PAW Print Family Badges Review

I saw my peers sharing nursery graduation pictures of their little ones, and I thought, “Awwww! Look at them in their little gowns and caps! How adorable!” I would give their post a quick ‘like’ and ‘comment’, but I also knew that, as we home-educated from nursery age (we took our Little Acorn out of nursery after only a few months, but that’s another story for another day), we weren’t going to experience that moment.

But I really did want to do something that would memorialise our learning journey throughout our academic year and give us something to help us mark special moments and observe our achievements – something a little keepsakey.

In the end, we skipped the cap and gown to do something a little more us and presented our little guy with a custom-made denim jacket. Nanna had bought our little one the denim jacket, so it already felt special. So, in addition to our usual yearly scrapbook, we started collecting souvenirs on our trips. Then, instead of just collecting any souvenirs, we began collecting specifically badges. So when I found the Pawprint Badge family, it was the perfect home education resource.

Pawprint Badges offers you fun, collectable embroidered, woven and pin badges for a variety of occasions.

Pawprint Badge Family also offer 1000s of free activity ideas in Challenge Packs and Free Resources.
Each challenge is divided into 4 sections: Craft, Food, Games and Other.

In addition to learning about famous people, landmarks, historical events, literature, and other subjects, we have found that many of the challenges and badges align with our nature curriculum.

This year, as well as studying caterpillars and butterflies with our nature curriculum, we had a butterfly farm at home, among other things, so the caterpillar and butterfly badges made the perfect awards for completing our studies and for releasing the butterflies into the wild.

One of the things I love is that there is no long-term financial subscription. I find that many resources like this in the education space require a subscription, which limits accessibility for many children and their families. Although the badges and pins cost, the price is reasonable (relatively), and even if you do not buy any badges, you still have instant access to thousands of activities and inspiration for your home ed days. Simply create an account to download the free challenges and resources.

Sometimes I bulk buy and shop for the whole season. I might sit and think of all the topics we want to study for autumn and winter. Other times, I might just order a one-off item, and sometimes I sift through the sale section to see if anything piques our interest.

The one downside is that if you order a particular item that is not currently in stock, your entire order is put on hold until the item becomes available. Often, it will give you a date for when that stock is due in, but sometimes there is no date or approximate timescale. The latter can be frustrating because you don’t know if your order will be on hold for days, weeks or months.

Recently, in my “spring order,” I deleted an out-of-stock summer item that had no arrival date, assuming it might be forever. Anywho, as soon as my spring order arrived, the summer item was now available on the website. That’s annoying because I’ll now have to order again and pay a second delivery charge. Paw Print Family can definitely work on the administration element here to improve the service, and maybe I could learn some patience. As my 5-year-old would say, “You can feel two different things at once, mummy, and they can both be true”. Out of the mouth of babes!

Each order earns loyalty points you can redeem on future orders. It always feels great to get a few pounds off your orders here and there. As they say, “Every Little Helps!” *Ching Ching*

Much like our Mud and Bloom Boxes, one of my favourite things about Paw Print Family is that they save me time and brain space, but also come up with lots of ideas and give so much inspiration.

Home Education takes a lot of organising and planning, and so, resources that lighten the load are always a win for me. 10 out of 10 for The Paw Print Badge Family.

If you decide to use Paw print badges, let us know in the comments. Or if you already use it, let us know how you include it in your learning and explorations and tell us your favourites. Let us know your favourite resources so we can check them out!

Sharing, as they say, is caring.

OK, family and friends, I’m off to get on with my sewing pile!