After a long day of school, our kids come home and our first instinct is to ask “How was your day?” For most parents, we get the “it was good” response with no additional details.  Even if we try to pry a little more, we have difficulties getting more from our kiddos.  

Whether your child is quieter, a little more private, or just won’t open up about their day, here are a few questions that might help to open up the door to a more detailed conversation.

• Ask Open-Ended questions.  It’s very easy to ask questions that can be answered with one word - yes or no - and that’s what you will get.  A one-word answer.  Try asking open-ended questions instead to trigger a longer conversation.

             Examples:  “What was the best part of your day at school?”  or “What was your favorite thing you learned?”

• Ask about factual observations.  Sometimes kids have a hard time answering questions that come out of the blue. Just like adults, it puts them “on the spot.” That can be intimidating, so making an observation gives your child something to relate to.

            Examples:  “This year you have a lot of new students in your class. How is that going?”  or  “I know you had Art class today, what did you make?”

• Share something about yourself.  Try to include things you may have done when you were in school.  When we mention something ourselves, it’s sometimes natural to want to do it in return.

            Examples:  “I used to play tag at recess. What do you and your friends do?”  or  “When I was in school, we used to make Mother’s Day presents, what                      do you do?

• Avoid negative questions.  If you think something isn’t going well, your questions may come out in a negative way, with emotionally packed w
  ords, like sad or mean.  Asking in a positive way lets your child express concerns.

            Examples:  “I heard you sat with some new students today.  What did you talk about?”  or  “The nurse called me and said you got hurt.  Can you tell me                   what happened?”

Finding better ways to phrase your questions to your child can invite them to talk more.  But don’t expect for every question to result in a long detailed conversation.  The goal is to get small conversations over time.  It helps to find natural moments to talk, when you're not in a rush, like at dinner.

Although kids are still a lot like adults, sometimes we just don’t feel like talking.  It’s important to know when to stop asking questions and leave it for another time.  If you know there is a serious or urgent matter to discuss, you will have to ask a direct and more specific question and push for an answer.

At Bright Schoolkitz, we are all committed moms to our families and we strive to be as successful with our families as we do with our positions here.  If you have any questions, or need more information, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Monday through Friday 8am-5pm EST.

We are excited to announce that we are participating in an extremely informative PTO Summit in the coming week. Check Us Out at the Rock Solid PTO Summit! They have chosen us to talk about our Customized School Supply Kits during their event to help other PTO/PTA members understand the benefits of customized school kits.

Would you like to get parents and staff more involved in your PTO? If so, you should sign up for the Rock-Solid PTO Summit!

Bright SchoolKitz and Rock-Solid PTO Summit would like to help you grow your PTO community. We know that your PTO is a wonderful community space where parents can make an impact on your schools. Yet, it can be difficult to know how to start or maintain your PTO from month to month.

Our friend, Hayley Wertz is bringing together 20+ PTO experts for this complimentary training service to unlock the simple secrets to help you build a community of motivated volunteers, increase fundraising efforts, and inspire the school staff to support your PTO efforts.

The guest list on this summit is epic. Here are a few of the incredible people you’ll get the chance to hear from:

• Wendy Tibus—founder of Get Movin’ Fundraising on how Get Movin’ Fundraising has reshaped the school fundraising industry
• Tiffany Allen—founder of Boss on a Budget on taking the fear out of fundraising
• Amanda Dolce-McCormack—February 22nd, Bright SchoolKitz’s own dedicated Sales Liaison on using customized school supply kits to ease your parents’ stress in the summer and to boost your fundraising effort

We are inviting you to join us at the FREE virtual Rock-Solid PTO Summit airing February 13-24th. 

You get 12 straight days of cutting-edge strategies and inside access to top PTO experts who are here to help YOU leverage your time and grow your PTO. This content is so valuable - especially if you’ve tried to get out of the volunteering for hours loop and found yourself stuck or new to PTOing and don’t know where to start. You can only move forward by knowing what you don't know - and that's where the Rock-Solid PTO Summit comes in handy!  All this is free for you and your team to attend by reserving a spot. Save your seat by clicking summit.rocksolidpto.com/brightschoolkitz

We would love to hear back from you and hear your thoughts about the Summit, especially if you are interested in joining Bright SchoolKitz Customized School Supply Kits Program! 

