It’s time for another fun giveaway, this time from our friends at Mabel’s Labels — perfect for back-to-school!! I was provided a Mabel’s Labels Ultimate Back-to-School Combo set for the purposes of this review, and once again their labels and tags exceeded my expectations.
What I love about the Mabel’s Labels Ultimate Back-to-School Combo pack:
- Includes everything you need to label your child’s belongings for the school year, so lost items are more likely to be returned. Set includes 40 Skinny-Minis (we use these on pens, rulers, lunch boxes, and snack containers), 50 Tag Mates (laundry safe to stick to clothing care tags), 16 Shoe Labels (extra water-proof), and 2 Teeny Tags (for zipper pulls on sport bags or back packs).
- Durability — These labels are made to last a very long time. We’ve had sets for a few years now and they still look new, despite numerous dishwasher cycles.
- All labels are dishwasher safe, microwave safe, UV resistant, and satisfaction is guaranteed. Mabel’s Labels is well-known for their high quality products, excellent customer service, and attention to detail! Plus, as a company I found them to be extremely mom-friendly!!
- There are several super-CUTE designs to choose from.
- Less lost items = more saved money.
Now the fun part — One very lucky Frugal Family Fun Blog reader will win a customized Mabel’s Labels Ultimate Back-to-School Combo pack!! To enter for your chance to win, leave a comment on this post with your best tip for getting your kids ready for the back-to-school routine.
Giveaway is open to all US and Canadian residents, and ends Saturday, August 20th at 6:30pm EST. Winner will be chosen at random and contacted via email.
Good luck!!
Giveaway is now closed, and the winner is…. Gigi!! Congratulations, and a big thank you to everyone who entered this fun giveaway. Another great giveaway starts soon!!
we homeschool sonour getting back not routine is all about waking up at the same time & eating breakfast together. In the summer we all eat & wake up at different times. Once school starts the first of our lessons begins at breakfast. 🙂
You are right…this is a fun giveaway!! I would love to win this!
My best tip is to print out a kid-friendly morning routine schedule (with pictures) that can be displayed where they see it each morning. That helped us so much last year!
Well actually this is my son’s first year of preschool so I don’t have any tips as a parent but as a teacher I suggest making sure to check the weather each morning to make sure your child is properly dressed!
Love this giveaway! As a preschool teacher I can’t stress enough how much easier this makes things when it comes time to pack up bags…especially in the beginning of the year…especially with very young children.
In order to get ready for the new school year we start trying to get back to a schedule in terms of morning & evening times & routines, but other than that we try to squeeze out all the last fun and lazy days of summer…lots of visits to the pool & just enjoying being together!!!
Our daughter has not officially started school yet, but preschool will be soon. So the one thing I remember doing when I was in school that helped a lot was getting ready and together the night before. I plan on using this same technique with her as well!
*Getting everything together and ready the night before…. missed a word there!
let them pick out their own new shoes and clothes!
I wish I had some tips, but all I got is to be organized! My guys are little, so I’ll be reading everyone else’s tips to help us out this fall.
Have a morning soundtrack so that everyone knows that by the time they hear one song they should be eating breakfast or by the time they hear another song they should have their shoes on.
LOVE this idea! I’m so going to steal it!
I think I need some more help in getting in the back to school swing. I am not ready for the scheduled days to begin again! I love being all together and having our adventures. Well, alas I will need to succomb.
Wake them gently up, with a backrub, let them have some extra time in the morning to fully awake. Don’t stress. Get up early enough to have a healthy breakfast, so you don’t need to rush!
Great giveaway! I have been putting together a little photo album with some highlights from the school last year. Nothing major, just some photos with teachers and friends and from some of our favourite school outings.
Making sure her backpack is packed and ready for the day, and hanging on the door knob so it’s easy to grab in the morning!
Thanks for a fun giveaway!
I make sure my little one has a protein filled breakfast for energy that lasts until lunchtime.
