Scholastic books ordered through school

[Bren's Mom]

My son's teachers have always sent them home. Sometimes I've ordered, many times I did not. I always looked for the bargains, and when there used to be plentiful coupon codes I used those as well. As room parent, I would watch for a great $1 book, and a coupon for $5 off $25 purchase, and buy one for each kid in the class as a winter holiday or end of year gift for the kids...rather than making up crappy goody bags or other junk. And the teacher got the bonus book or whatever credits for that order. Win-win!

If a book was less on Amazon, with free shipping with Prime, I didn't order them from Scholastic. It was never an issue.

 

[RitaE]

I get the flyers home but rarely order.

If you prefer to buy somewhere else just ask the Teacher for the titles of a couple of books she would like for the classroom and buy them wherever you buy books. Or give her an Amazon gift card or something. No big deal.

 

[Nancyg56]

I guess I don't see the issue. My kids have been bringing the forms home for a couple decades now (oldest is 21). I've never, ever felt compelled to purchase anything. Usually, I don't--we have thousands of books already. In fact, we jsut built anew reading nook to house the 25(!!!) boxes of books that we had no place for when we moved last year.

I do admit, I'm a sucker for book fairs, though. I'll typically buy each child a book or three, and then buy the entire contents of their teachers' wish lists. I don't volunteer at school a lot, nor do we participate much in fundraisers, so I figure the least I can do is buy the teachers some books.

I also cannot understand the problem. I am a sucker for books, and I LOVE the book fairs. I am the caregiver for my two lovely little Princesses, and I always try to reinforce a love for reading, so I order the books. WE just sent in an order yesterday for the September flyer. I refuse to buy toys thru the SBC, and I have a limit, so the girls must think about their order carefully. Their Mom has books on their ipads, so she does nto order from school. s a Nana, I do.

One thing the K-2 does for bookfairs is to host a Grandparent/Special person hour the day before. It is a blast! DH and I take the girls and there is a little party atmosphere with finger foods and beverages. It is "invitation only" so the girls feel pretty darn special to be along with just us, no parents! LOL!

The only downside is that the teachers do not always have their baskets completed, and I like to buy books for the room. For the flyer orders I add the extra money for books.

I found it cool when I was a kid, but as a parent I'm feeling rather abused. It almost feels like I'm being hit up for a donation, especially with some books costing more than I can buy online and the message that buying means book credit for the school. Some of their books are regular ones from other publishers, some are books they publish, but other books are their exclusive versions in a cheaper stapled paperback form.

A lot of the books seem to be thinly disguised toy/movie ads, like LEGO or Star Wars books. I don't remember those from Scholastic when I was a kid.

Honesty, you are making more of this than you need to. My girls would choose the toys over the books every time. No. It is a complete sentence and requires no explanation. No.

 

[msjprincess]

I also cannot understand the problem. I am a sucker for books, and I LOVE the book fairs. I am the caregiver for my two lovely little Princesses, and I always try to reinforce a love for reading, so I order the books. WE just sent in an order yesterday for the September flyer. I refuse to buy toys thru the SBC, and I have a limit, so the girls must think about their order carefully. Their Mom has books on their ipads, so she does nto order from school. s a Nana, I do.

One thing the K-2 does for bookfairs is to host a Grandparent/Special person hour the day before. It is a blast! DH and I take the girls and there is a little party atmosphere with finger foods and beverages. It is "invitation only" so the girls feel pretty darn special to be along with just us, no parents! LOL!

The only downside is that the teachers do not always have their baskets completed, and I like to buy books for the room. For the flyer orders I add the extra money for books.



Honesty, you are making more of this than you need to. My girls would choose the toys over the books every time. No. It is a complete sentence and requires no explanation. No.

Yes, when my kids were little they always the books that came with some crappy toy. I just told them nope.

 

[Nancyg56]

Yes, when my kids were little they always the books that came with some crappy toy. I just told them nope.

LOL! The girls can pick two books, and one of the choices had a little bracelet included. I know that Nola would read the book, she had been eyeing it for a week, so when she showed it to me she was worried I would tell her she had to change because I had already said no toys. I was on the fence more because it was a hardbound book than because of the little bracelet. I let her choose it, but it is going to stay in her room at my house in the bookcase.

 

[msjprincess]

LOL! The girls can pick two books, and one of the choices had a little bracelet included. I know that Nola would read the book, she had been eyeing it for a week, so when she showed it to me she was worried I would tell her she had to change because I had already said no toys. I was on the fence more because it was a hardbound book than because of the little bracelet. I let her choose it, but it is going to stay in her room at my house in the bookcase.

