I lived for that day.

By megret | October 2, 2008 at 6:30 am | 7 comments | Books & reading, Learning and doing, rants, raves and recommendations

You know the day. The day when the Scholastic Book Club Fairy came and left the books and other items you ordered on your desk at school. Those books that were hard-earned from the scrounged up coins from your piggy bank — or from the allotment of money you begged your mom to give you a couple of weeks before as you drooled over those stapled leaflets.

You came back from lunch or recess and they were there. Bright, shiny, brand new, shrink-wrapped books all for you. Your classmates groaned as the teacher told you to “please put the books in your desk cubby — you can open them when you are at home” so as to not disturb class. Most of your pals were grouchy about it, but you were secretly pleased — after all, the fun was in the waiting!

I thought those days of Scholastic-related anticipation were long gone for me. I was wrong.

You see, something I didn’t know (but have recently discovered) was that homeschooling families, groups, and co-ops can sign up with Scholastic, as well. Yes, even as young as Pre-K and K. I had heard rumors, but was it true? A few online applications and two exceptionally courteous phone calls later, we were members, and I began my wish lists to coincide with our curriculum topics for the next two months.

The package arrived at my doorstep yesterday, a mere six days after my order was submitted. And the excitement? Oh, just as it always was. I dove into the box as if it was filled with dozens of 70% dark chocolate-with-orange candy bars. The new-book-smell was there. The shrink-wrap-unwrapping was there. I filled our school reading basket with books all about apples, pumpkins and farms. And then I did a little happy dance, right there in our living room.

And let me tell you something about these fine folks at Scholastic. Their customer service is beyond great. It’s absolutely stellar. They patiently and expertly walked me through the process of signing up, ordering (I don’t know how a teacher of 20-plus students keeps up with it all), and even settled a couple of weird questions I had (if there’s a weird question to be asked, you betcha I’m gonna be the one to ask it). One of the books I ordered was out of stock, so they sent me a free placeholder book, “to enjoy while I wait on the arrival of the missing book.” As if all this wasn’t enough, when I called today to tell them one of my titles was incorrect, they told me to keep the book and they’d send out the book I ordered at no cost to me at all.

Companies like this have my loyalty for life.

Now. I’m going to go and read some of these fine books to my little ones right now. They are starting to wonder why their mom is so unbelievably excited about a box of books.