat down. Not only was I exhausted from the sun, the driving and the pile of laundry in my family room floor, I was behind on a few columns and needed to just catch up. However, my mom said that my son had cried for me the night before. This kid has never been a momma’s boy, preferring my mom to me any time. But, he was with her while I was gone and was upset because I wasn’t home yet.

When he arrived home last night, he wanted to sit in my lap, hug on me, and just lay on me and kiss me over and over. He asked if we could go out to eat and I first said no. Then, I realized that he was needing my attention and although it was almost 8 pm, we headed out. The plans were a place close, like within 10 miles or so. But, he asked for a place in particular so we obliged him. He eats well, likes fruits and veggies and this place offers that so how could we say no.

Once inside and seated, the server approached our table. Since we eat there often, this was a young girl that we had talked with before. I knew a little bit about her but mostly it was always small talk. Anyway, she asked me about the school where my kids go and told me her son was registered to start kindergarten there this fall. She inquired about the “meet the teacher” meeting and I explained it to her.

Without even realizing what I was doing, I asked her if she had purchased the laundry list of supplies that are required by our school. She turned white as a ghost. She kind of nodded her head in the negative and I could tell I had hit a nerve. As soon as I realized that she was in a predicament that wasn’t comfortable, I practically yelled, “GOOD THEN DON’T”. I had my family and student in need and it was just that easy. She indicated that she had not even seen the list and didn’t know what was on it.

I didn’t have my list with me but I knew I had almost everything on it minus maybe some kleenex and hand sanitizer. She looked at me funny when I yelled out and I backed up to explain about the Elmer’s Glue campaign and the Bag it Forward. I got her name and number and found out that she is working all day today. I am taking Jace to get his shots later today as I am a bad parent and have been putting it off. He isn’t even registered for school yet…ooops.

They are pushing our start date back due to funding so I just kept pushing the shot date back too. Anyway, I’m gathering my supplies for this young girl (maybe 22 or 23) and I will make another photo of them to share here. I also told her that I would bring those supplies to her today and would go by and get the rest of the items on the list so all she would have to worry about would be his backpack and PE shoes. And, truth be known, I probably have shoes from the boys that have been hardly worn that will fit him for that purpose since they have to leave them at school anyway.

I’m going to ask today when I take this package to her at work.

I told you all that to say, when she left our table to go get our drinks, she had tears in her eyes. She just continued to thank me and almost every time she approached our table, she left in tears.

You all know I’ve done these campaigns before but for some reason, this one has me by the heart strings and I’m not sure if I can recover. Thanks to CB and Elmer’s for allowing me to take part in this campaign. The bottom line is this……….you guys rock!

Back to School is on the brain, mostly because of the Elmer’s Bag It Forwardcampaign that I’m participating in, not because my son is going back to school (he’s only 2). I was thinking back to the things that we used to do as kids when preparing for going back to school in the fall and one thing I remember is making book covers for our textbooks.

As a frugal mother of 5, my mom was all about recycling and making do, especially because all 5 of us went to Catholic school which meant lots of tuition to pay. She often made us book covers from brown grocery bags, which were durable and free plus they gave us a lot of room to doodle and add stickers to personalize our books.

For this project, I’m using a map which I got in the mail for free.

You could use brown bags, or even a washed and cut open potato chip bag like in this post from Make and Takes.

Materials:

• Map
• Textbook
• scissors
• Transparent tape
• Elmer’s glue stick
• Magazines, stickers, decorative paper, or any other items

Step One
Lay out your map with your book on top of it in the middle to get the sizing right. You don’t want too much excess paper or it will be bulky.

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Cut the map so that it’s about 2″ longer along the top and bottom

Center the book in the middle of the map, then fold it over the book. Be sure the map wraps around the book too, though if it’s too long no worries. We’ll be trimming it later.

You’ll want about 3-4″ on each end so that you can tuck it inside the book so that the cover stays on.
Step Two
Center the book on the map, making sure that it’s evenly placed between the top and bottom (I’m referring to the top and bottom sides of the book), then fold up the bottom edge to line up with the bottom edge of the book.

Remove the book and make a good crease, then lay the book on top of the fold.

Do the same thing with the top edge

Step Three
Now it’s time to fold the flaps in. Center your book again, then fold the front flap over the front cover.

I like to crease my fold along the edge of the book first,

then open it back up and fold it properly.

You can cut off any excess here too. I suggest leaving about 3-4″ on the flap.

Step Four
With the transparent tape, secure the top and bottom of the flap to the cover.

Don’t tape it to the book, as you want the cover to be able to slide a bit when you open and close it.

Do the same thing to the back cover.

This is a little trickier because after you fold the edge, you need to slide the book inside the flap. Just take your time and remember that you can always turn the book “inside out” to fit it in. Then your book will be nice and snugly covered like this:

Step Five
This step is optional, but it’s the best part for the kids. Decorating! Gather your favorite stickers, magazine pages, drawings, whatever and start gluing them to the cover. I took some scraps of decorative paper

and glued it as a band across the middle of the cover.

I wrapped it around the back and folded it over the flaps.

Then I added a flower embellishment and wrote the title of the book on the paper with a Sharpie marker

and also on the side

This cute book cover might, just MIGHT get your child to do their math homework.

To help ease some of the stress associated with schools supplies Elmer’s has put together an awesome program called “Bag It Forward.”  Based on the well know idea of  “paying it forward” we are asking parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors and friends to help out a student  in need simply by buying a few extra school supplies this back to school season to “bag” forward to someone they know that may be in need of a little extra help this fall.

We have chosen a fantastic group of  bloggers to participate in this program!  They will be spreading the word throughout the social media community as well as in their own local communities about how easy it is to “Bag It Forward.”  Please join us as we share tips and ideas for back to school and follow us as we help change back to school one bag at a time.

~ Kim @CraftyMamaof4