School Supply Purgatory
I am in school supply hell.
I didn't know it was possible for 6 different elementary school teachers to come up with school supply lists that vary as wildly as they managed to. And vary wildly with such specificity! One teacher wanted scissors with a blunt tip - only Fiskars brand, a perforated 3x5 index card notebook, and three (three!) different colors of Post-it notes. Another teacher asked for a type and size of binder that apparently doesn't exist. Yet another asked for seven different types of notebooks. For a third grader. And don't forget that each child absolutely needs to pick out his/her own supplies. All in all, it took 2 hours, 2 different stores, and over two hundred dollars to complete all 6 lists. Not to mention the hour spent at home making sure to separate the hot pink pencil case/scented pink glitter erasers/lavender binder kid's stuff from the baseball sharpener/surfboard looseleaf/erasable bic pen kid's stuff, from the "I want everything black or blue because themed stuff is so uncool" kid's stuff. And then label it all. And put it in the correct (newly purchased) knapsacks.
Joy.
I didn't know it was possible for 6 different elementary school teachers to come up with school supply lists that vary as wildly as they managed to. And vary wildly with such specificity! One teacher wanted scissors with a blunt tip - only Fiskars brand, a perforated 3x5 index card notebook, and three (three!) different colors of Post-it notes. Another teacher asked for a type and size of binder that apparently doesn't exist. Yet another asked for seven different types of notebooks. For a third grader. And don't forget that each child absolutely needs to pick out his/her own supplies. All in all, it took 2 hours, 2 different stores, and over two hundred dollars to complete all 6 lists. Not to mention the hour spent at home making sure to separate the hot pink pencil case/scented pink glitter erasers/lavender binder kid's stuff from the baseball sharpener/surfboard looseleaf/erasable bic pen kid's stuff, from the "I want everything black or blue because themed stuff is so uncool" kid's stuff. And then label it all. And put it in the correct (newly purchased) knapsacks.
Joy.
posted by orthomom at 10:27 PM
15 Comments:
i can't wait 'till tomorrow when i get my supply list -this will be in addition to the one that was sent home in Aug. the 5T yeshivas, obviously started a day earlier than us.
i wonder if anything will be left that will be "acceptable" to queenie or her sibs. here's hoping!
i wonder if anything will be left that will be "acceptable" to queenie or her sibs. here's hoping!
Hmm. I can't promise you that anything was left over. We bought a ton!!
momof6? Double mazel tov!!! (they start school early in your parts.)
four words:
ninety nine cents store
momof6? Double mazel tov!!! (they start school early in your parts.)
THREE kids in grade school, TWO teachers per child. Six lists. Still Momof4.
four words:
ninety nine cents store
Did you see that I mentioned going to TWO stores? The first was a 99 cent store. The second was to pick up the 80% of the lists that the 99 cent store doesn't carry.
hee, hee, hee... you haven't seen anything until you've seen an israeli list...
We once had an administrator mandate that teachers specify the same brand, color and style of supplies for all students so that poorer kids would not be embarrassed to stand out in front of rich kids with fancier stuff. Sad thing, without being able to recycle supplies from the previous year, the poor families spent twice as much.
Some kids this year were required to get graphing calculators and USB sticks. Can't wait until they get to grad school.
re: graphing calculators -
has the school any idea what can be down loaded on to them or the games that they come equipped w/.
if they're not careful you'll have a whole room of students intently working on games not math problems!
doubt the rabbayim are wise to all of this or we would have a ban on them in certain communities also.
Momof 4 - did find some stuff. not quite to their liking but after watching me fill up w/gas and listening to me complain about the price, no one dared say much. I'll take what i can get.
out of curiosity how many days are your kids in school in oct? i think we'er at 5 or 6.
have a great shabbat.
My daughter was also asked to bring in a type of binder that doesn't exsist!
3.5 inches and zippable?
I've NEVER seen one like it and I used to order office supplies for a living.
I got smart and went shopping without them.
I bought all the kinds of things I thought they'd like and that seemed reasonably priced.
I did let them choose there own backpacks. As it was I had to go to two stores and spent enough time and money.
I'm beginning to really appreciate our school: they asked for "supply" money (less than $10/kid, oldest in 3rd grade) and bought the stuff for them... all I had to buy was book covers.
Of course, the kids came home with a book to cover by the next day and insisted that they needed fabric covers, not the traditional brown bag ones... and then brought more home the next week to cover, again with zero days notice...
I thought I was preparing for next year by buying extra during our expedition (ok, trip to a store, but with my husband not planning to come home before the stores closed, it really was an expedition, since I have slightly more kids than you do) but I think they've managed to use most of them already!
We need to teach the teachers and administrators of our schools to have some respect for the time and money of the parents. It is ridiculous to spend $200 for 4 children. Just ridiculous!
It is also ridiculous to specify brands. With tuitions as outrageous as they are, the parents need to have the ability to save pennies and dollars where they can. Just send home a list specifying 2 pencils, 1 binder, note cards, highlighters, etc, and let the parents use their best judgement. I know it is hard to believe that parents have judgement, but just try.
Shop at your favorite stores 24 hours a day. Why go to the mall when you can shop online and avoid the traffic
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Finding school supplies for my children has been an on going headache. This gave me an idea...I have started a Mobile School Supply Thrift for teachers, administrators and their students of low income communities. Hope this helps everyone! ;)
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