- 1 large zippered 3-ring binder
- 1 3-ring 1" binder (for reading class)
- 1 3-ring 1" soft cover binder (for science)
- 1 pencil pouch
- 9 spiral notebooks
- 1 3 subject notebook with pocket dividers (for English)
- 1 ruler with centimeters & inches
- 1 box of colored pencils or markers
- 1 compass
- 4 plain blue pocket folders
- 1 protractor
- 2 black pens
- 1 pair scissors
- 2 blue pens
- 1 eraser
- 2 fine point black markers
- 2 glue sticks
- 1 box of regular pencils
- 1 calculator
- 2 large boxes of Kleenex
- 2 highlighters - different colors
- 1 plain green pocket folder - choir
- 1 plain pocket folder - general music
- 1 roll 3/4" Scotch tape
- 1 pad of 100 Post-it notes 3"x3"
- 1 3 subject notebook for both years of Spanish
In our blended family of two children (five, if you count the Ex-wife's other three) and four parents back to school shopping is split. Ew (Ex-wife) buys the school supplies and Hubby I buy the clothes.
I cringe when the chitlins return home from the summer with their new backpacks stuffed to the gills with all new supplies. The contents of their cheap crappy ass backpacks (that never last past the first week without some major malfunction) never coincide with the list put out by the school. The list is available online, the school mails it out, and every store known to man has it prominently displayed as soon as you walk in the door. She can read, can't she? Come on!! Could you get it right just for one year, please?! After nine years you think one would get the hang of it. Geesh.
As if that is not irking enough, the amount of resources being wasted drives me up the wall! Every time I hear the zipper on that backpack open for the first time it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. *shivering*
There are so many supplies from previous years stashed in totes in the basement that I could start my own Back to School store. I have stocked my craft room completely from purchases made by Ew, created a kids craft/activity area in the basement from other Ew leftovers, and still have totes full of Ew's wasted money. She is always complaining they do not have any money. Why then does she spend needlessly?
The chitlins both have large zippered 3-ring binders from last year and previous years that are well enough to reuse this year. We have amassed a pile of half used notebooks. We even have notebooks that are untouched from previous years! I have used all the folders I can for household organizing and still have enough to supply the chitlins for the school year.
One shelf in my workroom contains nothing but 3-ring binders. There are no less than half a dozen plastic rulers floating around the house. The markers/ colored pencils/ crayons got so out of control I started giving them to the school art room and daycares. Pens and pencils. Oy ve! Do we really need to buy more pens and pencils?! I think I can find two black and two blue in there somewhere. A protractor is a protractor; as a compass is a compass. Do you really need a new one every year? Same with calculators. I have yet to see one go bad in a year. In fact, I have yet to see one quit, period.
Why, why, WHY are we bringing more of this stuff into our house? Why is Ew spending money that she does not have on stuff the chitlins already own? It just does not make sense. Never mind the fact that half this crap is plastic and made from virgin materials. What lesson are we teaching our children?
As adults we do not go out and buy all new office supplies just because it is a new year. So, why then with our children? When will it become acceptable to wear the same clothes as last year? Use all of the paper in a notebook before starting another one? Reuse a backpack/binder/folder? Keep the same protractor/compass/calculator throughout your school career? Use markers/colored pencils/crayons until they are gone? These things should be encouraged not looked down upon.
People are quick to judge and have tendencies to slap on the poor label if someone buys secondhand, mends, repurposes, doesn't have the new latest and greatest. I will revel the day when it is thought shameful to show up for the first day of class wearing the fashions of the moment, sporting a new backpack chock full of pristine bleached white paper, plastic mechanical pencils, a cool new calculator with whatever cartoon/pop star is hot at the moment sprawled across it, glossy folders touting the same, pens, fresh post it notes, and a pvc lunchbox containing a disposable prepackaged lunchable.
My dream school supply list:
For more Back to School musings check out the Green Mom's Carnival being hosted at Surely You Nest on September 8.
I cringe when the chitlins return home from the summer with their new backpacks stuffed to the gills with all new supplies. The contents of their cheap crappy ass backpacks (that never last past the first week without some major malfunction) never coincide with the list put out by the school. The list is available online, the school mails it out, and every store known to man has it prominently displayed as soon as you walk in the door. She can read, can't she? Come on!! Could you get it right just for one year, please?! After nine years you think one would get the hang of it. Geesh.
As if that is not irking enough, the amount of resources being wasted drives me up the wall! Every time I hear the zipper on that backpack open for the first time it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. *shivering*
There are so many supplies from previous years stashed in totes in the basement that I could start my own Back to School store. I have stocked my craft room completely from purchases made by Ew, created a kids craft/activity area in the basement from other Ew leftovers, and still have totes full of Ew's wasted money. She is always complaining they do not have any money. Why then does she spend needlessly?
The chitlins both have large zippered 3-ring binders from last year and previous years that are well enough to reuse this year. We have amassed a pile of half used notebooks. We even have notebooks that are untouched from previous years! I have used all the folders I can for household organizing and still have enough to supply the chitlins for the school year.
