My wife, a Victorian primary school teacher, has just (today!) launched a monthly book subscription that provides high quality children's picture books and custom designed activities that focus on children's social and emotional development.
To celebrate the launch she's offering 25% off the cost of your subscription for the first invoice.
My OzBargain tip is that the 25% discount applies to the first invoice, which means if you sign up for quarterly billing you get 3 months at the discounted rate, rather than just the one.
What is included?
The subscription focuses on a different social emotional topic each month and includes:
🌟 Two high quality children's literature books.
🌟 A theme based activity/toy for parents and children to enjoy together.
🌟 Notes to support parents with their children's exploration of the concepts covered by the books and activities.
🌟 Further support, resources, activities and books around the current theme to continue the discussion.
As a general rule these aren't the kind of books you'll find in K-mart / Big W. Which don't get me wrong, our kids have plenty of those books too! However, you can think of most books available from the big name stores as being equivalent to movie flicks. They're generally solid entertainment and they absolutely have a place 'in your diet', but they're not usually pushing any boundaries or stimulating new ideas - they're not the kind of thing you'll remember.
Instead, My Book Bag's books are highly entertaining and beautifully illustrated whilst being creatively designed to get the brain ticking over. They're focused on their social/emotional educational value and are designed to help kids understand and cope with their emotions and also specific situations/events that kids are going to come across. However, they're far from the boring dry "educational books" of old.
My wife might kill me for saying this, but if you remember your childhood and there was that one kooky teacher known for their energy and wacky ideas - that's my wife. She's a teacher that truly understand that kids learn better when they're having a good time. Kids love her, and she's well respected by her peers, having been elected as a member of her school's curriculum planning committees etc.
The activities in the subscription are high quality too. Custom designed by my wife for both enjoyment and their educational value i.e. they're not just cobbled together garbage that is sometimes found in subscriptions boxes, rather she's applying the same processes she follows when designing activities for her classroom.
Contact / Support
My wife has never run a business before, previously having only spent her time teaching and volunteering. So I'd love to direct your attention to the fact there's a contact form on the website. If there's something you think could be improved, please let her know. Feedback is invaluable!
About
My Book Bag was inspired by our three year old daughter who was recently diagnosed with a life-long chronic illness. Our first instinct after her diagnosis was to try and arm ourselves with as much knowledge as possible. We read and read everything we could. However, being only three our daughter’s only real source of knowledge about what was happening to her came from us. She was understandably going through a roller-coaster of emotions and we found ourselves scrambling to find information and resources that she could process. We spent hours upon hours online searching for kid friendly books to try and help her talk about what she was going through.
This is when it hit us. When parents and children are in any kind of emotional situation, they need resources easily available. They shouldn’t have to search hours upon hours to find books that are potentially useless and a waste of money. What if these resources were easily available? What if parents already had the tools available to assist children? Tools to help them be brave when they’re scared, to try and think positively, to let them know that it’s ok to feel sad and worried, and give them words to help express how they’re feeling. Thus, My Book Bag was born.
Ally is a mum of two very spirited girls (three and one) and a Primary School Teacher with a bachelor in Psychology. She has taught in Primary Schools across South East Melbourne for the past 8 years, and prior to this volunteered in schools in Cambodia, South Africa and India. As an educator, Ally uses books as a tool to create conversations amongst children about topics ranging from from literacy to science, to well-being to mathematics! Now more than ever it’s important for children to develop the skills to become emotionally and socially intelligent. Ally wants to share her experience and knowledge so that the conversations that happen in the classroom can happen at home too.
Pricing
I'm an OzBargainer myself, and I want to save you clicks 😂
There are 4 subscription options for the different age brackets, but they're all priced the same.
Monthly
Sale Price: $30 for the first month + $9.95 shipping
Ongoing: $40/mo + $9.95 shipping
Quarterly
Sale Price: For the first 3 months, $27.50.mo + $9.95 shipping i.e. $112.35 for the 3 months
Ongoing: $36.67/mo + $9.95 shipping i.e. $139.85 every 3 month thereafter
Cancellation
There's no contracts or lock-in of any kind i.e. you can cancel at any stage. You won't be charged again. You will of course continue to receive anything you've already paid for!
Shipping
As above, $9.95 per month. Shipping is not discounted by the sale.
Also, having just launched the website, it's still a bit bare bones and doesn't make this clear. However, if you sign up to multiple subscriptions delivered to the same address, you only need to pay for shipping once.
Just wanted to say great work launching this and for trying to make a difference in children’s lives, and thinking of your daughter :)