Mama Diaries

Friday, August 3, 2012

Shopping for School Suppies

It's that time of year again - time to shop for school supplies.  I can't say I'm a big fan of this activity.  Judging from the faces of some of the other moms I saw shopping in the school supply aisle, I'd have to say that my sentiments were shared.

Why is that? Well, for one thing, the supply lists are so darn particular.  Under pencils, for example, it said, "Four packages of 10 pack number 2 pencils, sharpened."  Four packs?  Seriously?  And I could only find 8 packs and 12 packs.  What do I do ?  I thought.  Should I get 5 packages of 8 packs or 4 packages of 12 packs?  I went with 4 packages of 8 packs, because what second grader is going to go through 40 pencils in less than a year?

Then there were the folders.  The list said, "Six two-pocket folders.  One red, one yellow, one green, one blue, one purple, one black."

"But I want a Pokemon folder," my son said.

"Sorry, kid.  We have to follow the directions."

"But Pikachu is yellow."

"Yeah," I said, "and Pipwup is blue, but I don't think that's going to fly with your teacher."

"Aw, come on!"

"If you got an issue with that, tell it to the teacher!"

Poor kid.  Isn't school supply shopping fun?
 

 



27 comments:

  1. I used to love shopping for school supplies!

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  2. Doesn't seem like your son enjoyed the shopping experience as much as he should have.
    A belated happy birthday for Wednesday! From the sound of it, seems like the kiddies crashed your party and had a blast!

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    1. When you're limited on your choices, it's not as much fun. Thanks for the belated birthday wishes!

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  3. When my son was in school, we easily went through 50+ pencils a year. Kids would borrow them from my son and he wouldn't get them back.

    I still look for good deals on school supplies, as I use a lot of them with writing related tasks and I donate some of the stuff to our church for the young ones to use.

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    1. Wow, that's a lot of pencils! Hopefully my son won't go through that many!

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  4. Good gracious! Surely you can buy extra pencils throughout the year?

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    1. You would think. Maybe the teachers just want to save us a few trips.

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  5. This will be my first year shopping for school supplies. I'm scared. ;)

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  6. I love school supply shopping, but I think that's just because it makes me nostalgic for the days when there was a suggested list and we bought whatever we wanted. At my son's first school they went so far as to tell us the brands we had to buy and that was crazy. I mean, some people could barely afford shoes for their kids, but they had to buy Crayola instead of a cheaper brand. Either way, this post made me glad that we are now at private school and part of their tuition is for supplies so all I have to get are backpacks and lunch boxes.

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    1. It's nice that private schools have this as part of their tuition. I'm sure though, that the tuition you pay is much more than the cost of school supplies that I pay.

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  7. I love buying stationary, but I see the looks of frustration on other people's faces.

    I'm always stocked up for myself and for my classroom.

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  8. I have to agree that the school supply lists are getting incredibly particular about the required items. I just don't see the need for being that picky when it comes to pre-K or K level students.

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  9. So dumb how they are getting so particular, glad I never had to deal with that much.

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  10. I can't believe they're getting so particular! I was excited today to buy my son's first backpack. It has Elmo on it and it's toddler-sized. It's so cute! I'm glad you're liking Fearless so far. :)

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    1. Sounds like an adorable backpack! My kids are out of that cute stage. It's army camoflauge and paisley now.

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  11. When I taught high school (oh so briefly because I didn't want to be killed), about half the kids didn't have paper and a pencil. I took in paper, pencils, pens, markers, highlighters, dry erase board markers -- they stole them. Anything that wasn't nailed down, they stole. I wanted them to have paper and pencils to use, but it all disappeared the first day. Ah, my budding criminals. How I do not miss them.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Whoa! Sounds like you were in a rough neighborhood. I would've quit, too!

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  12. It used to be hard for me to afford all the things my girls needed for school each year. That many pencils is very strange!

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    1. When I walked out of Target, I had paid $150.00 - all school supplies. Ridiculous!

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  13. My son has three years before he begins school. The list is so long for his school's kindergarten that I decided I should slowly buy those first year "community supplies" now. I love buying school supplies, so it's fun to go shopping now. Of course, there's no pressure to find a specific poly, orange notebook with no logos. Can't wait to see the list he'll really need before his first day or perhaps the school will just request an iPad.

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  14. I just spend over $50.00 on school supplies, and that didn't include a back pack. Also, I still have a high school son to buy for. All those advanced placement classes are expensive, too.
    My son wanted a Ninjago back pack SOOO bad. They sold out in a day, and never shipped anymore. Yep, he cried all afternoon. That is a big deal to a first grader.

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  15. i still love looking at the school supplies

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