Contact Us Here!

When you walk into an office, school, or store of any sort, you will most likely find a 3-ring binder somewhere. Although 3-ring binders are certainly not a “newcomer” to office or school supplies, they have become more specialized to accommodate certain tasks they are used for. In fact, 3-ring binders can date back to the 1850s, when a Rhode Island man, Henry T. Sisson issued a patent for both 2-ring and 3-ring binders.  His design came after the invention of loose-leaf paper and the ability to protect and keep the paper organized is what inspired him to create what is now known as the “binder”.  He was able to keep the loose-leaf papers organized, secured, and protected, also giving a person the ability to travel with these important documents.  Although, the first 3-ring binders were made of cardboard, whereas the binders you see today consist of plastic, PVC, or even paper overboard.  Also, today’s binders come in a vast variety of colors and sizes to suit the needs of the buyer.

You may think all 3-ring binders look and perform the same, but in fact they do not! There are different types of binders for different types of purposes.  Binders now come in different sizes and the more commonly used binders have a clear view in the front, back, or even spine, which is typically used for more training materials or in school settings.  There are even Professional Portfolio Binders that come with a zipper closure to add security and durability.  Then there are binders that are specialized for Accounting records, Display binders are used for awards and presentations materials.  The list can go on.  Let’s focus more on the 3-ring binders with the clear view option.  These again are the most commonly used binders and are almost becoming a standard supply for schools throughout the country.  But why, you may ask? Let’s talk a little more about some of the key features binders have and determine its benefits in a school setting.

First things first, a standard binder has a specific thickness for a reason.  When loose-leaf paper was created, the common size was 8.5 inches by 11 inches, which means most 3-ring binders are roughly 10 inches wide and about 12 inches tall, giving the contents room as well as providing that security. The thickness of the binder can vary greatly from one product to another. The thicker binders are typically used to store documents for longer periods of time, whereas the thinner binders, which are more ideal for school settings, are perfect for reports, specific projects and events.  The amount of paper you want to put into the binder is determined by the ring size you will need. The ring size can also vary from about a half inch to 3 inches. By simply measuring the diameter of the ring, you can determine the amount of paper the binder can hold. Not all binders are created equally.  Typically, a 1 inch 3-ring binder can hold about 175 sheets of paper, whereas a 3-inch 3-ring binder can hold 460 sheets of paper.  That’s a big difference!

But there are more facts about 3-ring binders! The rings inside the binders can be different as well and also have different purposes. The shapes of the rings can be a circle, slant, or even resemble the letter “D”.  Schools that request a binder, will usually request a standard circle 3-ring binder, but there are a few that have special requests for the “D” ring binders.  But what is the difference between the two?  Well, your standard circle ring binder actually holds less paper compared to the “D” ring binder.  As I mentioned above a 1-inch ring binder can hold 175 sheets of paper, well that's for the circle ring, whereas the “D” ring binder in the same size can hold about 200-175 sheets of paper.  Although slant ring binders are not requested as often, they actually hold less than the “D” ring binders, but they are more durable.

The greatest parts about 3-ring binders are they make it easy to stay organized and keep the collection of papers in one place.  They are also very durable, portable, light weight and cost effective for all buyers. 

Here at Bright SchoolKits, we are committed to help you find the right 3-ring binder that is most suitable for your school, teacher, and students. Our customer service and sales liaisons are readily available to answer any questions you may have and even talk to you about the options available.  With the ability to customize your school supply kits to fit your needs, here we can make sure every aspect of your kit works in your students' classroom.

Contact us to find out if we carry the 3-ring binders you need in your school supply kits!

Want to learn more about 3-ring-binders - click here

The time is slowly approaching, your little one will be starting kindergarten soon.  When you realize that your child has evolved into a five year old and is somehow no longer your little toddler. You can’t believe it! Where did the time go? How do you feel?