One shelf in my workroom contains nothing but 3-ring binders. There are no less than half a dozen plastic rulers floating around the house. The markers/ colored pencils/ crayons got so out of control I started giving them to the school art room and daycares. Pens and pencils. Oy ve! Do we really need to buy more pens and pencils?! I think I can find two black and two blue in there somewhere. A protractor is a protractor; as a compass is a compass. Do you really need a new one every year? Same with calculators. I have yet to see one go bad in a year. In fact, I have yet to see one quit, period.
As adults we do not go out and buy all new office supplies just because it is a new year. So, why then with our children? When will it become acceptable to wear the same clothes as last year? Use all of the paper in a notebook before starting another one? Reuse a backpack/binder/folder? Keep the same protractor/compass/calculator throughout your school career? Use markers/colored pencils/crayons until they are gone? These things should be encouraged not looked down upon.
People are quick to judge and have tendencies to slap on the poor label if someone buys secondhand, mends, repurposes, doesn't have the new latest and greatest. I will revel the day when it is thought shameful to show up for the first day of class wearing the fashions of the moment, sporting a new backpack chock full of pristine bleached white paper, plastic mechanical pencils, a cool new calculator with whatever cartoon/pop star is hot at the moment sprawled across it, glossy folders touting the same, pens, fresh post it notes, and a pvc lunchbox containing a disposable prepackaged lunchable.
My dream school supply list:
- PVC free binder
- pencil pouch repurposed from scrap fabric (outgrown clothes)
- recycled notebooks, half used notebooks from previous years, assignments done on backsides of previously used paper
- recycled ruler, or one passed down from an older sibling
- eco-friendly markers, eco-friendly colored pencils, or ones you already have lying around
- metal compass & protractor, or ones someone else no longer needs
- recycled folders, or last year's still in good shape
- recycled pencils, not pens
- no calculator, learn mental math
- reusable cloth handkerchief
- pieces of scrap paper cut into 3"x3" squares bound with a paper clip
- and a backpack built to last
For more Back to School musings check out the Green Mom's Carnival being hosted at Surely You Nest on September 8.
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9 comments:
First off, I hear ya on the "Ew". I've got one too who constantly complains about not having money and then buys silly frivolous crap or flys to Hawaii.
But as for the extra supplies, can you return them to Target or Walgreens or wherever they came from? If not, does your school collect items for kids whose families can't afford these supplies? If your school doesn't, I'm sure another school near you does, perhaps you could donate them?
Lastly... tissues? really? I hope the school has funds to at least buy tp for the kiddos!
And to ramble some more... that school list reminds me of one of my favorite bumper stickers: "I look forward to the day when our schools have all the supplies they need and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomb."
Burbanmom - tissues, really. School administrators have no idea how quickly colds spread throughout schools and therefore don't provide for tissues in their budgets.
By the end of high school I started bringing my own box, just for me and me alone, when I had a cold. That way I'd know there was tissue for me in every class.
I wonder if Ew doesn't have a lot of money because she routinely spends a ton of money on children, even though they don't need lavish comforts.
I never had a new wardrobe each year, and hardly noticed that other people did. I doubt that kids are seriously judged by it. I think...
Anyway, that is a LOT of stuff. Good luck figuring out what to do with it all!
burbanmom - No, since I'm not the one who bought them I can't return them. Plus, Ew would have a canary if she found out I was returning her purchases and making the chitlins reuse their old crap. They report back to Mother Superior any time one of her clothing items "gets lost in the laundry".
Yes, our school and church do collect school supplies, but they want new supplies. Argh!
Ever year they request two boxes of Kleenex from every student. The elementary school has over 700 students alone. And they run out! WTF?! Use your sleeve. I don't care.
Love the bumper sticker!
jam - Man, I thought I had it bad with the tissues. Geesh!
In regards to splitting the clothes with Ew, umm....no. Everything she buys for her daughter is two sizes too small and very tight/short and everything she buys for her son is two sizes too big and extremely baggy. She apparently has no idea what size these kids are. And it is always some garage sale find, which is fine, except they are usually stained and falling apart. This is why things suddenly go "missing" in the laundry.
I don't think I will ever win this battle.
stephanie - Ew usually shops at garage sales and Walmart, so she's not spending on lavish comforts. Although she did buy a pool this summer and a cell phone for the boy.
How about some money for their braces, huh? Didn't think so.
I see no need for a 14 year old who does not go anywhere or call anybody to have a cell phone. Wasted money. We, Hubby and I, do not even have a cell phone! Conflicting values is a constant struggle in this family.
Love your dream school supply shopping list. Even better, in some schools, the PTA does bulk purchasing so all parents have to do is write a check. I bet if we got involved in our local purchasing, we could make sure that all new items were recycled paper + as sustainable as possible.
And yes, when I was a teacher, we never had tissues or copy paper. I remember when I taught in the Bay Area an office supply truck driver thought it was so outrageous he stopped on a median and handed out free paper to teachers. Woo hoo!
My dad's a math professor who's done a lot of work in middle schools. Just sent him this link - verifies his belief that calculators can be helpful for kids once they learn basic skills:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080819160203.htm
Of course, I've been using one of his old solar calculators since high school. ;)
I like the idea of the school getting together and making bulk purchases. How about sending a note home at the end of school asking parents to SAVE any school supplies for next year too?
What if teachers collected all the supplies left over at the end of the year and compiled them for the next year? They'd probably have plenty of stuff to start the year with, and parents wouldn't have to drive themselves crazy buying so many new pencils, pens, etc.
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