DISCLOSURE: As a member of the Book Buddies program, I received free books from Parragon Books to facilitate this post. No further compensation was provided. All opinions are my own. Post may contain affiliate links.

School has been in session for more than a week now. We had a later start this year than most other families that I know of. This year, school started the day after Labor Day, when usually it starts sometime in mid to late August.

I have an 8th grader, 5th grader, 1st grader and a child in Pre-K this year. They're all super excited about the new school year and so far, things have been going pretty well.

While we were vacationing in the Outer Banks last month, we received our September Book Buddies Box from Parragon Books. Each month, they send us a selection of books that go along with that month's theme. This month, the theme is, appropriately enough, the Back To School season. The box featured Parragon's new Learnalots series of books. The series is designed to be a fun and interactive way for kids to build upon their reading and math skills and are made so kids and parents can play and learn together.

As usual, my kids were very excited to receive another Book Buddies Box and couldn't wait to see what was inside. Each of our previous Book Buddies boxes have always had something that they enjoyed.


Our September Book Buddies box contained:

• Coding and Computers
• 500 Questions Game Book - First Grade
• Let's Learn Second Grade

Coding and Computers

My six-year-old son was excited to check out the Coding and Computers book first. He enjoys using the computer to play games and watch videos.  He thought the book would be a fun way to learn more about computers.

Coding and Computers

He found the book to be pretty interesting and had fun doing the little activities in the book. He did have to get some help in reading and understanding some of the words. It probably would be a better fit for someone a couple years older. Maybe more for 8-10 year olds than for a six-year-old. It was interesting, though, to read about the history of computers and to see how far they've come. Even I learned a thing or two after reading the book.

One part of the book that struck a chord with me was the section on The PC Revolution. I remember when my family first got a computer, when I was in in middle school or high school. It was huge and I remember having to use 5.25" and 3.5" floppy disks! The book mentioned Apple Macintosh computers and I remember going to the Mac Lab in high school!


500 Questions Game Book - First Grade

Since my son started first grade this year, he thought this book would be perfect for him. He tried to quiz his younger sister some of the questions in the book, though she couldn't really answer any of them.


So, I went through the book a little bit with him. When I quizzed him, he was able to answer most of the questions correctly. So, I think it's pretty age and grade appropriate. He also liked that the book had jokes, in addition to the questions. He loves telling jokes and he went around asking his older brother and sister the riddles in the book.


Let's Learn Second Grade


This activity book was a little too advanced for my six-year-old. Despite it being for second graders, my son did want to see if he could do some of the activities in the book.


Flipping through the book, there are definitely some activities that my first-grader can do, such as practicing writing his letters and a lot of the reading activities seem to be at his current reading level. Some of the math is definitely more difficult than what he's doing in class now and he would need assistance in completing the math problems. I think this would be a great book, though, for us to revisit more during the middle or maybe towards the end of the school year. It would also be a good workbook for him to complete next summer before he starts second grade.

Overall, this month's Book Buddies box was a great addition to our collection of books, especially for my younger kids. These books can be purchased at your local bookstore as well as online retailers, such as Amazon.com (affiliate links below).