This can be exciting because of the huge milestone for both the parent’s and child’s lives.  First day of school pictures of your child with the kindergarten smile, in their new clothes, backpack and lunch box in hand ready to head in with the other students and happy kindergarten teacher as you wave goodbye. But is it nerve-racking?! What if your child doesn’t like school or if they didn’t make any friends? What if they didn’t like their teacher? Did they have fun? You will need to console them and hope they will want to go back tomorrow. How do you make it perfect for your kindergarten student? Are you cool, calm and collected? You have done everything you can to prepare, and it may have taken lots of effort, but it’s going to pay off. You have done everything you can to get them to this point, and now it’s up to them for the next few hours. You are resting easy knowing you set them up for success.

For most parents, there are many stressors getting their child ready to start school. So much to organize. So much to do.

At Bright SchoolKitz, we are your one-stop shop to customize school supply kits for your upcoming kindergarten student.  The school’s administration or PTO/PTA will gather the teachers' supply lists and Bright SchoolKitz will do the rest! The kindergarten school supply kits are created with the matching contents of the teacher’s list and then made readily available for you to purchase online. Your school’s admin or PTO/PTA member will decide whether to have the kits delivered to the school or directly to your home.  Here we like to allow our kindergarten parents to place their orders early, before other grades, ensuring you have everything you need for that special first-day-of-school experience.  

When you attend your next PTO/PTA meeting or visit your school, mention how Bright SchoolKitz could be a benefit to you and the community. Tell them how you feel your child and all the other students could be prepared every year at school, just by purchasing a customized school supply kit with Bright SchoolKitz.

So instead of the stress of getting prepared for one of the most important days in your and  child’s life, allow us to make it easy.  You will be free to enjoy your summer with your child and that is a priceless moment.

Are you ready to have your school sign up with Bright SchoolKitz? See if your school is already set up with the Bright SchoolKitz program or sign up to have your school begin the program here.

Visit Bright SchoolKitz Now! Our representatives are available Monday through Friday from 8pm-5pm EST or you can send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Check out What to Plan for the First Day of Kindergarten for more information. Click Here!

A parent/teacher organization (PTO/PTA) gives parents and teachers the opportunity to work together to complement and cultivate the educational experience. A well-functioning PTO/PTA can be a teacher's most important resource when it comes to achieving curricular and fundraising goals. Here are some Bright SchoolKitz Tips on how to represent the PTO/PTA.

Tips about representing your organization:

• Always introduce yourself and your position with the PTO/PTA.
• Never speak on behalf of the school or the organization. You might have a great rapport with the principal, but you’re not an official representative and you are only one voice of many in your organization.
• You should never share your personal opinions on issues. When you’re in your official role, you represent the PTO/PTA as a whole.
• Always be polite.
• There are many working parts to your organization so give credit where credit is due.  

Tips for working with school staff:

• Learn their names and use them when you address them.
• Respect their positions. Remember that their primary responsibility is to the school. They aren’t there to do your grunt work.
  
• Include them all in staff appreciation events.
• Help the staff with grants and if classroom supplies are needed offer to help organize a school supply fundraiser.

Tips for helping those in need:

The PTO/PTA is also a wonderful resource for community outreach and support. 

• If you work with a school supply kit company with a donation program as ours, spread the word so that parents can make a donation to help get school supply kits for those in need.
• Fundraiser events are a great way to increase your prepackaged school supplies awareness.
• Share the achievements of the organization, so parents are aware of the impact of their contribution.

Tips for increasing parental involvement:

• Check in with your PTO/PTA members at the beginning of the school year to create a plan for giving other parents the tools they need to help their students with homework and classroom routines. 
• Then check in to see how well it's working as the school year goes on so you can make adjustments to keep everyone informed and involved.

At Bright SchoolKitz, we are in touch with many parent/teacher organizations and we know they work best when everyone has a clear idea of what goals they're working toward. Set your school's PTO/PTA up for success by providing specific projects to focus on and keeping lines of communication open during monthly meetings and through e-mail between meetings. These steps will make working together easy, enjoyable, and productive.

Contact us at Bright SchoolKitz to hear about more information.

Email us too with questions!

Even if this is your first year with the Bright SchoolKitz program, or you have been with us for awhile, but you haven’t been able to find the best way to distribute your kits, well you’ve come to the right article.  Below are some handy tips to assist you in distributing those school supply kits effectively and easily.

