On Giving Back With MySchool

Once upon a veeeery long time ago, my mother found herself teaching little children at a nursery school in Woodlands Park.  And I found myself spending most of my holidays there helping out, because, well, I was baby obsessed remember?!

I’d carry those kids around as if they were my own – reading them stories, swinging them on the swings and feeding them all their food during meal times.  I did it like I was made to do it.  In fact, my kids probably shouldn’t read this considering how I often sigh when they ask me to do the very same things now.

My brother and I used to put on the most elaborate skits for the kids whenever we were allowed to – from Red Riding Hood, to the Three Little Pigs and even Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Which I know might seem weird if you know me and my inherent and debilitating stage fright (hello Grade 4 modeling where I cried and ran out the room).  But there’s nothing scary about a bunch of kids that are only just learning how to walk and talk.  Besides, they laughed and thought it was fun, so my job there was done.

Timmy Tots (as it is called) is in Woodlands Park, which is right next door to Ottery in Cape Town.  Many of the families that send their kids there need to be at work very early and also need to work quite late, so the children are often there from the crack of dawn almost until bedtime.  Something I didn’t think about twice when I was 10 years old and dressing up as Goldilocks, but pains my heart just thinking about now.

But as anyone with kids knows, childcare can be ridiculously expensive and when you need to earn an income to provide for your family, you don’t really have many other options.  So what do you do?  How do you make sure that you send your kid to a school that will look after and protect them as well as providing them with suitable facilities and education, when you can’t afford it?

This is why I love MySchool – they help schools all over the country by giving back.  Just by shopping at their partners you can help a school in need AT NO COST TO YOU.  That’s right – you are helping your chosen school without doing anything more than your monthly shopping.  Win-win if you ask me.  And by helping them you are not only supporting your chosen school but the families that send their kids there too.

And this just in – with the ease of online shopping, it only made sense for MySchool to have partnered with www.Loot.co.za (who are one of the top 5 online retailers in South Africa).  Now you can scroll through their wide range of products – choosing new cushions for the couch, getting something for baby, putting that new book in your basket or like us, replacing all the steak knives you’ve managed to kill over the last 10 years.  (Although, full disclosure, I did slip in a book, I just couldn’t resist.)  But the best part is that when you check out and enter your MySchool card number, you are giving back too.

SIDE NOTE: RIP old steak knives – I’m sorry that you lost your lives to cutting through hard cheese or a block of butter instead of sliding through a good steak, like you were born to do.  It’s just, that well, we thought you were stronger.

All that MySchool supporters shopping on loot.co.za need to do at the check-out, is enter their MySchool card number. Loot will then give back a percentage on every item purchased in their shop towards the MySchool programme.  It’s also really easy to sign up to the MySchool programme (it took me less than 3 minutes to sign up) and the card is mailed to you within a week.

You aren’t supporting a school or charity in need yet?  Not to worry – here’s the link to get you started:

REGISTER WITH MYSCHOOL

If you don’t have a school or charity that you are passionate about supporting, can I encourage you to support Timmy Tots?  I know they would really appreciate it.

While this is a sponsored post, it’s also something that has a real life connection to me that I am quite fond of, so it only makes sense for me to encourage all of you lovely people to get involved in this great cause too.