School supplies are tres annoying!

I guess we got off lucky...Rachel's 2nd grade list was pretty short, and she could have whatever color folders she wanted. Our Walmart had every color but pink (which is what she wanted)...so she wasn't happy, but oh well. I spent about $25 total for all of her supplies this year (no coupons or anything).

I will admit when I taught I asked for Crayola crayons as opposed to other (*cough* crap Roseart) brands. And every year a kid would bring in Roseart, and then he or she would be crying because their crayons didn't show up on the paper that we were using.
 
Whatever happened to writing the subject on your folder with a pen/sharpie? It's hard to believe that teachers are that specific. I'm curious to hear from teachers on here. We were in a small town that only had a Walmart, so everyone's lists were always on a display there and we could always find what we needed

Here's an idea for those of you needing graphing calculators: my mom had all of us pay half of the cost, and we knew so at the beginning of the summer so we had time to earn the money. I loved my graphing calculator. My bro was out of the country the first year I needed one, so I used his, but I knew I had to pay for half of mine like I did for any larger purchases I needed. I don't think I needed one until high school, but I used that thing as a second brain for 9 years straight, and now DH uses it at work (I had the Ti-89, his is the 84 or 83). So I think going on 13 years it was a pretty good investment. I'm also surprised that they make you buy an 83 or 84 because the 89 will last them through all of calculus, and any tests that require a lesser calculator only need a basic calculator like the Ti-35 anyway.

I just started homeschool preschool with DS and spent maybe $20, and I felt like I was splurging. I guess it's different because I can buy as we need, but teachers can't expect kids to remember to tell their moms that they need more pencils, etc. the only thing I couldn't find wasa hand sharpener that had fat and skinny holes. My mom bought DD some chunky colored pencils, so I had to order the sharpener on amazon.
 
I'm telling you... everyone needs to move to our district! We buy all the supplies as a school. You pay nothing. You buy nothing. You won't even have to look at the supplies if you don't want to. :)
 
As a teacher, I'll say that I'm always thankful for the parents who don't have to send anything, but do. I teach pre-K and we don't ask for supplies but if a parent sends in a package of Lysol wipes or nice Puffs tissues, I'm more than happy to have them. The district provides cleaning solution but I dont' like it -- it's too concentrated and leaves a scum on my tables -- and the tissues they provide are horrible. Rough and thin. I buy crayons and markers myself during back to school (but I bought so much last year and used them so rarely that I have plenty... I tend to do more manipulative stuff than drawing stuff). I buy tons of snacks for my students to use during speech therapy. We use reinforcers to get them to use pictures or words to request and the reinforcers need to be highly motivated. I buy a lot of M&Ms, goldfish crackers and Skittles over the course of a year... but am happy to do it if it means my students are talking by the end of the year.
 
My 3rd grader has to bring 60 sharpened pencils. There are at least 25 kids in his class. I have a hard time believing that his class will use 1500 pencils over the course of the year.
 
The high school teachers have been awesome this year. Mostly just 1 subject notebooks and binders (interactive notebooks are the hot thing this year). Now in Middle School the teachers were very specific. One even photocopied what the label on the notebook had to look like because she wanted specific ones. LOL! I almost cried when I got to Target and I could find one - only to have to dig through the go back carts to find that one (and not in the color my daughter wanted.)

Things I have learned this year - college ruled notebooks allow to glue in a whole sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper. So even if your kid can't write on college ruled to save her life too bad, she'll have to figure it out because the teachers were very clear that whole sheets of paper HAD to fit in the notebooks. Also, buy pencils, erasers, colored pencils, markers and highlighters before hand. You can use the list they sent you with room assignments, but you'll end up taking it all back. Just wait for open house and then run to Target to get what you need. Oh, and for high schoolers order index cards in bulk because she's used 100 this weekend on first week of Spanish homework. If it's like this every week we're going to be swimming in index cards. LOL!

I love the smart schools where the PTA has the supplies all ready for the kids and you pay one amount. What a great way to support the school and to keep your sanity!

Oh and don't even get me started on supplies they need at home for homework. Packing tape and hot glue guns? Seriously?
 