I would say dat make sure the kids sleep early so dat they are fresh in the morninf and would not tske much time to get dressed and hav breakfast,and its important for us. Also to be fresh so that we are not in a bad mood and handle them easily,we should also be organised to save time n tell them dat might get a sticker at the end of their day if they are disciplined and they(ll start working on it too 🙂
Groovy Giveaway! Don’t you just love to label anything and everything? This beats the ol’ sharpie marker with pazaz! I think the best way to prepare for the back to school routine is ease into it BEFORE you actually HAVE to do it. Start out with waking up at the designated time, getting dressed, etc. MAKE A GAME OF IT beat your time to get ready. Fun Breakfeast ideas to encourage everyone to be at the table and out the door ONTIME> 🙂
Great giveaway….my only tip is to start getting into a routine before summer is over so there are no surprises on the first day.
My daughter will be attending 5 year old kindergarten this year, but attended my 4 year old kindergarten class 2 days a week last year. I’m kind of new to sending my own kids to school, but from experience with having students….I would say getting the kids back into a regular sleep schedule. Early to bed, early to rise!
What a great giveaway… I could really use these!! Most of the things we did to get excited/ready for school have already been said… like looking at last year’s yearbook to remember faces of teachers and other students… printing up morning routine… and getting back in the habit of picking out clothes the night before. I have to add we also had to wean off the morning cartoons! 🙂
My little man is just getting ready to start preschool, but I plan on having special after school rituals with him to help us reconnect after a long day apart!
We just started back to school for the first time. I would love to win. Best tip and one I’ve already read get things together the night before. That has been a lifesaver.
Great tips so far!
No experience sending my own kids yet, but as a teacher in a high poverty school district, consider donating some supplies to those kids for kids in need.
We try our best to keep bed time schedules even during the long summer break.
My best tip for back-to-school is: Shop Early! While the inevitable tax holiday is nice, save it for the big ticket items. For the small stuff, take care of it as soon as your school publishes their list. Otherwise, some of the random, specific items will become much harder to find. (I still shudder when I remember the year we went to 7 stores in two cities looking for an “orange plastic folder with pockets but no brads”.) Plus, my kids are better able to accept the return to school as a reality when they see their nice, neat stack of supplies sitting on their desks on a daily basis!
We pack lunches the night before. This is my son’s 2nd year in a preschool setting and that ritual helps us to make sure everything is done and we talk about the plan for the next day so he isn’t overwhelmed.
Great giveaway. Being consistent is my tip. Whatever the “routine” is being consistent with that.
We are just starting the big school adventure! Starting now to curtail early morning tv and having more relaxed breakfasts in preparation!
Awesome tags! My son is too young for school, but I remember a couple weeks before school started we would have to get up on time for school and start schoolyear bedtimes.
Fun labels! My daughter would love these.
i make my daughter’s lunch up in a lunch box for a few days before school starts and set the timer for the amount of time she has to eat lunch at school. then i make her get everything out by herself for practice and she needs to make sure she’s done when the timer goes off. great way to get her back into the swing of things for lunch at school.
This looks like a great way to prepare for preschool! Pick me! 🙂
We love Mabel’s Labels! Our trick for getting back into school mode is to walk through the morning routine, taking pictures of each step. Waking up, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, grabbing backpack, arriving at school…. Then I print the pictures in a little flipbook. It gets my kiddos excited for the new year!
This yearly son starts kindergarten. To get him into his new routine we are going to start the week before schoolstartsand get up early eat breakfast and then drive to the school. Talk about what his day is going to be like. And en drive back home.
