{Please note that we did receive a Kohl’s gift card for the purpose of this post and thoughts and opinions are that of Tots To Teens Magazine}
By now you probably know that I have an obsession with Kohls. You can get so many amazing deals, styles, and brand name items that will send you straight to retail heaven. But did you know that Kohl’s has now partnered with Office Max to provide you with school supplies like folders, notebooks, pens, glue, pencil cases and more? School supplies are only available in stores, so you can’t get them online and they are a new addition to Kohl’s this year! I was so happy to hear that because if it’s one thing I love it’s shopping for school supplies so add that to my Kohl’s shopping and I could stay in the store all day!
And, that’s basically what I and my three kids did the day we went back to school shopping! I’m far from being done with their shopping but we certainly had a great start! I was so amazed at the deals we scored that day that I just have to share with you! Let’s start with the youngest one…I could stay in the store for a week with her while she decides what she wants, let’s just say, it was very stressful. We walked around and around and around looking for things she wanted…not necessarily needed. I finally had to put my foot down, literally, and tell her she could get one outfit and a new pair of gym shoes for school. While we were walking past the boys athletic section she saw this shirt from the corner of her eyes and had to have it because it made it look blurry. We picked that up along with a pair of shorts. She loves wearing comfy basketball shorts to school and would probably wear them year round if I let her and I don’t think I’ve bought them long sleeved shirts in years because their schools are SO HOT even in the winter!!!!! We then went on to find her some new gym shoes for school. I was so amazed at the selections, however, after trying shoes on with her, I had no idea how much her foot grew over the summer! She is now in a LADIES size 9!!! She has a bigger foot than me!!! Or at least it is bigger than mine in the particular brand we ended up with, but still….my 9 year old is in a woman’s NINE!!! She loves her new shoes and wants to wear them now but I have to keep those clean and damage free for school, so they are in the box in her room and will remain there until her first day of school. It’s hard to think of buying jeans and such when it’s 90 degrees outside, so I’m happy with her finds.
My oldest was fun to shop with…NOT!!! She is very opinionated but we were looking for her back to school essentials. Things that she needs that I usually forget to buy! For her, she is taking a Yoga & Nutrition class this year as her “gym” class so she needed yoga pants and shorts. Those were pretty easy to find and she picked out her two favorites.
Next we needed to find shoes for Choir. They had to be black, and they had to be closed toe. She had some work to do. We walked up and down the shoe aisle while she pointed out all the ones she “wanted” but I had to redirect her energy to the ones she “needed”. She came across these Sonoma brand shoes that were perfect for what she needed and I am sure her choir teacher won’t point anything out in them for not being “choir appropriate” {she had made comments to her about her shoes once before}.
Now on to notebooks and folders! My oldest is a neat freak and is super organized. I could only wish I had half of her organizational skills! While we walked around we spotted the back to school area and she went to town calculating how many classes she has, how many spiral notebooks she needs, how many binders and so on. Of course, each spiral notebook had to be a different color to represent a different class. I think she found her heaven in that section of the store. (Remember, Kohl’s has now partnered with Office Max to provide you with all your back to school supplies so I’m sure you’ll start to notice that your local store has school supply displays set up to make your back to school shopping a breeze!) {Update: When we went for the first back to school shopping adventure, they didn’t have a big selection because they were just introducing back to school essentials to consumers. When I went back a week later, I was amazed at how much more they had in the store. They had a nice display in one of the aisles that contained, bottles of glue, tape, pens, pencils, erasers, pencil cases and more all at reasonable prices too. They were on sale & at the time, had an additional 10, 20, 30% off and you could earn Kohl’s cash as well.}
On to the boy! He’s becoming a lot of fun to shop with. Before I would be able to just run to the store and pick out a shirt, shorts or shoes for him and he’d be ok with that. Now that he is going to be 13 {in a couple months} he has really started to blossom into his own. He has certain likes and dislikes when it comes to clothes and more importantly, shoes. He LOVES shoes and if he could, he’d probably have a cool new pair of shoes to wear every day! He is a baseball fan and is on a travel team so anything having to do with baseball is a “for sure” buy for us. He has acquired over 40 trophies and his team is currently headed to ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Elite Tournament in Disney World which is a huge honor! So, when we saw the two shirts hanging there, we knew instantly we had to have them…haha “we” as if I was going to wear them with him, lol.
On to the shoe section for him. He is very particular about his shoes and definitely is not afraid of color. In fact, he LOVES color! Anything bright and bold he is drawn to. Last year he wanted pink gym shoes and my husband said no, but I totally would have bought them for him! This year his color is green and yellow. He is very proud of his new shoes and can’t wait to start wearing them when school starts next month. I have a feeling he is going to be a huge shoe fanatic and I can’t wait to see how his styles change as he gets older.
and lastly…backpacks! We have gone through many backpacks in our day and they are all made differently. Some are heavier materials, some are huge, some are small but more importantly, the backpack as to “fit” the child. I noticed that the ones that we like at Kohl’s were best suited for tweens and teens and the ones that they had for the younger ones were just covered in kittens and power rangers. Not all kids want to have a character or animal on their backpacks, some just want a color and nothing more. My youngest did have a hard time finding one and we are still on the hunt, but my son did find his at Kohl’s and loves it. His travel team colors are black and red so this one stood out as a fan favorite!
This Back to School shopping at Kohl’s has taught me a few things…
1. Let them each have their own “shopping day”. Having all three shop at once took what felt like FOR-EVER!!!! I think if I broke it down to three separate shopping days, I’d have a lot less stress and fewer meltdowns.
2. I’ve noticed how picky my kids are with their school stuff now that they are getting older. One kid likes basic colors, one likes bold, and one likes anything camo. Their personalities are much like oil and vinegar.
3. I like having the option of purchasing school supplies {like notebooks and pens, etc…} at Kohl’s because I am usually forgetting something and having the extra reminders right there is very helpful to busy parents who just want to get what they can at one store and not have to go all over picking up things here and there. It really is a great idea and I am so glad Kohl’s and Office Max have teamed up!
It’s very interesting to shop with all three at once, although my brain felt like it was on mental overload, it was needless to say, a fun day shopping and we got a great head start on getting their back to school essentials! I’ll definitely be back to shop for more school supplies as it seems Kohl’s is my home away from home!
Do you think you will be picking up back to school supplies while school shopping at Kohls? I just love school supplies…don’t you?
[…] for school supplies or school clothes? Did you know that you can purchase school supplies {now that Office Max and Kohl’s have partnered up}, like Mead notebooks and folders? Did you also know that you can buy items from […]