Trying To Reignite Back To School Fun With Hasbro

**Posted in collaboration with Hasbro, post contains affiliate links**

That’s is half term is now over for everyone and I really struggled to get the kids excited to head back into the classroom again, it took them long enough to get over the summer holidays with lots of fun-filled days and a few PJ days were thrown in for good measure.

With them only being in school for a few weeks before they broke up for half term they’ve not really had a chance to get into the swing of the new school routines yet, especially Emmy. She’s had a tough start to her new school year and is really struggling with all the chances. She started the year with 2 teachers doing a job share as both worked part-time and a TA who was in the class for the whole week – or at least this was the plan for her school year.

Her TA went off sick in week one, returned to school for a day here and there but hasn’t been back for weeks and the newly appointed teacher she had for Thursdays and Fridays lasted only 2 weeks before going off sick never to return and we’ve just found out that she won’t be returning and they are interviewing for her job currently.

This has meant their class have only had a constant teacher 2 days a week with whichever staff member could be spared/moved covering their class, never the same person daily which has really unsettled the entire class. Emmy doesn’t want to go to school, she won’t settle at night times and daily she asks who her teacher will be the next day and I’m unable to answer her questions. Us parents don’t know so we can’t reassure our children. She’s not alone sadly, many of her classmates are unsettled and upset with the constant changes and uncertainties. Us parents have been in to voice our concerns and complaints on many occasions.

Having a child who has gone from happily going into school and liked it (I’ll not lie by saying she loved it, she never has but she never complained daily and it wasn’t a daily fight to get her out of the house previously) to now being very unsettled is very hard to see.

Usually, after a half term, she wouldn’t worry about heading back to see her friends, especially after we’ve had a fun holiday but she wasn’t keen this time.

Hasbro knows that after a break from school some children are less keen to head back into the classrooms, especially if they’ve had too much fun at home or you’ve been away on holiday which is why they sent us a lovely selection of toys and gifts to help ease Emmy back into school.

These toys are small enough to fit into a school bag so they can be played with at break times or on the way to school if you aren’t allowed toys in school.

Emmy was over the moon to receive these gifts and she spent a lovely afternoon playing with them prior to heading back into the classroom armed with a lovely new backpack with her name on it and a personalised notepad and a very full pencil case ready for the working week, she was also very excited to head home after school to play with her new toys.

The Lock Stars has a been a huge hit here, so much so that I had to make an online Amazon order as Harry was desperate for his one.

They are really cute and come with a key and a secret surprise – I had worried that the kids would lose the keys but actually, it really doesn’t matter as you can open the tummy section and push the lock open that way. Emmy has added hers to her school bag and hasn’t been allowed to take in the keys so this means she is still able to feel grown up by locking her bag and her friends can’t open it (unless she tells them the secret trick that is).

There are currently 2 series of these Lock Stars to collect with 24 different lock characters in each series.

The Lost Kitties toy was another hit for Emmy, it combines 2 of her favourite things – blind bags and shaping compound (a cross between playdoh and clay), in the blind bag is a pot containing a compound which comes in one of 3 colours, Emmy’s was white, it also contains a lost kitties figure and 2 accessories, a sticker and collectors guide. There are 36 lost kitties to collect in a series.

She also received a Yellies toy – perhaps the only toy ever which encourages children to be even noisier than they usually are! The toys are noise activated bugs so the louder the children are the faster they move.

Turn them on and place on a flat surface and yell. The kids thought it was hilarious to out-shout each other and see how fast they could make their spider move – of course us adults tired of this one very quickly, toys which require the noise levels to get even louder than they already are are never a hit with parents, although you could give them as gifts to friends or families children who you’ve fallen out with or who’ve annoyed you.

Maybe this is the modern-day equivalent to giving a drum set or musical instruments as gifts to family – I always threatened my brother with getting his boys a drum set!

Disclaimer: We received these gifts from Hasbro, all wording, thoughts and opinions are my own

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