Thanks so much for the giveaway. My best tip for getting back into the school routines is to give it time. Don’t beat yourself up if the first week or two is rather hectic–it can’t all fall into place at once 🙂
LOVE those labels! My son isn’t in school yet – but my husband is a teacher – so I know it’s a good idea to start putting the kiddies to bed earlier and ensuring they wake up closer to a school wake up time at least a week before hand so that they have a good sleeping groove going on before the big day.
thanks for the giveaway! I dont know if I have a back to school tip since I am starting it all fornthe first time this year! If anything at all, I am reminding myself how much I liked school and using that excitement to excite my son! Learning is so fun!
Love mabels labels!!
nancebagance at yahoo dot ca
I’m no expert, with my oldest starting Kindergarten, but- I’m trying to not change too much at one time. It’s tempting to me to use the begining of the school year to start all kinds of new routines (going to the gym, practicing piano more). I have to remind myself that enough is changing at the moment, and my son will appreciate what stays the same and consistency 🙂
Once my daughter started the “it’s no cuuuute!!!” drama in the mornings, we started putting clothes out the night before, without fail. No more morning timeouts that make us late, and no more bad moods! I plan a week or so of lunches (we call them obento at her school – click on the website link to see). Put some snacks in the car for the ride home from school. We use picture magnets on the fridge (I make them) to show after-school activities like ballet, birthday party, or playdates so that she knows what’s going on and can get excited about these activities, too. Somewhere she missed out on my “last minute” gene because she always wants to get ready for ballet, etc early!
As for everyone else’s ideas: I love the yearly school photo album, the morning soundtrack, and the taking pictures of each step of the morning routine to make a flipbook (or picture schedule) – these are great ideas!
Try to get everything ready the night before…lunches, clothes, backpacks…
One very cool Monkey Backpack (pack-pack as he calls it)
My best tip for getting my 2 kids ready for the back-to-school routine is to start early. Have them help shop for the new cloths and gear for school and then get everything ready to go a few days before school actually starts.
I love everyone’s great ideas, tried and true, and new. Before reading everyone’s great comments, my first thought to prepare for my son’s 2nd preschool year is to talk about it, talk about it, talk about it – the whos, whats, whens, wheres, whys, and hows. And act excited about it. We might also talk & reminisce about how much fun we had over the summer and that he can talk about it to his preschool friends.
We homeschool, so I am working to slowly introduce each part of our school day, starting with the girls’ favorite subjects and adding on from there, with the goal of having everything going by the first week of September. We started morning circle and read-alouds last week. We will add science and story dictation next week. Etc. That way we all have time to adjust instead of just diving right back in to everything at once.
GREAT giveaway!
We maintain a morning routine throughout the summer (granted, it’s a bit “looser”!).
This is awesome! I love the getting ready for school.finding the great deals and I never heard of these labels. This is fantastic.
Thanks for the chance.
Mary n
My best tip is sticking to a morning schedule, that way the kids know what to expect and are more likely to do some things on their own
We finally cleaned out the garage and created a station for backpacks, coats, kids shoes—I’m hoping it’ll really streamline the morning routine!
Bring the routine back LONG before the first day of school hits! Getting Mommy back on the routine is the hardest part though!
We homeschool too….focusing on our kiddies interests lets them ease into the school year…most times without knowing it!
We go to school all the time…mine are still in preschool. These labels would allow for me to not have to dig through the lost and found bin on a daily basis! (and also help me to quit ruining clothes with Sharpies!)
I would love this prize! My tip is to have a snack drawer stocked with snack for after school! If you have the space, it’s great to do one drawer for “sugary” snacks and one for “not sugary” and let them pick from the drawers every other day… this way they have the power to control what they get. But behind the scenes, you have the power to stock the drawers with what you think qualifies as a snack. 🙂 Don’t have two drawers to spare? Those shoe box size tubs with lids work well – you can store them in the pantry, in a cupboard or just on the counter.
i am the queen of make ahead breakfasts. With twin 2nd graders and an 8 mo. old, it is hectic in my house in the am. It is great to pull an egg casserole out and pop it in the oven. Make them in a muffin tin for faster cooking and kid size portions (freeze the extras to zap for snacks or the next day’s breckie). Overnight French Toast with fruit. Big fruit salad prepped Sunday night. Protein pancakes to pop on the toaster.