I wouldn't care if it was a book that I actually thought they were interested in and would read. But I'm not buying it just because it comes with a piece of jewelry that I can get at the dollar store.

 

[Hikergirl]

I found it cool when I was a kid, but as a parent I'm feeling rather abused. It almost feels like I'm being hit up for a donation, especially with some books costing more than I can buy online and the message that buying means book credit for the school. Some of their books are regular ones from other publishers, some are books they publish, but other books are their exclusive versions in a cheaper stapled paperback form.

A lot of the books seem to be thinly disguised toy/movie ads, like LEGO or Star Wars books. I don't remember those from Scholastic when I was a kid.

You are being hit up for a donation
The elementary school here still does the book fair, they send home the flyer and the kids pick out what they want and bring their money in on their buy day. They also have it running in the evenings so parents can come with their kids, I'm pretty sure they do it when they have the first parents night at the school, just to make sure you know its there LOL.

 

[Nancyg56]

I wouldn't care if it was a book that I actually thought they were interested in and would read. But I'm not buying it just because it comes with a piece of jewelry that I can get at the dollar store.

Oh the little one had to revisit all of her choices. Every one involved toys and stickers.

 

[aprilchem]

We ordered from my daughter's Scholastic flyer last night! I set a limit of around $10 per child, but Scholastic often has some pretty good deals so the kids can get at least 2 books with that. We actually were able to order the whole "I Funny" series for my son last night for $12, which is a deal. Those are middle-school books and there are 3 in the series. Middle school books can get expensive!

Oh, and edited to add that I used to run the Scholastic program at my kids daycare when they were younger. The school/teacher can get a TON of free books based on how many books the kids order, which is really a big deal for classroom libraries. My kids are in a high-need school in a high-need district, so I have no problem ordering books online. For many of their peers, the classroom/school library is their only source of reading material.

 

[cmarsh31]

I guess I don't see the issue. My kids have been bringing the forms home for a couple decades now (oldest is 21). I've never, ever felt compelled to purchase anything. Usually, I don't--we have thousands of books already. In fact, we jsut built anew reading nook to house the 25(!!!) boxes of books that we had no place for when we moved last year.

I do admit, I'm a sucker for book fairs, though. I'll typically buy each child a book or three, and then buy the entire contents of their teachers' wish lists. I don't volunteer at school a lot, nor do we participate much in fundraisers, so I figure the least I can do is buy the teachers some books.

Exactly. I have a 6th grader & 3rd grader. Purchased maybe once from the scholastic flier...but the book fair... WATCH OUT! I've co-chaired it for 3 years (ahhhh.. I quit but I'll still volunteer this year). I buy books for my kids, for my nephews, for my kids' teachers, for the school librarian, for donations... there are so many pretty books all on the shelf and I want everyone to have them!

ETA - at the book fair I have a no-toy rule (although some of the chapter books that my DD used to read came with a necklace or whatever), but we do a "Grandparents & Special Friends lunch" (translate, sit in the cafeteria with the kid, then shop at the book fair!) and when Mimi is there with the kids, all bets are off!

Just like the fliers, the school earns scholastic dollars from the book fair. We use them to buy big things (new desk chairs, smart boards, etc) and also give the teachers each $50-100 to spend at the book fair for their classrooms. Win-Win!

 

[lanejudy]

We used to order regularly whenever the flyers came home. It's easy to find at least a couple of books that are good deals. One year we did buy several LEGO books -- DD really struggled with reading when she was in the lower grades, to the point that I would get any book that interested her. She was just getting into LEGO Friends and we discovered those books are written more "comic book style" than regular paragraph style -- PERFECT solution! She ended up reading more words on a page than other typical books. One hurdle to reading is to simply find the right books of interest for a kid; once they are interested and not turned off by too many words on the page, reading becomes fun and enjoyable.

Our school has never given any pressure to buy. Only some of the teachers send home the flyers, though the PTO hosts a large Scholastic book fair at open house every fall. I look for the deals on sets or the $1 or $2 books. We also utilize both the school library and the city library regularly. I rarely buy books full-price anywhere. Reading is a critical lifeskill, so important in all aspects of life.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Ah, books, my favorite.

Now my kiddos are 25 and 20 and I have to do something with all those books.

I always said you are going to have to pry them out of my cold dead hand, however we are seriously downsizing. DH and I are going to be seriously purging things we do not use.

I even had the "I CAN READ" book series which are a couple of hundred of them. My kids LOVED those books.

Books are yummy.