So, your schools don't provide the resources that your kids need??? In England all you need to provide are the uniforms/sports kit and their bag/lunch box etc.
 
No, Andrea, in the majority of the places the parents supply all school supplies and most classroom supplies, too.
 
Wow. I did not know school lists could get this crazy. The school here does a supply box for each grade and that's what we ordered since it is our first round of it. I did buy some extras in case she needed things during the year. I will be calling/emailing the teacher that specifies a color of an item. That is just too much.

I went to a private school so I am used to the notion of buying uniforms, supplies and books. We never were told specific colors or brands though. I mean of course, our shoes had to be brown, black or navy blue and socks were navy or white. Other than that, the supply list wasn't nearly as crazy.
 
farrijc said:
I shopped for school supplies once... when my oldest was going into K (he's in 4th this year). Ever since then, I very happily write my check to the PTA and smile when the supplies magically appear on their desks the first day of school. This year it cost me $100 for three kids... totally worth it!!
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Yes. Exactly this!
 
See, our school packs cost $40-50! I was able to save a couple things from last year and only spend $23 for both of my girls! That's a huge savings. I have learned to shop mid July, as soon as everything is out... but that's way cheaper! Ours isn't so specific with color. However, I am still a little annoyed by it because I know not every class uses some of the things we have to get!
 
The letter is funny.

My on my daughter's list there were 48 Ticonderoga pencils. What is so special about this brand? They are expensive - over $8 per pack compared to $3 and some. I did not buy the special brand, went with the cheaper ones. Let's see what the teacher will say.
 
Our exchange students in the past have gone through, bought EVERYTHING on the supply list, and ended up leaving half of it here when they left to go home. This year, we had the kids shop from abandoned supplies from former students (some things brand new, some just in really good shape). Anything that we KNEW they'd need that we didn't have on hand (like pens and pencils), we took them to buy.

From there, we waited until each one listened to the teacher for each class explain what supplies they'd need... and just had them buy those. The students spent something like $15 this year versus about $150 for past years (calculators aside-- some of them didn't bring graphing calculators that needed them).

Now, some teachers in our high school will offer extra credit for bringing classroom supplies-- like printer paper, cleaning wipes, etc. That's always a nice perk because the students always look forward to extra credit (15 points could mean that you could accidentally forget a daily assignment and it not hurt your grade, or 15 points could help you get THAT much further ahead if you miss a question on a test or something). I ALWAYS advise the students to bring in anything they can reasonably afford to if it means extra credit.
 
When i was a kid in Texas, we bought school packs at the stores. I remember going to the grocery store and picking up the pack that corresponded with my school and grade. But in Arizona, we buy our own. Fortunately, the teacher have not been picky. For kindergarten, we kept all the supplies at home to do homework. This year, we need crayons, pencils, 3 glue sticks, a highlighter, an eraser, wide rule notebooks, and 2 or 3 folders. I actually had everything except the highlighter. No specific brands or colors. I always stock up on Crayola items during back to school.
 
Our elementary school used to do the packs and I loved it but they stopped a few years ago.

Like others there's always something crazy or difficult to find, this year the item was .77oz glue sticks, 6 or 8 of them and I'm sorry, but $12 worth of glue sticks isn't happening. I was also pissed about the required Twistable Colored pencils.

I don't ever want a kid to do without because their parents can't/won't contribute and I don't like the teachers having to spend a lot of their own money either. I do get irritated though, all the extras ( extra packs, tissues, wipes, sanitizer, Ziplocs etc really add up ). And this is where I put on my flameetardent suit, I kind of hate the way supplies are thrown into a pot, I'd rather donate extras and let my kid have their own. I'll buy my own kid Ticonderoga pencils because they're awesome, they stay sharp, don't break and last longer, but I can't afford to supply the whole class with them and my kids know they better take care of their stuff because that's it.

High school supplies haven't been nearly as bad.

Now, some teachers in our high school will offer extra credit for bringing classroom supplies-- like printer paper, cleaning wipes, etc. That's always a nice perk because the students always look forward to extra credit (15 points could mean that you could accidentally forget a daily assignment and it not hurt your grade, or 15 points could help you get THAT much further ahead if you miss a question on a test or something). I ALWAYS advise the students to bring in anything they can reasonably afford to if it means extra credit.
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See I don't like that, it rubs me the wrong way. I don't think you should be able to basically pay for extra-credit. There's no learning or effort involved.
 