We get into the homework every day routine during the last couple of weeks of summer by working on whatever was sent home for summer work. We keep a similar getting ready for the day and getting ready for bed routine throughout the summer so it isn’t a huge change when it’s time to go to school. Most especially, I start on the back to school shopping and labeling EARLY! It seems less time consuming, less expensive, and less stressful that way.
Pick out outfits the night before school… including socks, hairclips, etc. It saves a lot of time in the morning!
My daughter is starting kindergarden this year….I plan on getting everything ready the night before and make sure to leave enough time in the morning so we don’t have to rush.
Get the whole family back into routine early so when the “real deal” arrives it is a much easier transition! Thanks for a great giveaway!
My son begins preschool this fall so this is all new to me! I’ve been talking to him a lot about school and getting ready for a new routine.
Goal is to have everything ready the night before, so the morning can be more relaxed and less frazzled!!
we’re not in a school routine yet, but I like to organize a routine for the week and let the girls know the night before what’s on the agenda for the next day! I also like to get things ready the night Before, having the diaper bag packed and ready to go.
we do a few test runs the week before, and start getting out of bed earlier. no more sleeping in until 9.
I’ve heard such great things about mabel’s labels. My tip… get them to bed early, consistently.
Thanks!
I think getting used to the early wakeup a week early will be essential.
These look great! I don’t have any great tips; my boys are still in preschool and the schedule isn’t consistent anyway. I do put up a weekly calendar so they know which days are school days and what we are doing the other days. It helps me keep track too!
We homeschool, but our technique has always been- just jump right in!
We make sure everything is ready to go the night before because “Morning Mommy” is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Get them in a bedtime routine @ 2 weeks early. Also, have their backpacks ready to go in the morning by the door that you go out.
This will be my son’s first year of school and one thing I’m going to do like starting tomorrow is start getting him up a half our earlier each week until school starts so that we’ll be used to the early wake up by the time September gets here.
I’d love to win these labels for his school supplies!
I would love to win this giveaway!!
My tip for getting ready for back to school routine would be to get the kids excited for back to school, with a countdown or chart. Then start gradually going to bed closer to the new school bed time if it changed during the summer.
What works for us is to have everything ready the night before.
Great labels. Would love them!
My daughter gets up before me naturally so I put her breakfast stuff in a special spot the night before.
Get everything ready the day before together so we can talk about what to expect if there’s anything new.
I do a back to school photo session, where we have fun picking out the first day of school outfit and then we do pictures. I also like to “interview” her about her likes and dislikes, summer memories, school expectations, etc. At the end of the school year, it’s fun to look at these again because they really do grow and change a lot in just 10 months!
My son is in preschool and I alwasy pick out his clothes the night before – makes getting dressed in the morning super easy!
With my oldest we always started the earlier bedtime at least a week ahead of school. I’ll definitely start this with my preschooler this year! Thanks for the chance to win…what a great giveaway!
Our fall routine is still a work in progress since our kids are still young, but we love to get some warmer, fuzzier clothes out and start brainstorming for yummy breakfasts we can all prep together the night before (overnight french toast is a favorite!).
Start adjusting a month early for the new bedtime.
One of my best tips is to take care of paperwork from school right away when your child gets home from school. This way it can be put in their bag so no surprises in the a.m. I also have a place where school papers belong and I have a dry erase board with a two week calendar to keep track of my children’s schedules.
even though summer starts, we don’t change our morning routine. we still get up at the same time and brush teeth, get dressed and have breakfast. that way, when school starts again, they don’t have to relearn anything.
We also homeschool and the best tip is starting our morning with a prayer offering up our day! That helps get us focused and puts our hearts and thoughts in the right place…and even if things don’t go our way, all we have done is still used for good!