School supply vent

[mom24grlz]

yeah we have the No trapper keepers warning, and no bookbags with wheels either. I never get name brand. Even if they say name brand i get whatever i can afford. Today I got Madisyn's school supplies and it was $45.00 just for her supplies. I havent' even gone clothes shopping yet.

[DsMom]

My "favorite" school supply shopping item was for my daughter in 5th grade. We needed to buy very specific sizes of Post It notes...I believe one of them was 1 x 1 or 1 x 1.5 or something like that. Looked ALL over for this size, and could find something close, but not the exact size. Must have looked in every store that sold school supplies in our area. Finally just bought the closest size.

Fast forward to end of school year...supplies come home...including the unopened package of those %&!!!**#&(& !!! Post It notes.

[DsMom]

We also get annoyed that "Back to School" ads begin almost as soon as school ends! I never shop until maybe a week or two before school begins...but I see from here that many people do shop early. I just can't bring myself to do it to my kids...especially as summer began late for us due to 2 (yes 2) teachers' strikes this year.

[Beach bum]

Originally Posted by DsMom

We also get annoyed that "Back to School" ads begin almost as soon as school ends! I never shop until maybe a week or two before school begins...but I see from here that many people do shop early. I just can't bring myself to do it to my kids...especially as summer began late for us due to 2 (yes 2) teachers' strikes this year.

I shop early because to me it's like Christmas shopping, everything is mobbed. Also, things get really picked over and they don't restock, so then I have to go other stores. In addition we vacation during the month of August, so I don't want to have to bother with it when I come back, or buy it where our summer place is, because our home state has no sales tax

[jessicat]

As a teacher in Ca. public school, our district has a policy saying that we may not ask parents for school supplies, As it is a PUBLIC school. We do send home a list of the supplies they will need at home to complete homework/ projects like crayons and glue and ruler. But I have never cared what brand they buy. As a parent I always buy what brand is on sale. I do send a list of things parents can choose to donate to the classroom if they so desire, such as marker, wipes, or Kleenex or any brand facial tissue (which I will call it from now on )

SO sorry to hear that is is an issue for so many people, I had no idea. and had never heard of lists being so specific or demanding. I thought they were just suggestions.

[MissEmi]

Some of the particularities are for good reason, even if they're never really explained. A lot of teachers ask for name brand pencils because the cheaper ones break easily and don't sharpen well in a lot of sharpeners. This means more traffic to the pencil sharpener, and more students out of their seats at various times, and excess time at the sharpener because the pencil wouldn't sharpen properly. You can go through a pack of cheap pencils really quickly that way.
As a side note, when I took Educating Young Children, the pencil sharpener was one of the topics covered, how much chaos it can cause, and how to institute a procedure for it, as well as having a proper placement of it. The discussion took all of 15 minutes, but it stuck with me.

Oh, and glue. The reason they specify for that is, like mentioned before, cheap glue doesn't hold as well, and dries out faster, and some parents buy that really runny sparkly colored glue that makes a mess out of everything. Be safe, go with Elmer's, the standard issue white glue, or get the gluesticks. Sometimes it's not the generic buyers, but the over-buyers that cause the specification.

Our elementary schools also sell a school supply package with everything on the list in it for $32, which is what a lot of parents do. Less hassle for them, and the teacher gets the kinds of supplies that they want. I think every elementary school should do this.

[Flutterby]

To bad this all comes back on the teacher, when really its the fact that there simply isn't enough money in the budget to buy the things that SHOULD be provided for the kids. People need to pass the budget instead of crying about it and not passing it. I bet MOST teachers spent a lot of money on their supplies and ask parents for what they can't afford.

I have a friend who's a teacher, his budget for the entire school year for EVERYTHING those kids need. $100 and thats for 100 students for the entire year. .. yup, thats it, everything else come out of his pocket. We're lucky we haven't had a huge back to school list. I know the principal spends huge amounts of money every year for the kids... Having a child entering middle school this year I know that is all going to change. I'm going to piss and moan while I'm spending the money because its something that SHOULD be provided by the school, but its not something the teacher should have to personally supply.

[Marcia]

I try to stick to the list. I figure the teachers have a reason to ask for the specific items. My oldest is a middle school teacher and really tries to keep her list of supplies to a bare minimum, Last year she asked for students to bring a college ruled notebook, not wide ruled. Her lessons were based on entering information on specific lines on the page. The students with wide ruled pages had to tape pages together and it was frustrating for everyone. Our school does ask for a lot of supplies and it can get pricey. The school also has extra supplies available for students unable to afford them, these are donated by local groups and stores. Graphing calculators and microsoft office=AGGHH!!

[liasmommy2000]

Originally Posted by DsMom

We also get annoyed that "Back to School" ads begin almost as soon as school ends! I never shop until maybe a week or two before school begins...but I see from here that many people do shop early. I just can't bring myself to do it to my kids...especially as summer began late for us due to 2 (yes 2) teachers' strikes this year.

I noticed that Walmart had the back to school section set up last weekend. We just hit the half way through summer vacation mark this week. We are definitely not ready to start thinking about school supplies. In about another month I'll start thinking about it! However we also have pretty basic lists, no brands or sizes generally requested. Just pencils, erasers, single subject notebooks and 1" binders etc.

[Beach bum]

Staples started doing their program where you purchase a discount card and they give you a % off on just about everything (even non-school supply items too) through I think mid-September. We got one last year and it was definitely worth the investment (for us at least).