This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #Back2SchoolReady #CollectiveBias ~ What do Bambi, Hunting and Free Books For Kids all have in common? Kellogg’s Free Scholastic Book Program: 1 Box = 1 Book. ~
If you asked me to recall some of my fondest childhood memories, I would undoubtedly wax on about reading with our Mom before bedtime. From as early as I can remember, our Mom read to us each night before bed. She would gather up the three of us and pile us into the day bed in our spare bedroom; also known as Dad’s Home Office. The lighting was perfect, the bed was cozy and Mom didn’t have to choose whose bed we were reading in. One of the funniest stories from our childhood involves being read to in this room and our father’s very short-lived hunting hobby.
Back when we were kids, parents could purchase entire box-sets of classic children’s books that were finely wrapped and bound. I remember ours very well; they were tan-and-red, hard-covered books and they told so many amazing stories. I don’t remember all of the books in our collection, but I do remember that The Black Stallion and Bambi were included — probably because they were about animals! Anyways, the books took weeks to get through as our Mom would only read until one of us fell asleep. And being little kids, sometimes, she had to reread the pages from the night before if we forgot them. It was really quite lovely.
For some reason, we started Bambi while my father was off on a hunting trip with one of his best friends, Bob Allen. To be honest, we never really thought too much about what Dad did up there in the woods. We just knew that he wore really weird looking clothes and always said it was freezing up there. Up there was Maine, but as far as us kids were concerned, Maine could have been the planet Pluto because all we knew was that it was pretty far away from home. Anyways, on the night that Mom got to the part where Bambi’s Mom gets shot, we bawled and bawled, and bawled some more. I’m not sure how Mom managed three sobbing kids all crammed into one little day bed, but somehow, she managed to soothe our hearts and assure us that it was just a story.
To this day, I still don’t remember if we ever finished that book, but what I do remember is our father coming home with his very first deer pelt. Apparently, he had shot a deer, brought home the pelt, and hung it over the back of his office chair. Well, the next night, we all crawled back into the day bed with Mom and one of us looked up and saw the deer pelt. With sobs of astonishment, one of us yelled, “Noooooooo!! Daddy killed Bambi’s Mommy!!!!!!!!!”.
God help our parents. I vaguely remember them telling us that it wasn’t Bambi’s Mom, but to be honest, it didn’t really matter. The timing couldn’t have been more horrific for my Dad if he tried. Three children, sobbing our hearts out, asking him, “why? Why? WHY!”. The tears turned out to be too much for Dad and he admitted that it was one of the most heartbreaking things he had ever done, and he would never do it again. He stopped hunting and took up fishing and skeet shooting instead. True story.
And within this story is the beauty that comes from awakening a child’s imagination with the gift of reading. Teaching a child to read is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give and it’s the gift that lasts a lifetime. As children, we read when we were happy, when we were bored, and when the weather was bad. We read whenever we felt like it. And as we got older, and got into fights with our friends, our wise Mom would smile and say, “As long as you can read, you will always have a friend. Just open a book.”
With this love of reading firmly implanted in our hearts, we started our own children’s libraries at our baby showers. We asked each guest to bring a book for the new baby’s library and to write an inscription inside of it for them to read one day. Even though our children have outgrown many of these books, we still have them today. They’re carefully stowed away in their “Baby Buckets” up in the attic.
As our children continue to grow their own libraries, we also make sure to give back to others who do not have access to books regularly. When our children outgrow an author or series, we donate them to one of our favorite local charities, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island. Our children feel good knowing that their helping someone else make a new friend too.
So when we found out that Kellogg’s was starting a new program where kids could earn books, we had to find out more about it. To be honest, it sounded too good to be true. We heard that parents could buy specially marked boxes of their favorite products between 7/21 – 9/11 and then their kids could trade in the code for a book.
Sounds amazing, but there had to be a catch, right? Nope. No catch.
One box of Kellogg’s products = 1 book. Yep, you heard that right: One box of Kellogg’s products = 1 book.
AWESOME! But, wait. It gets better. Guess how many books one person can redeem. 1? 3? 5? Nope, even more.
Each person is able to redeem up to 30 books. 30 BOOKS!
At this point, you should be running to the store to go grocery shopping because there really isn’t a catch to be found. Most books arrive in 6-8 weeks and there is no shipping and handling fees for books redeemed during this promotion.
So how do you get started? It’s wildly simple.
1. Go to the store and look for specially marked boxes of Kellogg’s products. (We found a ton of boxes at our local Walmart.) Go home.
2. Visit: https://www.kelloggsfamilyrewards.com/en_US/promotions/Free-Scholastic-Books-With-Walmart-And-Kelloggs.html – and create an account by clicking on the “Join Now” text on the right hand top portion of the browser window.
3. You can sign up with your Facebook account or your personal information. The choice is yours. Answer all of the questions to make your profile as complete as possible.
4. Once your profile is complete, you will get to the confirmation screen and can start entering in your codes.
5. Gather your kids up next to you and check out all of the available titles. Redeem your codes for free Scholastic books! And, I mean free – you don’t even pay for shipping and handling during this promotion!
I found this process to be incredibly simple. With 80 titles of books available for beginning readers to teens, our our children were very happy to find some of their favorite authors on the list. Plus, we were able to participate in this program by buying brands that we already love, so this keeps our budgets in check. You really can’t ask for a better gift from a brand than to receive a free book each time you buy one of their specially marked boxes!
Not only is this program great for parents, but it’s terrific for teachers too. Many teachers have to build up their classroom libraries each year on their own, but now, they can add more books just by buying these specially marked boxes of Kellogg’s products. Families can also help their teacher’s grow their libraries by either collecting the codes and giving them to their teacher, or by redeeming 30 codes for 30 books and donating them to their classroom! Imagine the look of surprise of your teacher’s face when you present her with 30 books for her classroom library. Or, better yet, if you handed him all of the codes that you collected and told him to go shopping!
P.S. You can order these specially marked packages of Kellogg’s product online at Walmart and have them shipped directly to your house!! Look for the Buy Now button at www.walmart.com/KelloggsBackToSchoolBooks for a list of all eligible items.
Be sure to check out more books available via this Kellogg’s offer at here. I’d love to hear your favorite book offered! #Back2SchoolReady
Enjoy your books,
Denine
Things To Know:
- There are 3 ways you can upload your receipt, via text, via scanning into your computer or Kellogg’s Family Reward app – only when you purchase ONLINE between 7/21 – 9/11.
- In order to redeem codes, you must create a Kellogg’s Family Rewards account.
- 1 Kellogg’s product = 1 free, full-length Scholastic book, and each person can redeem up to 30 books.
- Customers must redeem their code for a free Scholastic book within 14 days of purchase.
- Consumers can also buy directly on Walmart.com and receive a free book from purchases made between 7/21/15 and 9/11/15. Look for Buy Now button at www.walmart.com/KelloggsBackToSchoolBooks for a list of all eligible items. Ecommerce redemptions are made via receipt scanning.
- You may redeem codes for hard copy books or E-books, but E-books cannot be donated.
- Your donated book will ship directly to the school you chose in an envelope that says it was generously donated by your family.