We're in luck in this regard--DD21 is studying to be a teacher! While we were filling our book nook this weekend, we weeded out books that are too young for our kids (youngest is now 10). We set those books aside--DD21 will get first dibs, once she gets a permanent teaching job. She's bilingual ed. and likely to work in a high-needs district, just because that's who she is. So, our donation of a few hundred books will come in handy. Except she's not getting any Richard Scarry/Dr. Seuss/Babar books. And I'm on the fence about Mercer Mayer.

Okay, I'm going to be the crazy cat lady who dies when a pile of children's books falls on her.

 

[Magpie]

I LOVED those Scholastic flyers!

And I didn't even mind that some of the books came packaged with toys. I mean, I was happy to pick up a copy of The Little Princess and The Secret Garden, and if they came packaged with some cute little charms... that was a bonus. My daughter was happy, I was happy, it was all good.

I just kept an eye on the prices, and only ordered if it was something I wanted anyway and I thought the cost was reasonable. I sometimes rolled my eyes at the big expensive promotional books, but I wasn't upset or offended by them. I know Scholastic is a company in the business of making money.

I remember we got a complete set of Roald Dahl's children's books for less than a dollar a book. It's still on my shelf!

 

[PrncessA]

We get them home every now and then. I've bought a few sets through the book club, since they were cheaper than Amazon. Mostly we buy from Amazon or Half Price Books since it is cheaper. The WORST is the book fair, the books are so overpriced and the kids beg for books... any book... they don't even pretend it is a book they are interested in. We usually buy a few from the fair.

We have a Scholastic Warehouse near us and I get emails for their yearly sales. That's when I pick up a lot! Especially when I was room mom, and we gave books at Christmas.

 

[piccolopat]

My daughter comes home with Scholastic flyers at least once a quarter. In fact, she just brought one home on Monday. Right now, she's obsessed with, of all things, rocks. There's a $12.95 rock collection featured in the 2nd grade flyer so I ordered that and the set of 6 $1 books for her. I can get everything for less online, but she gets so excited when her items come in.

Your comment on her obsessed with rocks made me laugh. My DD, now 29, fell in love with rocks when she was about 4 or 5. She ended up majoring in geology in college. She still loves it and will go to a cave, dig site or outcropping at every chance she gets. She couldn't get a job in her field because they dried up with the recession (she graduated in 2009) but it remains a serious hobby for her. I have almost a dozen of those large orange buckets from Home Depot in my basement filled with rocks from her digs.

 

[Nancyg56]

ETA - at the book fair I have a no-toy rule (although some of the chapter books that my DD used to read came with a necklace or whatever), but we do a "Grandparents & Special Friends lunch" (translate, sit in the cafeteria with the kid, then shop at the book fair!) and when Mimi is there with the kids, all bets are off!

Just like the fliers, the school earns scholastic dollars from the book fair. We use them to buy big things (new desk chairs, smart boards, etc) and also give the teachers each $50-100 to spend at the book fair for their classrooms. Win-Win!

LOL! All bets off for sure! I am a sucker, but my DH.....oh my, the girls love it when he is there. "Books? You need Books? Go get em!" DH struggled as a child when it came to reading so he finds not much more rewarding than sitting in a chair with his arm wrapped around one of the little ones as they read to him. This is his job all winter long, he is laid off at the end of December, so he is in charge of their reading homework. Someone has to take one for the team, so he is it! LOL!

 

[scoutie]

I hand these out to my middle school students. There's no pressure or obligation. Usually, three or four kids order out of my 110 students. We get points, and then I can buy books for the classroom.

 

[elgerber]

My kids are 20 and 23. They got the flyers a few times a year. I never ever felt any pressure from the school to order. I always did though, as my kids were both bookworms. They were always so excited when their order came in, and couldn't wait to read the book. We also purchased books every year at conferences at the Scholastic book fairs.

 

[bcla]

We did the book fair last year, and there was one book that my kid just had to get. We paid full price - maybe $18. Then I found that it was less than $11 on Amazon or other online sellers, and Target would price match. I did end up buying a copy as a gift later.

I suppose it's the ones that are temporary reading club exclusives that rub me the wrong way. The flyer says they're discounted off list price, but no other seller is allowed to release them for more than two months.

 

[gwynne]

We did the book fair last year, and there was one book that my kid just had to get. We paid full price - maybe $18. Then I found that it was less than $11 on Amazon or other online sellers, and Target would price match. I did end up buying a copy as a gift later.

I suppose it's the ones that are temporary reading club exclusives that rub me the wrong way. The flyer says they're discounted off list price, but no other seller is allowed to release them for more than two months.

The good news is it's your choice. If it works for you great. If it doesn't, no problem.