It seems like yesterday when we were celebrating graduations and promotions of the little ones and now we are shopping for back to school supplies. Excited for them to go on to the next grade or next phase in their educational years. The one thing I and possibly other parents do not enjoy, is the never-ending list of back to school supplies that they bring home.
Some of the items on the long list do not even pertain to my child. Will she ever use the pack of thin and thick dry erase markers? Or the three rolls of paper towels? How about the liquid hand soap – which should be provided in the restrooms? The lists are ridiculous, but even more so, is the idea that all parents have the funds to provide household items to a classroom but may not have in their own home. Imagine if every child, roughly between 18-24 kids per classroom, brought in three (3) rolls of paper towels. That’s 54-72 rolls of paper towels. I don’t think I use 72 paper towels in about 8-9 months of the year. That’s a lot of paper towels.
I don’t even recall having such a long list of back to school supplies, just a book-bag, notebook, loose-leaf paper and something to write with. That’s as far as I can remember, I’m sure my mom recalls a few more items that were purchased for the new school year. Poor little munchkins, their tiny little gristles (not a full backbone as my grandmother would say), having to carry all these items to their class.
Cute Unicorn Characters School Backpack for Boys Girls Bookbag Travel Bag
Here’s my little one’s full list of back to school supplies:
- (9) black and white marble notebooks – just for her to bring back four of them with two pages used in each…
- (6) plastic folders in specific colors – so why can’t we just use colored labels or labels period. Do you know that a pack of the same color folders are cheaper?
- Crayola crayons – so specific…
- Crayola markers – I think Family Dollar is having a sale…
- Colored pencils – I have yet to see any colored pencils actually being used in an art project we eventually throw away.
Elmer’s glue and THEN, wait for it…
- (4) Glue sticks. We really have to make up our minds here.
- (2) packages of highlighters – I didn’t use this many highlighters for coordinating out my thesis.
- (1) pack of blue and red pens – My child makes too many errors, I know she’s not using pens yet.
- (1) pack of sharpened pencils – lol This is the one item that we have daily conversations about. Do these kids literally eat the pencils?
- Scissors
- (1) Scotch Tape – just give me the scotch. Actually that’s nasty, I’ll take vodka.
- (2) packages dry erase markers – We all know this is for the class, not specifically for my child.
- 5-pack of sticky post-its – oh love these. Parents love to see sticky notes in the homework book. Makes for a lovely evening.
- (1) pack of 4 x 6 index cards – I’m still confused. Been giving these since Kindergarten. Mystery item.
- (1) box of quart-sized Ziploc bags – Well, can I get a box for home too? In the 4th grade, we will hope there will be no accidents, but I won’t judge other parent’s children.
- (3) boxes of tissues – to dry up the tears?
- (3) rolls of paper towels – por que?
- (1) container of disinfectant wipes (green product) – oh so specific. Wait a minute, custodial staff needs supplies too?
- (1) liquid hand soap – for the bathroom? Maybe in NYC instead of worrying about detention centers, we should focus on these schools and their insufficient supply of needed items.
- (1) hand sanitizer – I don’t mind buying this item to place it in my child’s book bag, on the desk, on the teacher’s desk, basically everywhere in the school.
- (2) packs of baby wipes – reference the hand towels, please. Thank you.
- (2) packages of computer paper – Uhm, without incriminating myself, I don’t even buy paper for myself. What you need printed? I got you!
- (1) pack of construction paper – I guess…
- (2) packs of loose-leaf paper (wide-ruled) – familiar territory.
- (1) 1 pack of graph paper – this just screams math, angles, multiplication, more vodka…for me, not the child.
- (1) yellow legal pads – reference the computer paper.
Now, this is where we get really interesting, they want a picture of my child for the bulletin board that displays their work. Now I have to find a worthy picture of her looking too cute but not too cute that it distracts all the children when they are in the hallway. lol
How does your back to school supply list look?
2 thoughts on “Back to School Supplies”
Very similar x 4. (Idk what my man child needs yet, HS teachers send out separate lists per class- YAY!)
Take away the hand soap – add gallon Ziploc bags.
My 11 year old/ 7th grader has to bring staples. Yes, staples! A deck of cards and dice.
Twins going to Kindergarden they need beginners’ journal notebooks that cost approx $5/each. They. Need. 6 each. Maybe 5. But at this point does it matter. In addition to those $5 notebooks (6x) they need 1st grade notebooks. One each. Green.
The list goes on. And on… but you get the point!
YOUR LIST WINS!!! I just don’t understand the need for some of this stuff.