The Favorite Aunt

Five years ago, my sisters and I started a reading magazine for preschoolers. My sister Judy, the serial entrepreneur, was the motivating force behind it. She got the idea years and years ago, when she was volunteering at a children’s hospital. She noticed that even little toddlers would watch TV all the time. Books required a grown-up to read them to you. What if there were reading materials that kids could do all by themselves?

The Tessy & Tab Reading Club was born. Together with our good friend and illustrator Rosie, we put out two issues per month with titles like “Bedtime”, “Airplane Trip”, “At the Zoo” and other fascinating topics for 3-year-olds.

I left the company a couple years ago to pursue a great opportunity with a small but growing Mac software company. So I cannot take an iota of credit for the latest brainstorm: The Preschool Money Manager.

This kit has everything that you’d need to get your preschooler ready to deal with money. It comes with an adorable bank from a company called Moonjar, which has three parts: Save, Share and Spend. Chores charts and allowance calculations are included. It also comes with two adorable issues of The Tessy & Tab Reading Club: “Spend, Share & Save” and “Yard Sale”.

This would make a great present for preschool kids. It’s only $19.95. (Remember: wealthy nieces and nephews will come in handy when you’re a little old lady…)

A subscription to the magazine is also a great gift. It’s $48 for 24 issues (1 year), and each issue comes addressed to the child with a note “Happy Reading From Aunt Jean” (or whatever your name happens to be). If you use the coupon code AUNT2FREE, you’ll get two free issues added to the subscription.