After a few weeks or more of chatting via email and phone with your sales representative about the kits.  Crossing your “t’s” and dotting your “i’s” you have created the perfect School Supply Kits for your school.  All the dates are in place and orders are rolling in.  The excitement is about to begin. Delivery day is upon you!  Time to get prepared for hopefully a large amount of boxes or even a pallet or two, you need to have a contact within the school building(s) to possibly be your “point of contact” when the shipment arrives.  Here are a few things you want to be ready for:

• Date of Shipment - tracking numbers are provided so you will know what date your School Kitz will be coming.  The time varies but you should have a window.
• Double Doors or Loading Dock - Most schools do not have loading docks, but the majority of them are equipped with Double Doors.  These are handy when the delivery is coming in on a pallet.  You will need a door large enough to accommodate the shipment.
• Inspection - Always inspect the shipment for visible damages.  It is important to write this information down.
• Signing for Shipment - Whoever was the point of contact at the time of delivery should sign that all pallets or boxes where delivered.
• Unpacking - This is the fun but not so fun part.  You may want to gather a team or helpers to break down the pallets and begin sorting the boxes of kits.

The distribution of the kits to the students who ordered is something some schools and organizers have struggled with.  Here are a few ideas to make
this part a little easier for you, the teacher, parents and the students.

• Open House Event/Meet & Greets:

This is a perfect opportunity for parents and students to grab their pre-ordered customized school supplies as they are already in the school.  You can put as many tables as needed in a big spot like a gym or a cafeteria. If you don’t have a table, you can put all the kits on the floor, with the labels on the side up. Line up all the boxes in alphabetical order, if possible. Create or ask for a list  so you can tick the ones that have been already taken.  This would work best with at least 2-4 volunteers/helpers for distribution and marking the taken kits from a list. After the event finishes, take all the leftover kits to the classrooms or school office.

• Place in Classrooms or Desks:

Some schools and teachers want the school supplies in the classrooms for the 1st Day of School.  This makes sure all students are prepared and ready on day one.  For this, you will needto have a few extra hands available to start to sort the kits by grade.  Then you will also need to have an available classroom list, so you can begin to sort the grades by teacher and by student in those classrooms.  It seems difficult but really it’s not.  Once that is finished then you will need to bring those kits to the classrooms throughout the school.  It is best if you have a rolling cart or table, and maybe even a 2 wheel cart can be handy.  Do not carry too much at one time as we would not want anyone to get hurt, some of these kits can be heavy.  If the teacher did not leave instructions to place the kits on desks you can just leave them in an open area in the classroom.

• School or Teachers Handle It:

There are some circumstances when the school and/or teachers want to handle making sure the kits are given to the students.  In this event, you could assist the school with sorting by grade, teacher, or even putting the kits in alphabetical order, whatever works best for the staff.  This is the easiest way for you but can be a task for the school.

We are sure there are many other options out there to distribute the school supply kits out to the students and here at Bright SchoolKitz we would love to hear about some of the creative ideas you have come up with.  If you have done something a little different, please send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or reach out to your sales representative to pass your technique along.  Maybe your way of distributing will work for another organizer in the future.

Contact Us at Bright SchoolKitz

Bright SchoolKitz is a company that was created on an idea.  A simple but creative thought to make students, parents, and teachers lives easier when it came to back-to-school supplies. Read the story to find out more about Bright SchoolKitz and the beginning of a  successful company that it is today. Here at Bright SchoolKitz we feel like you are part of our family, so we would like to share how it all began.

Our founder, Bethany Hampton, was a successful Engineer and then Brand Manager at an American Corporation managing household brand names (Folders, Pampers, and Dawn dishsoap) for many years. After her youngest child was born, she decided to refashion herself as a full-time mother, which we all know isn't an easy task but we do it for the better of our children. While she loved being involved in all the details of her children’s lives, and her youngest daughter had entered school full time, she wanted to do something of her own that allowed her to have a balance in her personal and professional life. 

