Okay parents. It’s that time of year again. When your kidss’ teachers get to make parents run around like idiots looking for some incredibly unnecessary and impossible to find school supply that they will end up never using.
What are the stupidest things you have to buy this year?
My candidate is post-its, required for both my 7th and 8th grader. Not just any post-its, but 2 packs each of 1.5"X2" and 3"X3" in yellow, green, and blue. What the HELL are they going to do with all those post-its?!
For those who choose not to play the game by the teachers’ arbitrary rules, would you like to share your stories?
My favorite was when the teacher required 8 folders in different colors. I gave my kid 8 manilla folders, and wrote across each one “RED”, “YELLOW”, etc.
Another time my kid was supposed to have an 18" ruler. I actually got a phone call from a teacher for supplying my kid with a 12" and a 6" ruler we had around the house.
And when the teacher said the kid needed an electronic spell-checker, I said I’d give them a dictionary and a flashlight!
Finally, what was your total bill for school fees and supplies? I’ll let you know when we get back from the stores.
Ah, school supplies. I just went through that particular hell myself.
2nd grader: $55, preassembled and prepaid (easy, I will do this from now on.)
Kindergartener: $50 - I bought these myself, what a nightmare. I used a list from the school district’s website; when I received the “official” list from the school (four days before the first day of school) it was completely different! Not only did I have to purchase more items, I had to exchange virtually everything I had originally bought. And I went to FIVE stores before I found 12X18 white construction paper!
I have heard that the supply requests get increasingly strange (and very expensive) as they get older; can’t wait.
When I was in school, we each had to bring in 2 boxes of tissues. They were then put in the teacher’s supply closet. Basically, my parents were paying for everyone else’s colds! My mom refused, and sent me to school every day after she made sure I had a pocket pack of tissues in my bookbag.
Electronic spell-checker? That’s re-dang-diculous. Send the kid in with a dictionary. Too many people rely on electronics these days to do all the work. Why teach our kids that?
Wow, I sure do hate to sound old. When I went to school the requirement was that you put on close and show up. Oh, if you felt the need you could purchase a book bag and you did have to provide covers for the books, usually made out of paper shopping bags (which was cool because it provided plenty of doodling room. We also had to bring in $.35 for milk money and of course everyone brought their own lunch.
Keep those replies comming in parents! I want to see what kind of crap I have to look forward to. Also if you could mention whether it’s public of private school you’re talking about.
I am bewildered as why my third grader needs 13 separate solid color “pocket only” folders. I am also stumped as to why each child needs their own “red and green dry board fine tip markers” in addition to the red medium stick pen and black fiber tipped marker.
The fact that they each need a school assignment notebook only available at the school store just irritates me to no end. Anyone know where I can find 1 card size Multiplication flash cards? I couldn’t find 4" 12 count colored pencils so I got him 12" 12 assorted colored pencils. Let the teacher sharpen them down to the required 4" if she’s that picky.
From last year’s list we had 1 pink bevel eraser come home never used at all and I have no idea why each child needed to bring in a box of gallon sized Ziplock baggies as we never saw even one of them all year. Same thing with the 3 70 count composition notebooks.
Oh my list was for a public school. By re-using the scissors and school box from last year, and buying tissues ahead of time, I managed to get out of the store for 20 bucks. So I’m assuming the dry board markers, the flash cards and the school assignment notebook combined must cost at least 30 bucks.
[sub]My last post went under Tubo Dog. Oopsie.[/sub]
Blonde, I learned after my daughter’s kindergarten year that the lists provided ahead of time were not worth the paper they were printed on. Instead, I’d go to the orientation and make a list of what the particular teacher wanted.
This year, my baby is in her senior year of HS - I had bought a bunch of paper and folders last year, and she went out and got the highlighters and some other stuff she wanted. No more worries about school supplies for me!
Of course, next year, I’ll hear the whining about the price of college texts…
A note for parents of kids in lower grades. Check to see if your kid is going to get to keep his own supplies, as opposed to putting them in a communal container.
No reason to get your kid a nice pair of scissors, good markers, etc., if you don’t know that he will even be the kid using them.
This year I anticipate doing battle over spiral norebooks. My straight-A honors HS sophomore was telling me how much she dislikes them, and the many reasons she prefers looseleaf notebook paper and binders. I’m just waiting for a teacher to insist that she take notes in a spiral instead of on looseleaf.
