family

Recently I was approached to review this new product called a tacky box. When I read more about this box and already having a teen that has experienced bullying throughout his school years, this was exactly what I have been looking for my younger children. We home educate our youngest children through k12.com and  sometimes  they may hear things from others that aren’t exactly appropriate.

Tacky Box is a company that created this book that positively addresses how unkind words can hurt in a way kids can relate to.

What is a tacky Box? The founder is a mom just like me and when her daughter came home from school one day and repeated the naughty word she heard at school, the mom got creative and created The Tacky Box. The Tacky Box is just that, a box! It is accompanied by as adorable story of a little monkey, Margo in our case, who is repeating all sorts of naughty words she learns from her Jungle Neighbor a Parrot. Margo was a fast runner, fast swimmer, and loved to play with others.  She visited several of her Jungle Neighbors through the day, and none would play with her. She is confused why other Jungle neighbors won’t play with her. She is so lonely and sad. Then she is visited by a wise-old owl who explains that she is using “tacky” words that are unkind and inappropriate. The owl encourages Margo to write those tacky words down and place them in the box so they will be “out of her heart and out of her mind”. Margo writes words like “dummy” and “fatso” in the box. Margo soon learns to replace these tacky words with kind words and begins to make more friends.

The kit comes with the book “Margo’s Marvelous Choice” (or Max if you would like a boy monkey!) and a blank, ready to personalize Tacky Box! When the box arrived, my kids couldn’t wait to get started! While reading the story, my kids were shocked when they heard Margo using these naughty words! They knew they were wrong and couldn’t wait to hear Margo make a better choice. When the story was done, we talked about the difference between “appropriate” and “inappropriate” and “kind” and “unkind” words and how choosing between these words can make them and their friends happier. We are going to be decorating our box this next week for their art project.

Here is my youngest 3 kids showing off this their Tackybox, my 8 year old only looks bored because we all have been sick all week. He wanted to go find the right embellishments to place on the box and mom was insisting on a photo op 😉

Here is my daughter inspecting the new box and note pads.

When I asked the kids what types of words they’d thought would belong in the box they thought about it and  “idiot”, “we’re not friends”, along with “we don’t like you” went into the box. While they weren’t really just one word, they were still unkind things to say to people.

The kids have been saying to each other often though the week that certain words were unkind, or inappropriate.  Mostly when they play their Wii Games such as Super Mario or Donkey Kong are the unkind words an issue.  They have even mentioned to me when out shopping that they hear others make unkind gestures and words to others. Last night I even heard my 6 year old son tell his 8 year old brother that he was using unkind words while they were getting reading for bed.  I can tell that Margo’s Magnificent Choice has really impacted them. This is something that we will reference back to in our family. This will help them deal with conflicts between themselves and others  in a more constructive positive approach.  

This will be a fun new family tradition to keep up with. The artwork and story is amazing. It was fun to read and easy for the kids to understand the importance of being kind to one another. They understand that you will make more friends when you are kind to others.

Want to learn more? Check our Tacky Box online, on Facebook, on twitter and Pinterest!

#TackyBoxKindness

Disclosure: In exchange for my honest review, I received a Tacky Box set to use with my kids. All opinions are my own.