With back to school just around the corner, we headed out to Kingsway Mall to do a little shopping with the kids! School is going to be very different this year for our family. We kept in mind that they may be spending some time at home and some time in the classroom before hitting the stores. For us that meant a variety of clothing and supplies for every situation that may arise.

Kingsway Mall has implemented many health and safety protocols for a safe shopping experience. You can plan ahead before you visit by checking out their website.

Some of the things we observed during our visit included:

• helpful signage for health and safety protocols at mall entrances
• sanitizer stations throughout the mall
• intensified cleaning protocols
• mandatory masks or facial coverings required as per bylaw
• reduced shopping hours

Our shopping experience was great! We all felt safe as we shopped at a variety of retailers throughout the mall. Every individual store we visited also had sanitizer stations when you entered the store.

Kingsway Mall has plenty of retailers to choose from that are selling reusable masks for both adults and kids. They have a great blog post on their website that includes a list of retailers carrying them here. We stopped by the Gap to pick up some reusable face masks for our family. We also spotted them at Bentley and Claire’s had a fun DIY mask station that our daughter thought was so cool!

While back to school shopping this year, we kept in mind that some of their learning might be at home and some might be in the classroom. Loungewear became a must have at our house this year when the pandemic hit, so of course it was the number one item the kids wanted!

We headed to H & M first which had a great selection of loungewear for both adults and kids! Our daughter Quinn picked out an adorable heart print sweatsuit in the kids department, they even had a buy 2 get 1 free sale on. Our son Logan is wearing mens clothes now because he is so tall. We found some great sweats and a long sleeve top he loved and the prices were great too. There’s nothing better than being cozy while learning at home.

*Please note you cannot try on clothes in the store but they have extended their return policy.

Bentley was our next stop to check out some new backpacks and lunch boxes for this year. We loved the variety in store, they had so many options for little kids, big kids and adults! Our daughter is obsessed with unicorns. They had quite a few unicorn prints available to choose from which she loved. At age 12, our son is into more adult styles now and grabbed a neon bright Adidas one he liked.

The Gap has been a go to for our family for many years. Now that Logan is out of kids sizes, we love that we can still find clothing for both of our kids in one stop. We picked up some skinny jeans and a vintage tee for Logan and Quinn picked out an overall dress that she said was a must have for back to school this year.

Below the Belt had some great options for Logan with lots of trendy and youthful brands in store. Champion is definitely popular with preteens, and it’s also what he picked out. Now that he is 12, he is a lot more opinionated about what he wears. Logan pointed out several things in store he liked so it will definitely be a store we visit more frequently now that he is wearing mens clothing.

With the option of online learning this year, Quinn picked out this adorable laptop desk for school at Indigo. We both thought it would be perfect for her to use with her computer when she doesn’t feel like sitting at her desk. Quinn loves to draw and colour pictures so I also think she will get a lot of use out of it for that quiet time while she creates her masterpieces!

This blog post was written in partnership with Kingsway Mall. Opinions expressed are my own based on our personal shopping experience for Back to School.