And the school supply list is in--

[agnes!]

Just wait until high school. Our twins are going into 9th grade and they both need graphing calculators--these will be #3 and 4 that we will have to buy as DS17 "lost" his first one after some kid took it out of his back pack. They are $100+ EACH.

Sorry about the theft, my DD's school had some issues with stuff beig stolen out of backpacks while kids were in the hallways between classes! (ONe of the reasons DD carries a bookbag).

We bought DD's TI84 Silver graphing calculator at Costco. It was cheaper than anywhere else plus I love that Costco rebate. Even though we could have gotten her the less-powerful version at the time(We got it for her in 8th Grade), we opted for the one that had more bells & whistles. She still has it and used it all this past year in 10th Grade. She'll be taking Physics & Pre-Calc as a junior in the fall, I'm hopeful she can still use her old calculator but we haven't heard yet.

And I used to HATE those supply lists in grade-school, especially the year I bought everything ahead of time from the list on-line and THEN found out they hadn't updated the list from the previous year...grrrrrrrrrr.

agnes!

 

[luvsJack]

Mechanical pencils break too easily and the little pieces of lead make a MESS in the classroom. Then the kids run out of lead, because you and I know that kids always remember to keep their supplies fresh, and they don't have anything to write with.

As for pencil sharpeners in the classroom, it is the domino effect, one kid gets up to sharpen a pencils, they ALL go. Maybe you could offer to donate an electric sharpener for the class and the teacher could put restrictions on use-say only in the morning or before lunch. If kids have 4 or 5 sharpened pencils in their desk they should be just fine not having to use the sharpener during class.

Well, that makes sense. And you are sooo right about kids and their supplies.

I may do that with the electric pencil sharpener, good idea! I also told dd that she needs to make sure she leaves here each morning with several sharpened pencils so at least she will be good for part of the day.

 

[momof1princess]

theft runs rampant in DD's middle school...she learned very quickly last year to carry anything she wanted to keep with her at all times (and this is a fairly affluent rural school). her locker mirror and caddy were stolen, a paperback book was taken from her locker, and her gym bag was stolen.

OP...that school supply list reminds me of DD's elementary school, lol, it would take me weeks to get everything together without spending a fortune!

 

[mchames]

Here's DD9's list for Fourth Grade (public school):

Fourth Grade 2009-2010

• filler paper, wide rule (4 packages)
• 2” binder (very durable)
• # 2 pencils (sharpened)
• pencil pouch (no boxes, please)
• handheld pencil sharpener (with cover to catch shavings)
• 12” ruler (metric and standard)
• 4 spiral notebooks (math, science, social studies, Spanish- Different colors help.)
• composition book (stitched, 100 pages)
• Expo dry-eraser set (with eraser)
• 5” sharp scissors
• Elmer’s glue sticks (A dozen would be great; we really go through them!)
• Crayola colored pencils (set of 12, sharpened)
• Crayola thin and thick line markers (sets of 8-10)
• Crayola crayons (set of 16)
• box of tissues
• roll of paper towels
• disinfecting wipes
• two pocket folder for Spanish
• 1 pack white copy paper

We were given the opportunity to purchase a "supply pack" through the school for $85 this year. We did not do it. DD9 likes to pick out her own stuff and I'll need to go shopping anyway since I like to stock up on the glue sticks, crayons, markers, etc. while they're cheap because they always need them for homework and later in the year when they run out I hate to pay full price.

I've stopped buying the items typed in red for the first day of school. The teachers typically just don't have enough storage space for 20+ of each of those items. I usually bring those items in around Nov/Dec when they start to run low.

Our PTA purchases new backpacks and school supplies for those kids who can't afford it. These items are discreetly handed out through the school counselor and most of the students have no idea this even goes on.

DD11 is starting 6th grade in a private school this year. I do not have list for her yet.

Mary

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

Here in high school we don't get a list for supplies.

So, we show up the first day of school with a backpack or tote bag or whatever and paper and binders and pencils. That's about it.

THEN after about a week they give us a list PER CLASS. It's frusterating because by then all the good supplies are taken

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

I got my supply list in an e-mail back in April.

 

[powellrj]

We haven't gotten her list yet. Won't get that until we register. We did get a letter last week telling us that book fees were $100, subject to change..... Who knows what that means.....

 

[MM27]

DD's list is pretty manageable this year. She is going in 6th grade so I guess we are through with the days of the community supplies. No **15 spiral notebooks** on the list or anything like that.