Gotta teach these kids civil disobedience at an early age!
My daughter’s team at school for 6th grade, among the normal paper towels, paper, and 100 pencils (she’s not taking 100 pencils to school) wanted a bag of wrapped candy.
Yes, candy.
I hit the roof. It’s not enough I have to buy the damn cleaning supplies, but with all the diabetic and overweight children, they’re planning on using candy as a reward system?
I called the school, raised hell, and the woman said I didn’t have to buy it. Damn right, says I. Find an more appropriate way to reward the children.
Ivylass, who has one kid in private school this year and hopes finances will make it possible to rescue her other child next year.
Flodjunior is entering fourth grade. He needs a backpack, a lunch box, a pair of sandals or slippers for indoor use, and a pair of non-marking sneakers that are kept just for gym class. For field trips, add a thermos and a foam sit-upon. That’s it, other than clothes. The school provides all the pencils, paper, folders, and gawdknowswhatelse they need.
Now, I also got him some workbooks so he has something to do while the rest of his class is learning English, but that’s not required by the school. It’s “required” because he’d go buggy with boredom otherwise…
Well, some of the textbooks I’ve had to buy are pretty high on the list. Or maybe I should just stop buying the required books when they’re not really required.
This year I was forced to buy a TI-80 calculator at the tune of $120!!! That was only ONE school item.
I don’t see why a high schooler has to buy a box of kleenex for the classroom. The teacher is telling all the students to buy a box. There are 45 kids in the class!!!
My school supply list has cost me at least $200 and last night I was driving around at 9:00, in the rain looking for stupid index cards. We went to three stores before we found some.
School has been in session for 2 weeks now and I am tired of hearing on a last minute basis some supply they need. For cripes sake give me a list at the beginning of school and let me fill it. I don’t want to be driving around after a daily 5 hour commute looking for supplies! ugh!
Yep–I remember those days! Some kids’ parents were completely unaware of the “system”, so every once in awhile a box of tissues bearing someone’s name in thick black marker would be set out for community use.
My own anecdote: My mom was (and still is) really big on having stuff all symmetrical and matchy. She would actually count out the sheets of looseleaf paper to ensure equal numbers of sheets between each divider in my notebook. And one year she bought me a green ruler and scissors to match it.
Trouble was, the green scissors were for left-handed kids.
I probably spent about $15 on my son’s school supplies. We are re-using 6 things from last year (scissors that still work just as well as they did before summer started, pencils that were never sharpened, glue that was used to make about 4 collages (the rest was supplied by the teacher(!), crayons, ruler, supply box)
My son saw some vibrantly colored calculators hanging on the shelves, and he asked me when he would be able to buy those with his school supplies. I told him when he’s in college.
I’m completely floored by the amount of stuff that’s required. I’m only familiar with a few Pennsylvania school districts (from being a student, taking some education classes in college, and having a Mom that works for a school district) and I’ve never heard of anything like this. I graduated in '98 and all I recall was being told that you were expected to take notes and remain organized, and that you needed to provide the supplies to do so. If 6 million manilla folders worked for you - great! You prefer 3 ring binders? Go for it.
In elementary school, we’d pick out a pencil box and stock it with a few pencils / crayons / scissors / etc. But it was your own, stayed in your desk and was entirely dictated by the social structure of elementary schools - not a teacher’s wish list.
100 pencils ivyglass??? WTF? I don’t think I’ve even used 100 pencils in my life, and I use them quite a bit. I really wanted to know what excuse the teacher made for requiring them.
The big thing in our HS is to require a graphing calculator. I’m not sure I ever have seen either of my daughters using it, and while the textbook talks about them, none of their assignments involved doing graphs.
When I was a kid the useless supply was a compass - sharp, hard to carry, and used once a year tops.
This year I couldn’t get away with just “pencils” I had to get mechanical pencils. What is the purpose of that?
Supposedly the lottery (here in Florida) is supposed to help the schools with supplies and education. I fail to see where the millions on lottery has affected the schools.
School lunchs are $4 and from what my son says “taste like crap”
And don’t get me started with the stupid fundraisers they do every year. I have 5 kids. I hated when all of them came home with stuff to sell. They were instructed NOT to go door to door but rather have your parents take the stuff to work. I swear people cringed when they saw me coming at the office. And of course I got stuck buying stuff. And the fundraiser stuff is all cheesy overpriced items. I would rather donate money then to have to buy or sell junk.
