Back to School!

Phew, the Summer Holidays just flew by, and all of a sudden I find myself getting H’s uniform ready again – Year 1 beckons tomorrow, when she’s back to school!

I did an End of Year report on the various bits of uniform we bought over the year at the end of term, but as anyone who has a child at school knows, it isn’t just about uniform – there’s a few other bits too.

Matalan Uniform

Take for example, H’s water cup. We started the year with a Poppet Moshi Monsters one from Sainsburys which lasted for a while, although the cap broke, so it had a sharp part where you open it. Fortunately they were reduced so I bought another. That lasted a while again, until I spotted a Minions cup, which I bought. On the last day of term she came home with someone else’s Minions cup! I was gutted, as ours was a few days old – the one she came home with was dented and leaky, and most importantly of all, didn’t have a Bandino Cup Band on it! The Bandino Cup Band has been one of the best things all year, as far as missing cups go.

It has happened a couple of times, and her cup has turned up back in her class the following day – there was no need to put it in Lost Property. I can highly recommend Bandino  – so much so I bought more as with losing ours on the last day we needed one for Holiday Club. They’re a bargain, really hard wearing and make identical cups easily identifiable.

Matalan Uniform

We have just had a big delivery of School Uniform from Matalan, as we’re Matalan bloggers. I chose uniform in a size 6 or 7, as she’s grown a good couple of centimetres over the holidays without me realising – so she’s going straight back into bigger clothes already.

All the uniform pieces were very reasonably priced – and we’ll be testing them out over the coming weeks – her new summer dress is ready for tomorrow. I’ll go into more detail once we’ve had a proper chance to test them out – H is set to fall over several times this week I’m sure, so we’ll see how they fare. The summer dress we bought last term from Matalan is going strong, although getting a bit short (sigh, more growing..).

Matalan Uniform

That’ll be ready thanks to me stamping her name on them – living my inner librarian with my Stamptastic Stamp Pad, still going strong and still really impressed with them. The ink is still doing well – although I would like to find a method of removing the ink once a piece of uniform is too small, as I donated loads to our local Children’s Centre for them to sell, but they’re all still named! Stamptastic do PTA deals as well, so check them out.

We don’t need anything else right now, I don’t think. Can we really put our feet up, knowing we’re all set to go back to school?

We were sent all the above items for the purpose of review – all opinions are our own.

Stamptastic – A Personalised Name Stamp Suitable For Clothes

Stamptastic are a simple stamp and ink pad which are long-lasting. They are also the answer to my prayers – they stop the boredom when it comes to labelling H’s clothes!

Stamptastic Stamp PadsStamptastic is a simple clear resin stamp with an accompanying ink pad. You can stamp on several surfaces, including School Uniform. This appealed to me a lot – oh, the tedium that came with handwriting H’s name on every single piece of clothing at nursery. I got so bored I forgot what I was writing, and put something else in there instead. Some people call it baby brain – I call it labelling boredom brain!

After having written out twenty or more party invites recently, the next thing on the list of most boring things you have to do as a parent is labelling clothes. I have a pen I can use but after I’ve done five sets I’m bored, my pen is bored, the clothes are bored waiting for me, and I lose the will to continue.

Step forward Stamptastic. Now I can cover the pad with ink, get it into the right place and I’m able to see where I’m stamping too thanks to it being clear. Never has such a tedious job been so much fun – I LOVE it. I am living my inner librarian when I stamp, stamp, stamp – it dries quickly and even better, it stays.

Stamptastic

You can also use the stamp on lunchboxes and water bottles. I’ve found the ink doesn’t stay on as long this way, but you can always re-stamp! I prefer the Bandino bands for water bottles, as these tend to mean the bottles are easier to find (as you can guarantee there will be a minimum of five other children In Your Class with the same bottle!

I needed something to make labelling life easier and this does. I’m impressed and may have stamped lots of H’s things.

Even her shoes (top tip, the soles don’t hold the ink well, the sides do. I realise this is common sense but I just wanted to stamp and didn’t think). Now all her possessions have her name on them – and it took me a fraction of the time.

Stamptastic

We got H’s name put onto the stamp – generally Stamptastic can fit most things on there. We kept her class group off there so we can use it throughout school. At £8 for a stamp and £10 for a pad I think this is really reasonable price to pay. The convenience factor is a huge plus. (edited to add, after two five (!) years it’s still going strong too)

Each stamp is 38mm x 15mm in size, the fonts used are Arial, Arial Narrow or Abadi MT Condensed Light.

We were sent a stamp pad and stamp for the purpose of review, all opinions are mine, and that of my patience.

Stamptastic Ambassador