Our only complaint is (and maybe a teacher can explain the why on this one?) it specifies "no mechanical pencils". They have to have regular #2 pencils and a pencil sharpener. The reason we hate this is because there are no pencil sharpeners in the classrooms (have no clue why) so the kids have to use the little school supply ones. And they DO NOT WORK! Well, they will for a little while but then they break. Or if we find one that works for any length of time, somehow it always get borrowed and not returned (because dd's neighbors NEVER have a pencil sharpener)

Ah, well just the little aggravations in life. Time to go clean out the junk drawer and make room for all the pencil sharpeners we need to buy to make sure she is never without one.

I teach 4th grade and I do not allow mechanical pencils in my classroom. I got tired of all the time that was wasted filling them, arguing over who the lead belonged to, how someone knocked over someone elses lead and it spilled all over the floor.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I have the OP's list times four! It's crazy. I reuses things whenever possible-scissors (if they make it home at the end of the year), glue sticks, colored pencils, barely used notebooks, binders, rulers, clipboards. I write only our last on most supplies so that another child in the family can use it if it's in good shape. New crayons are a must though, and yes, they must be crayola. I'd never make my kids color with RoseArt-waxy little suckers!

 

[luvmy3]

I think what really bothers me the most about the supply lists is how specific some of the requests are, and they make sure they bold them so you know exactly what they want . My first grader needs 10 jumbo glue sticks for the first half of the year. I refuse to spend $50 on glue sticks in an entire school year so he will be going in with 15 small and when he needs more I'll send him in with 15 more. They are $2 for a pack of 5 as opposed to $2.50 for a pack of 2 jumbo ones. He needs a dry erase board with lines and a primary writing journal stage 3 Mead 100 pages, like I don't have anything better to do during the summer than to track down specific school supplies before the beginning of the year.

 

[sbell111]

We haven't gotten her list yet. Won't get that until we register. We did get a letter last week telling us that book fees were $100, subject to change..... Who knows what that means.....

It means that book fees are $150.

 

[agnes!]

I think what really bothers me the most about the supply lists is how specific some of the requests are, and they make sure they bold them so you know exactly what they want . My first grader needs 10 jumbo glue sticks for the first half of the year. I refuse to spend $50 on glue sticks in an entire school year so he will be going in with 15 small and when he needs more I'll send him in with 15 more. They are $2 for a pack of 5 as opposed to $2.50 for a pack of 2 jumbo ones. He needs a dry erase board with lines and a primary writing journal stage 3 Mead 100 pages, like I don't have anything better to do during the summer than to track down specific school supplies before the beginning of the year.

Dontcha sometimes feel like keeping track of all the time you put into finding/buying the crazy-specific items and billing *somebody* for your time?

Oh, here's a possibility...order your supplies on-line! I had a friend do this one year...she ordered from Office Depot or Staples or something, I think she even got free shipping. She said it was SO much less stressful and the prices were better or at least equivalent.

Good luck to everybody & getting their kids' requested-supplies. We're in the same boat as the other high-school families...no supply lists until school starts. But I have found that the teachers are MUCH less needlessly-specific with supplies the older the kids get, so that's been a relief.

agnes!

 

[aprilgail2]

What kills me about these lists is that DD's says at the top "Do Not Label Your Supplies With Your Child's Name". So I'm guessing these are "community" supplies. That irritates me a little because I suspect there will be parents who will send ZERO supplies. I get that some people cannot afford supplies and I would have no problem making a donation in some sort of way, but to go out and buy supplies for my child like I am asked to do and then have them "shared" does not sit well with me.

OP - gotta love Long Island!! What are the ziploc bags used for??

I agree about the shared supplies, that makes me nuts. The worst is when they pool them all and then the kid that spends money on better quality stuff gets stuck with the crap rose art ones while "Johnny bring nothing" gets the crayolas!

Ziplock bags last year held vocabulay cards and sometimes art stuff is sent home in them.

 

[ksjayhawks]

Mechanical pencils break too easily and the little pieces of lead make a MESS in the classroom. Then the kids run out of lead, because you and I know that kids always remember to keep their supplies fresh, and they don't have anything to write with.

As for pencil sharpeners in the classroom, it is the domino effect, one kid gets up to sharpen a pencils, they ALL go. Maybe you could offer to donate an electric sharpener for the class and the teacher could put restrictions on use-say only in the morning or before lunch. If kids have 4 or 5 sharpened pencils in their desk they should be just fine not having to use the sharpener during class.