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Keely~B said:
See I don't like that, it rubs me the wrong way. I don't think you should be able to basically pay for extra-credit. There's no learning or effort involved.
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Oh, I agree that it sends the wrong message and really isn't requiring effort for extra credit... trust me, I was never in favor of that when I was in school. I just think it helps the exchange students that I work with through those first crucial weeks where they're still translating in their heads (before they fully switch over to English mode), so that's why I recommend they take advantage of it.

That aside, I'm not a fan of the policy in general ;)
 
Last night as I was packing I realized I accidently bought 6 sharpies instead of 6 dry erase markers. I told the teacher tonight that I would need to send them in this week and she told me not to worry about it, she always ends up with lots left over and can get more from the office if she needs it. o_O She also had us throw all the pencils in a shared box, but I had bought half fun ones, not boring yellow. She told me to keep those for him in his desk then. I have to admit, I am not a fan of shared supplies either.
 
I had to bump this back up from last year. My son is going into middle school now and so I had a big CHEER when I realized it was no longer community supplies like in elementary school. Instead what I buy is actually going to be used by my own kid. I got his supply list and it's fairly basic except that he needs a 3" binder (seriously those are huge) and 8 "single subject notebooks with plastic covers". After some researching, I finally realized those are spiral notebooks- but they must have plastic covers, not the normal covers. So, yay, I'm driving to every store in the area to hunt these babies out. And the regular spiral notebooks are 10cents... I'm just guessing the plastic covered ones aren't. I hate back to school shopping.
 
My son (2nd grade) is in a small private school. There are maybe 10 kids in his class. We give the teacher some money before school starts and she goes and buys what she wants. That way she can get the right kinds of pencils/colored notebooks or whatever. :thumbup:
 
I am so glad Cheyanne is in high school and just needs basics and not specifics! But, even when she was in grade school they were never so specific; i.e. colors, etc.
 
We never have to buy school supplies over here! My 8 year old uses everything the school provides and my 12 year old only has to take a pen, pencil and a ruler!
 
I have the added joy of buying from two supply list for one child. We are trying to close on a new home. So the new house is in a different school district. His list looks like this 12 glue sticks, 2 boxes of wipes, one yellow and green folder with prongs (I can't find the yellow anywhere), 12 sharpened #2 pencils, expo markers, 2 packs of paper towels, 500 sheets of copy paper, scissors, 2 boxes of 24 crayola crayons, 1 box of 8 crayola crayons, sheet protectors.. It's a tad ridiculous. I don't mind bring more things in the middle of the year. Yet, they want at least two of everything.
 
KristinCB said:
I have packages that you buy from the school :O Where I live I find it ends up cheaper than going to pick them up (our closest walmart is over an hour away) and yea.. its really affordable from where we order :)They arrive a week before school starts so you can pick them up. It is the greatest thing ever :)
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when we lived in texas they had packets we could buy too - so much better than hunting everything down one by one. but here in australia it's even better - tuition covers supplies, so they just show up on the first day of school and supplies are there.
 
Just finished getting our supplies (it's tax free weekend here). Only 2 items were hard to find - orange pocket folders and a 5x8 box. Ended up buying a pink folder instead and will check walmart for the pencil box. (We went to target) I'm exhausted!!


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We are already two weeks in. It wasn't too bad. First year with both girls in school. 2nd grade had both community supplies (Kleenex) and individual supplies (folders, 3 ring binder), so I wasn't too upset because I felt confident sending the supplies with my daughter. But for kindergarten it is all community supplies. I spend the extra money on higher quality products (Crayola, etc.) and I do it so my daughter is using those kind of supplies. I hope I don't see her coming home with other supplies later. We are in a different district this year so we are still adjusting to things.

When I was kid in Texas, we too had the packs to purchase. You went to the Randall's grocery store and just picked up the pack for your grade and brought everything on the first day. I remember my mom or dad carry a lot of it for me those first few years!
 
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