How cool would it be to be able to gift a child you love the joy of reading knowing it would also translate into books for children who aren’t quite as fortunate as yours.

The READ educational trust gives you that opportunity by giving 100% of the profit from purchases at their ONLINE STORE towards promoting literacy where it’s needed most, in disadvantaged communities countrywide.

Gifts that keep giving

Gifts available through READ includes things like literature-inspired t-shirts and mugs,  Read Aloud Magic Box sets targeted at ages 4-7, 5-8 and 6-9 and games.

This time around we opted for the Red Reading Boxes which are affordable box sets crammed with hands-on activities, posters, and attractively illustrated stories set to appeal to kids from Grade 4 through to high school.

What’s in the box

The Boxes have different themes such as the ‘Finding Facts’ box where you will find a ‘Finding Facts Magazine’ – a place to find out about our ancestors, our family, our country, and our culture. The ‘Superhero Journal’ is a journey of self-discovery, and ‘Everyday Heroes’ is a book filled with stories about children similar to the readers. The ‘Finding Facts Cut-Outs’ book contains instructions for all the games in the box, as well as fun cut-outs. Games include a ‘Flags of Africa’ game, ‘Word Power Playing Cards’, and more, in the shape of stationery and extras.

At R255 it is total value for money and makes a great Birthday gift

How we like the box

Although Aidan is only 7 and in grade one, he can read pretty well and is able to interact with these box sets with just the teeniest bit of help from me.

I’ve been obsessed with reading and writing, since well, I could read and write. I always dreamt that my child would also be submerged in the joy of reading but you know, nature VS nurture. I found that although he has been surrounded by books since birth, he finds a lot of books pretty boring. In fact, we only realised he could read fluently earlier this year when he was laughing at meme’s on the internet and could ask google questions pretty easily. He also finished the terms class reading on day one and prompted the teacher to send home some more “challenging material” which he finished reading on the car ride home.

But give him a storybook and he calls it boring by page two. He is also not one for “whimsy” and gets annoyed by fairytales. Aidan’s relationship with reading it pretty much: “cool now I know what the instructions on the Xbox game mean”. I found these boxes turned reading into “more of his thing” , you know games and research and investigation.

(Check out his review of the boxes on Instagram)

I honestly think these boxes are really cute and Aidan’s 9-year-old cousin is getting one for her birthday for sure.

*trade exchange