I recently shared about our experience with My Pre-K Box – the prepackaged themed box for preschoolers (well, the second grader loved it too). I wanted to share a little bit more about the founder, Lindsey, and am highlighting her small business this month.
Lindsey Eder is the founder of My Pre-K Box. She has long been an educator – teaching her sister and stuffed animals as a young child about her favorite subjects – math and reading. In fact, she loved playing school so much that she fashioned her own overhead projector to use as a tool while playing school and teaching. (I used to love those transparencies too so I can relate to this on a personal level.) Then she was gifted a used overhead projector – game changer!
The love of education continued when she went to college and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education and then furthered her education by getting a Masters in Student Counseling at Johns Hopkins University. She taught third and fourth grade. She wrote curriculum, became a mentor teacher and instructional team leader. In addition, she worked with preservice teachers during their internship year. The desire to better education and help others is seen in her background. Combining the education background and the desire to relieve the mental load and stress of families, she has turned to building her business, and creating these beautiful themed preschool boxes.
How kids feel about learning is just as important, if not more important, than what they are learning. When learning feels fun, they’re eager to keep doing it! – Lindsey Eder, owner and founder
As a mother of three boys, Lindsey understands the demands on time. It is felt in her boxes that she truly just wants to help. Her background and desire to be supportive as a teacher have translated into her business. Her love of teaching means she has fun researching, making the plan and gathering the resources for lessons. She has utilized her talents to take a little bit off the plate for busy parents, especially in 2020. During the height of restrictions, she was sharing with friends what she had been doing with her three boys and they started asking her to make premade kits! She says her friends were “frustrated with not knowing what skill to focus on, didn’t know how to come up with fun activities, and didn’t have the time and energy to prep things.” With her husband working from home during the pandemic, she was able to harness her own skill set to share with others – My Pre-K Box was born!
Her desire to provide fun, engaging actives that do involve some learning is evident in the beautiful Apple box, the September box. The boxes involve zero prep from the parents. While there will be guidance needed to discuss key concepts or work on counting, all the supplies are in it and you can literally open up the box, and begin play. The durability of each activity means you can keep using them. We have had the Apple box open for three weeks now, and have done the activities over and over. The crafts are one time use only, but still useful talking points. My preschooler has pulled out the Apple box several times this week to do activities on her own. On the My Pre-K Box website, she has loaded Apple themed songs and finger plays and apple themed crafts to enhance the apple-tastic learning.
The key to preschool play is fun. Fun is what these boxes deliver. When I asked Lindsey for advice to preschool parents navigating this time at home, she said this:
Looking to start of business of your own and feeling stumped? Lindsey’s advice: “Have a clear vision, mission, and focus. Don’t be afraid of a lot of hard work. Expect things to take a lot of time. But don’t let fear or the desire to be perfect hold you back. IMPERFECT ACTION. Keep taking steps, even if it’s imperfect.”
If you can’t tell – we loved our My Pre-K Box and hope you will check out and support this small business too. Use the code MILMOM5 to save $5 on your box (no, it’s not a referral code but you will save money!) October’s theme is Spooky, click here to see the most up-to-date themes.
