Let’s face it, kids don’t love to play with the same toys over and over. When they’ve learned to master a toy, they just seem to throw it to the side and go on to the next toy. For this reason, I’ve included some amazing monthly subscriptions so you are sure to keep your child not only entertained but also educated with something new every month. It’s good to keep your child motivated while they are out of school. These activities that I’ve included will be great for the weekends and time off during the holidays. They will be so fun that they won’t even know their learning something new. So let’s keep our kids motivated all year long with fun educational activities!
Testing Mom
Testing Mom is an online educational program that’s designed to help parents and their kids aged Pre-K through the 8th grade develop a lifelong love of learning. A membership includes over 100,000 practice questions, 40 bundled educational programs from their premier partners, and many fun skill-building games that kids love. You can start today and become a member for free. Your child can immediately start practicing with questions, practice tests, interactive games, and printables for gifted and talented, private school admissions, state tests and common core. With a membership, you will also have access to premier skill-building programs to help enhance your child’s English, reading, math, social studies, science skills and more. Parents and kids both will enjoy all the fun activities that Testing Mom has to offer. Start with 100 Free Practice Questions at TestingMom.com // OR Subscribe now at TestingMom.com (Membership includes all children in your family)
Thinkster Math
Thinkster Math is a tablet-based math learning program. It’s a world-class curriculum with the help from real, experienced teachers. Your dedicated math coach grades your child’s work every day, provides relevant feedback and offers one-on-one coaching sessions. As your child develops math skills, they will provide real-time insights into their strengths and weaknesses. You can also view your child’s work and check-in on their progress. I love that this program can be downloaded so your child can do their activities anytime, anywhere. You don’t even need wifi so it’s great for when you go on vacations. You simply download the worksheets and go! Kids will love this program as they get rewarded for their work by earning points and playing math games. These points can be exchanged for gift cards to their favorite stores! They can even compete with their friends or fellow Thinkster students.
You can begin with a Free 7-Day Trial. Included is a free skills assessment and consultation with an academic advisor. You will also get one free one-on-one session with an expert math tutor, and access to 100,000+ worksheets. If you aren’t satisfied with the program within the first 15 days of your subscription, they guarantee you a full refund! This is truly a great program to help keep your children brushed up on their math skills and be prepared for testing.
Teach My Yoga Mat
The Teach My Yoga Mat Set™ – Fish & Learn is designed to encourage active learning. Research has shown that children who move while learning may absorb more. Plus, physical activity is important for a healthy mind and body. Your child can master the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors, while on the move! With a coordinated yoga mat, magnetic fishing rods, magnetic fish and inflatable dice, your child will have so much fun that they won’t even realize they are learning. What better way to prepare them for a new school year than with something that makes learning fun! Purchase at TeachMy.com
Bitsbox – Coding for Kids
StemBox – STEM Learning Kits
Each month StemBox delivers hands-on STEM learning to girls 8-13. Girls also receive exposure to some of today’s most inspiring women in STEM through educational videos and interviews. At StemBox, they believe in breaking down stereotypical ideas about gender and toys. They love it when we see boys asking for their own StemBoxes and becoming young STEMinists. Science is for everyone! However, due to the lack of girls in STEM it is clear that action needs to be taken to reach out to girls who may not think science is for them by meeting them where their interests currently lie. And sometimes that means adding a bit of pink! Subscribe now at MyStemBox.com
Little Passports
Keep your child entertained while they’re out of school with Little Passports. They offer lots of exciting adventures of exploring the world. You simply select the adventure and subscription plan that’s right for your child. Little Passports offer fun and engaging products for children ages 3-14. They’ll love how much fun these activities are and you’ll love how much they are being educated too. Your child’s imagination will run wild while discovering all about the world. Little Passports is great for a wide range of ages. You can purchase individual items or simply subscribe and enjoy monthly adventures with your kids. Subscribe now at LittlePassports.com // Coupon Code: Use code READY for 15% off your first subscription (exp 8/14)
STEM Club Toy Subscription
Spark your child’s curiosity every month with new STEM toys. They will love these hands-on and engineered toys no matter what age. This STEM Club is grouped into three different subscription types: Ages 3-4, Ages 5-7, and Ages 8-13. The toys will be handpicked by Amazon’s toy experts every month. You will receive age appropriate STEM activities for your child. Subscribe now at Amazon.com
18 thoughts on “Educate and Motivate Back To School Gift Guide 2017 + Giveaway!”
We like to purchase the grandchildren educational toys and items that they can play and learn. Many good ideas here.
What a great sounding round up of ideas for buying for back to school, I like the look of the yoga mat, that sounds absolutely fantastic and a great way for calming and relaxing.
Great ideas! Do you know if they ship internationally?
Yes some of them do.
What an awesome giveaway. The stem learning kits look like a lot of fun.
As a physicist, I am a firm believer in daily skill builders, like Testing Mom. When I was teaching Algebra, I noticed kids had gaps in their math skills. Maybe they had a bad day when that skill was taught, I don’t know. The problem is, if these skills go unaddressed, they gaps (and frustration) can grow. Not only do daily remedial skills help patch these gaps, they also let your kids function well within their comfort zone instead of always doing math just at the edge of their understanding.
This is a great list of back to school essentials. I love how educational these are. THe coding one sounds amazing!!
These seem like great ideas. My kids always do activites during the summer and other holidays so I’m going to check out some of these and see which ones would be best for them.
When I was younger, I used to have practice stuff like this online. It made a huge difference in my love for learning.
This is a great giveaway. I’m sure my daughter will learn more in this stuff.
Loving these! I’ve always loved learning about subscription boxes that the kids will love and will learn from as well. I’m pretty sure my daughter will enjoy any of these!
How awesome, such great products here and so many useful ones. I love the yoga mat that is really neat! – Jeanine
What an awesome giveaways. I’m pretty sure that my little ones will definitely love and will learn about this stuff.
This is a great giveaways. I’m pretty sure that my kids will definitely love it and will learn more about this stuff.
I had seen the BitsBox advertised on youtube and it was AMAZING to see those kids do coding! Here I am, can barely boot my computer into “safe mode” and they are writing code. Ha!
I know stem is such a big thing now. Although now they call it STEAM adding the “A” for art. But I know that the toys you can get for Steam help with the learning. And doing stuff with your hands reiterates some of that learning.
I don’t have kiddos yet but I’m definitely going to have to give some of these as gifts to some cousins, love making learning fun!
What a wonderful idea! I wish they would have had things like this when my kids were little. I’ll definitely be looking to these further, as they would make great gifts for both of my grandchildren. x