This Tuesday my family had the chance to do some good and have a whole lot of fun in the process thanks to Elmer’s Bag It Forward campaign. I am one of five ambassadors for the program, whose mission is to encourage others to gather and donate school supplies for families in need.

One of my goals is to grow awareness of the need to bag it forward not only in traditional schools, but also in the homeschool community. Most homeschooling families are single income and pay for their own books, field trips, and school supplies. In addition, homeschooled children often have supply lists from their co-op or other outside classes.

Our Bag It Forward Trip

First, the kids and I went to Walmart to purchase the school supplies (our shopping trip was sponsored by Elmer’s and Collective Bias). Then we brought everything home and spread it in our living room floor to separate both supplies for us and to donate to another family.

Now is a perfect time because the back-to-school sales are just so good. We stocked up on Elmer’s glue sticks and Crayola Crayons at only 25¢ per package.

My kids fell in love with the Toy Story 3 notebooks. Composition books are only 25¢ now, too.

Stuffing everything in the bag to donate was the fun part. Money is usually tight in our house. It felt good to not only stock up on supplies for our family, but also to be able to bless another family, too.

I wanted the kids to take an active part in bagging it forward. They helped decide to whom we would donate the bag. Now they can’t wait to deliver it!

The Bag It Forward website is just getting up and running. As it grows, I hope it will become a valuable source of back-to-school ideas for you. There is even a Your Projects page where you can link up your own bag it forward posts!

I hope that you will be inspired to Bag It Forward in your own community, and take advantage of this valuable opportunity to teach your children about reaching out to help others.

{Disclosure: I am being compensated for the Bag It Forward program by Elmer’s and Collective Bias.}