Even though you’re enjoying having the kids home for the summer (well, mostly!), the time has come to start thinking about sending them back to school. Heading into the back to school world of shoes, pencil cases and suddenly-too-small-school-uniform can feel daunting (no, we’re not judging you if you let out a little whimper).

That’s why we’ve put together a list of our favourite back-to-school essentials to make the summer to school transition a little bit easier. Super easy, in fact - take a seat and grab a cup of tea (or glass of wine!) and take a look at our favourite essentials.

First up, the vital pencil case! Our fun colour-in pencil cases will be a hit from the first day of term. These creative and sustainable cases are made with cotton and neoprene – very sturdy and perfect for keeping their contents clean and tidy (and of course, they’re washable!). With five cool designs to choose from, including dinosaurs, working wheels, fairytales & legends, butterflies of the world and space explorer, there’s something for everyone! Each pencil case comes with a set of 10 wash-out pens.

The kids might need some new pencils to go in that new pencil case! We love the gorgeous ‘make it your own’ personalised pencils from Meticulous Ink. Each pencil is entirely made in the UK and features a colourful hand-dipped end. You can customise their beautiful grade B pencils, with names, inspirational words – or whatever you’d like! And they come in lovely paper packaging – no plastic to be seen.

How about a new bag? Our world map backpack is ideal for carrying PE kit, crumpled school jumpers and notebooks, lunches, laptops and more! All our bags come with a set of 10 wash-out pens and are 100% cotton and completely washable – perfect for messy days or grubby sports kits! Kids will love this drawstring backpack for all their school supplies - the fun world map design wraps around the bag like a globe – ideal for all round colouring fun!

Keyrings can be great for distinguishing between a sea of school bags – and we think they’re a fab idea! Kids can choose a fun personal keychain to put on their book bags, PE kits or backpacks. With so many options out there we thought we’d share a few of our favourites to give you some inspiration! We love these felted ball keyrings from Flitterbee Crafts, these paint your own keyrings from abesoddities and personalised bag tags from PrettyLittlePersonal all available on Etsy.

Maybe most important of all – lunchboxes! We all love a good, reusable lunch box, especially bamboo ones! There are so many fun designs and styles to choose from, but we particularly love the ranges from Sass & Belle and Rex London. The designs range from animals and space to rainbows and maps – and there are so many styles, including bento boxes and lunch bags. Our absolute favourites are the Prehistoric Land Bamboo Lunch Box from Rex London, and Sass & Belle’s Endangered Animals Lunch Bag.

And don’t forget food wrap alternatives! We’re huge fans of Bee’s Wrap and their collection of reusable wraps in lots of fun designs and colours. They’re an amazing washable, re-usable and compostable alternative to clingfilm or tinfoil when wrapping up sandwiches or other snacks and eco-educational for your child, too!

If you’re home-schooling and looking for fun new term ideas for lessons and learning, we have just the thing! Our tablecloths are perfect additions to home learning and great for science or geography lessons, too.

Kids will love learning with our world map tablecloth! They can colour and discover new places, animals, fun facts and cultural icons – perfect for any young geography fans and great for encouraging questioning and further research. Teeming with animal and plant life, our nature & wildlife tablecloth is perfect for mini-scientists! Kids will love diving into pond life and learning about habitats, life cycles, animals and insects. Our tablecloths are ideal for learning at home, encouraging kids to learn through play and there’s more to discover on our learning resource page.

Really hope we’ve helped with inspiration for the dreaded back to school shop and here’s a special offer to help with it all: buy one pencil case and get another at half price! Use the code BACK2SCHOOL at checkout. Check out eatsleepdoodle pencil cases!

Offer ends Sunday 22 August, 23:59.