I was a new teacher right out of college, excited about having my first class of sweet, bright-eyed first graders. I couldn't wait to teach my first lessons with fun and engaging activities. I wanted to instill a love of learning in my students, knowing that would lead them to a lifetime of success! The best way to do that was to make learning fun, engaging, and interactive. I spent hours making my own learning games and creating hands-on teaching tools. I searched far and wide for creative games and activities to help my students find joy in their lessons. I was sadly unsuccessful in my quest to find exciting, inspiring and interactive learning games and teaching tools in my city (and the world wide web did not exist)! I decided the best way to fix this predicament was to create my own hands-on learning store for parents and teachers.
Consequently in October 1990, The School Box was born. My husband and I were both only 26 at the time, leased a building in Marietta, Ga., got some scary bank loans, spent all of our money on games and educational supplies, and started creating a hands-on learning store. Our biggest mission when we set up The School Box was to help other teachers and parents become passionate about instilling a love of learning in children and join us in this journey. That is still our mission today.
Today, The School Box is a retail/online business with more than 50 employees, 3 retail locations, 1 mobile store, a national catalog and two websites. Headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, we are the South's largest family-owned and operated retail educational company.
Our School Box stores have become a learning playground for kids (adults too) where each child will be encouraged to wonder, discover, and explore through playful learning! Our educational team is committed to unique, quality toys, games and educational products that will make a difference in a child's life. Not only are we committed to exceptional products, we are committed to bringing learning to life in stores with our STEM Saturdays and various fun, learning events! We guarantee to wow your kids and bring out the inner child in you!
Recently, we have added another division to our company, School Box Kits. We partner with schools and provide students with customized school supply kits based on their teachers' supply lists, and 10% of each kit sold goes back to their school's PTA.
We are dedicated to giving back to our community and supporting charitable causes such as Cure Childhood Cancer, The Dave Krache Foundation, and Passion City Church Backpack Drive. Throughout the year, we also make numerous donations to schools, church groups, businesses and more.