Exactly! I would check on the electric sharpener idea.

 

[ksjayhawks]

Just wait until high school. Our twins are going into 9th grade and they both need graphing calculators--these will be #3 and 4 that we will have to buy as DS17 "lost" his first one after some kid took it out of his back pack. They are $100+ EACH.

Can you rent them from the school? DS hs rents them.

 

[ksjayhawks]

Here's DD9's list for Fourth Grade (public school):
We were given the opportunity to purchase a "supply pack" through the school for $85 this year. We did not do it. DD9 likes to pick out her own stuff and I'll need to go shopping anyway since I like to stock up on the glue sticks, crayons, markers, etc. while they're cheap because they always need them for homework and later in the year when they run out I hate to pay full price.
[

Holy smokes! Who is making the money on that! You can easily get her supplies for $20 to $30 plus some to spare!

 

[EthansMom]

I think what really bothers me the most about the supply lists is how specific some of the requests are, and they make sure they bold them so you know exactly what they want . My first grader needs 10 jumbo glue sticks for the first half of the year. I refuse to spend $50 on glue sticks in an entire school year so he will be going in with 15 small and when he needs more I'll send him in with 15 more. They are $2 for a pack of 5 as opposed to $2.50 for a pack of 2 jumbo ones. He needs a dry erase board with lines and a primary writing journal stage 3 Mead 100 pages, like I don't have anything better to do during the summer than to track down specific school supplies before the beginning of the year.

Walmart has dry erase boards with lines (the kind with two solid lines separated by a dotted line). They carry them in the office supply area next to the other dry erase boards.

 

[Minnie_me]

As a teacher, I'm always amazed by these threads. People complain and complain, but what can be done? When we were kids, it wasn't this way, that's true. But when we were kids, there weren't computers in the schools (I went to school in the 70s), and technology is very expensive. Another thing that sucks the budget dry is the administrative salaries. My district has a declining enrollment -- far fewer students than we did 15 years ago. HOWEVER......we have ADDED administrators! HS and MS used to share a VP, now there's one in each building. There's also an assistant superintendent, where there never was one before! Those positions are costing $140K each, at least (I'm in a rural district....I know that these salaries are much higher in cities).

Don't blame the teachers. They can't control this. If you take a stand and don't send in the supplies your child's teacher is asking for, she'll just add them to the other things she spends her own money on for the classroom. I kept my receipts a few years back, and was SHOCKED to discover that I'd spent $2000 out of my own pocket on classroom supplies. And that's not unusual.

 

[Kim1964]

I serve on the local school board, so I am very familiar with the school budget. Maybe that's why the supply lists don't bother me, since I am one of the people who made the decision to cut the supply lines in the budget. Given the choice between laying off teachers and asking people to send in tissues and glue sticks, I'd rather ask for tissues and glue sticks. Our town chooses to fund our school at the lowest legally allowed amount, and I don't think it should be up to the teachers to pay for things out of their own pockets. I can't imagine DH going to work and being told that he had to supply his own copy paper or printer cartridges.

The only frustrating thing to me is when the lists don't come out until the sales are over. DD#2's new teacher sent the list home on the last day of school, which I really appreciated. DD#1 is heading into 8th grade and won't even know who her homeroom teacher is until the first day of school.

 

[Minnie_me]

I think what really bothers me the most about the supply lists is how specific some of the requests are, and they make sure they bold them so you know exactly what they want . My first grader needs 10 jumbo glue sticks for the first half of the year. I refuse to spend $50 on glue sticks in an entire school year so he will be going in with 15 small and when he needs more I'll send him in with 15 more. They are $2 for a pack of 5 as opposed to $2.50 for a pack of 2 jumbo ones. He needs a dry erase board with lines and a primary writing journal stage 3 Mead 100 pages, like I don't have anything better to do during the summer than to track down specific school supplies before the beginning of the year.

The reason teachers are specific is that they've learned from past mistakes. We've all learned that Rose Art school supplies are the absolute worst. I take any Rose Art supplies down to the detention room and drop them off there. Ick. Also, if you don't specify, and some kids bring in really good stuff, and others bring in really crappy stuff.......there's going to be jealousy and all kinds of problems.

TARGET has dry erase boards with lines in their Dollar Section.