Bethany’s sister, who worked with the school district's PTO at that time, gave her the idea of making customized school supply kits. Back-to-school supplies, pre-packaged and ready to go for the students, parents, and teachers. Yep, you guessed it this was an intriguing idea for Bethany. So she began investigating operational ways to make this simple thought become a reality. She came across the different possibilities of employing adults with developmental disabilities to pack the kits and she immediately loved that idea. It was really important for her that the company she was building had a nice environment, gave back to the community and, of course, to be able to make life easier for parents, students, and school staff. 

Today, 10 years later, Bright SchoolKitz is an expert in "customized school supply kits."  We've sold kits across 48 states and sell thousands of them a year.  Today Brigth SchoolKitz still has an eye towards giving back.  They still have adults with intellectual disabilities help pack the kits, they donate thousands of supplies to needy children and always help a school that has gone through some disaster or financial hardship.

We are so blessed to have such a great team of people who are all moms and understand the busy daily life of being a working mom and raising children. Our prepackaged school supply kits are built to the exact specification of your teacher’s supply lists. Quality is important to us. We carry both name brand and house brand school supplies in our customized school supply packs, as well as an assortment of wipes, tissues, and hand sanitizers to keep your classrooms healthy! 

If you want to learn more about customized school kits, have questions for us, or want a sample quote, feel free to email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call us at 844-937-5489. We are here for you!

Today, I took my daughter to get her school supplies since I had to go to Target to get one thing for our upcoming vacation. I am the rare breed who goes to Target perhaps once every 6 weeks to get essentials.  Don't get me wrong, I like Target, with its bright interior, clean floors, and well stocked shelves with almost everything you need from clothing to toilet paper, to chicken stock. But, it sucks up so much time that thanks to Amazon subscription, I don’t really need to go to Target that often.

Anyway, I digress. Like I said, I took my daughter to get her school supplies today since it was tough to get all those little items from Amazon (believe me, I tried.) I should have purchased a Customized School Supply Kit through her school, but the order deadline was at the beginning of the summer. I was too busy shuttling her to her numerous summer activities, working from home, dealing with all those home contractors, making sure our house was cleaned and making sure dinner was made, that I couldn’t get her supplies until now. I assumed that with my Ninja sales hunting skills I can do much better.

Target had an area with almost all the school supplies she needed, and they even had the list right in the store. Take that, I can definitely get her list done in no time. Soon, I realized that for many items on the list, we have to purchase more than she needed because Target only sold the larger packs. To get 2 glue sticks, we had to purchase a pack of 6. To get 1 highlighter, we ended up with a pack of 5. Her teacher wanted a few packs of yellow sticky notes, but Target only sold mega packs in multi-colors. I ended up spending some time hunting around the store in the office section to find smaller packs of these items.  Then, some of the supplies seemed a bit too expensive. A generic protractor costs $2, so does a cheap clipboard. I am sure we can get the same one at the dollar store, but who has time to run to another store? 

Half an hour into our shopping trip, as my Ninja shopping powers were waning. My daughter was taking her sweet time picking out the color of each folder, binder, and notebook. "Oooh, a yellow one...wait, the green one is prettier...wait, mom, I didn't see this red one before, it is better!" And then I had to explain why I picked a particular pencil case..."Honey, I agree, this $7 one you like has nice fabric with all these pretty pockets, but it is too thick inside the binder. Your teacher specified this cheap $1 plastic one because it is thinner."

Finally, we were down to 5 last items. Of course, they weren't at the school supplies section. Tissues and Clorox wipes were at another corner of the store, while the clipboard was by the office section. While trekking around the store to find the remaining items, we passed the toy and electronic sections. "Mommy, hold on, I want to check out this Lego set so I could put it on my birthday list". "Wait, mommy, can I check out this new iPad game? It is so cool!" “Ooooh, look at all those large TVs!”.  

After a small distraction while gathering the last of the supplies and keeping my daughter on course, we were finally able to checkout. An hour and half later.  When we got home, I realized I missed another pack of pencils. I guess I will have to take another quick trip to Target, but maybe alone this time. After hauling the supplies inside the house, I tallied up our purchase to see how much I'd saved. The total came to about $63 with tax, plus my daughter has to carry all of these supplies in her backpack on the first day of school. Not what I was expecting, but we got everything, well almost.  When I finally got to sit down on the couch to relax after an exhausting trip to the store, I regrettably thought to myself I should have bought the customized school supplies from my daughters school.  Lesson learned for this mom!

Bright SchoolKitz can create your school a customized kit for each grade - AND our orders stay open all summer long so your parents aren't forced to take a trip like this mom!  Talk with us today and we can give you more information.  Click Here!

Are your children picky about the color of supplies in their school supply packs?  It just so happens that color preference is taught and highly influenced by media!  Take a look at some of the research we did.

In the 1800s all kids were dressed the same. Pastel colors for baby clothing were introduced in the mid-19th century, and they didn’t become gender-specific colors until the 20th century. Why have young children’s clothing styles changed so dramatically? How did we end up with the pink and blue team? The story of these colors has gone back and forth, and it might as well keep changing.

Here’s proof. The baby in the picture below, believe it or not, is little Franklin Roosevelt. We may find the look unsettling today, yet socialconvention of 1884 dictated that boys wore dresses until age 6 or 7. This outfit was practical: white cotton could be easily bleached, and dresses allowed convenient access for diaper changing. Then pastel colors became a fad for babies: both boys and girls were dressed in a wide array of pastels.

In the early 1900s, the rulewas pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. Yes, you read it right. Pink was considered a more decided and stronger color, more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate, is prettier for the girl. Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies. However, this trend of pink for boys was not as overwhelming as our current color-gender designation.

At the beginning of the 20th century, some retail stores began suggesting “gender-appropriate” colors, for marketing reasons and so that parents would buy new clothes instead of passing the old clothes to a newborn sibling. Today’s color dictation wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers. But it could have gone the other way. The baby boomers in the 1940s were the first to be dressed in the gender-specific clothing that Americans are familiar with today. Boys and girls were dressed like miniature men and women instead of uniformly in children’s dresses. Pink became the girls’ color, blue the boys’.

In the mid-1960s and 1970s people who took part in the women’s liberation movement thought that dressing young girls in feminine clothing would limit the girls’ opportunities for success, and many parents began favoring neutral colors and fashions. Now young girls were dressing in unfeminine styles. 

By the 1980s, however, gender-oriented kids clothing had come back into fashion strongly. Also, clothes-washing technology began to allow cleaning and bleaching of colorful clothes without damage. Disposable diapers were also manufactured in pink and blue. So the baby boomers were raised in gender-specific clothing. 

Nowadays, there is a growing demand for neutral colors for kids. The loss of neutral clothing is something that people should think more about. Only 100 years ago, the fashion world may have divided children into pink and blue, but in the world of real individuals, not all is black and white. There is no such thing as boy colors and girl colors. There are only colors. We all can choose to like any color we want. 

There was an interesting article I read, about a Kindergarten teacher who asked her students a few simple questions about what it means to be a boy or a girl.  The teacher tracked their responses, and was surprised that at 5 years old, her classroom already had the presumptive notion of gender roles - a few examples were girls wear pink, boys wear blue, girls play with tea sets, and boys play with cars and blocks.  The notion that we have specific gender related items we can play with, wear, or even bring to school, has been set forth for many years.  

The honest question to ask ourselves is, how can we become more 'neutral’ with colors without using the typical neutral colors?  Why can’t boys like a pink school supplies? Why can’t a girls desire blue items in their school supply packs?  Why can’t a boy student receive a pink or purple folder, binder, or book bag in his school supply pack without being worried about being bullied?  What about a girl wanting to have a blue folder, and book bag because it’s her favorite color?  These are serious questions that as educators and parents we have to ask ourselves.  We have to make sure we are accommodating to everyone’s feelings - socially and physically - but we need to give students and children the chance to think for themselves.  We need to give them the chance to express why they feel a certain way about a boy liking pink or a girl playing with cars.  The earlier we can expose kids to these feelings and thoughts, the easier it will be to address and life long issues.  

Gender-specific colors shouldn’t hold anyone back from enjoying the plentiful colors of the rainbow in the way they see fit, and we as parents and educators should embrace it with them.

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