specific school supplies frustration

[golfgal]

I wonder if the issue with the "American" pencils is lead found in the paint in the ones from China .

DS will be in 10th this fall. He will be taking the same graft notebook to school that he has had since 6th grade. It is a 100 sheet notebook and every year he has had to have one according to his teacher. And every year when he brings home his stuff, this comes home with maybe 2 or 3 pages gone.

For years now, we have had a backpack full of their left over stuff. Every year, we pull from this left over supply before we buy anything new.

Our kids went through 3 graph comp notebooks the past year (10th grade) for AP Biology. From what they hear they will need that again for AP Chem this year.

I wish they would go to the loose leaf paper. Both DS and DD had to have them, so we have two barely used notebooks floating around. Atleast with the loose leaf, I could buy one package and split it between them.

And binders - UGH!!!!!! Never had to get more than 1 a year while DS was in middle school. As a 9th grader, he had to have 1 for all 4 of the core subjects, plus 1 for band. He did marching band as well and he went thru 3 binders before the end of marching season. I get that it makes keeping their drill all nice and together, but dang those kids are hard on those binders. Here is what they do.

They have them strung on shoe string or twine, so that then can sling them over their shoulders and be able to quickly look at and review.

What a pain in the rear to lug those around for band. Our kids use a small notebook for their dot books. This year we found 2 ring binders the size of a 3x5 index card to use. I have never seen a band use a full size binder for their dot books

I agree with you.
My son's list specifically says durable long lasting folders. They do not want the cheap paper folders.
The blue, red, green, and yellow are easy for me to find. The orange and white are not.
An orange notebook, also not easy.
Black folders and notebooks abound. You'd think whoever was making up the list might take a peek in the store and see what is readily available and what isn't. Just seems like common sense to me.
I don't mind spending the money, I don't mind specific lists, I actually enjoy shopping for it. Just why not ask for black notebooks when they are all over the place, instead of orange, which no one can find?

When our kids were in elementary school the 5-8th teachers (Catholic School) moved to color coded for each subject so everyone had blue for math, red for English, etc. When they did that, they ordered colored plastic folders from the school supply company and we just sent in money to pay for ours-$4 or $5 maybe. It was a great deal. The kids also used Trapper's so those folders often lasted a couple years.

 

[Michelle67]

OK. Who else besides me wants to hear the rest of THAT story???

YEP, gotta hear the Rose Art play dough story.

(snip)

It really gets my goat too when they don't USE the oddball things. One year DS had to have a specific type composition book. I finally found it- it came home at the end of the year with like 5 pages used.

YEP! Both of my kids (2nd and 6th grades) had to have comp books last year. Local store was sold out, so I had to drive to the next town over. That store had zillions of them, all in cute "girly" hippy patterns. Not one single plain black and white comp book. I looked in every box in a long aisle until I found one that was a brown and red paisley pattern that I could use for my son. At the end of the year, both comp books came home. My sons hadn't been used at all, my daughter's had about five pages used. Both were trashed from desk/locker abuse.

My daughter's school has 7 classes on an A/B schedule, and every class except gym required a separate 1 1/2 or 2" binder with dividers. Gym, of course, requires a uniform. Students are not allowed to carry a book bag of any kind, and the school/classrooms are sprawled out so there is no time to go back to their locker between classes or they will be late to class and punished for tardiness. About a month in, my husband cleaned out a single 3" binder and gave it to her, and she used it for the rest of the year for all of her classes. Six wasted binders that I had to buy.

 

[azdizzymom]

I'll tell you why they want certain pencils. Kids will often want the ones that have designs on them and they are junk. They break all the time, the lead will slide right on out. The students will have to sharpen all freakin' day. Pencils are not made like they used to be.

Just make sure you buy decent pencils, not cheap ones or cute ones. They really shouldn't be too much more expensive than the other ones. GL!

AMEN! I sub in school and it is so frustrating to see the kids get up and down and up and down (when trying to teach and they use electric sharpener so you have to stop) to sharpen the crappy pencils. I know sometimes the kids break the lead off and then you have the same situation you stated about the cheapies (the dollar store ones people give in every treat bag for birthdays, harvest parties, etc). I am so tempted to buy pencils and carry them with me when I sub (I just have a few teachers who I work for) and give them to the kids with the nasty ones.

On the subject of the crayons...Rose Arts are terrible. We always did crayola and I know they go on sale. The pencil price OP was quoting seems so high---don't know where you found that but scour ads online for pencils. Buy the crayola. The teachers at this point know the best products and that is why they ask for them.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Our high school doesn't give school supply lists at all. On open house day, you have to figure out your kids homeroom teacher from a list, go there to get the list of classes/teachers/rooms and go to each room and take a picture or write down the list of stuff needed for each class.

Then you only have 4 days to find it. Since it's just before school starts, most things are picked over and difficult to find or the sales are done so you are paying full price.

This year I used last years list and I'll just supplement it when we go to the school.

I do have my DD's list already and it's full of items we either already have leftover from last year or that are on sale and easy to get. Finally, an easy shopping school supply year for her.

About those annoying black/white composition notebooks coming home at the end of the school year with only 5 pages used? I ripped out those 5 pages and the kids used them the next year even if they were all beat up. The kids weren't real thrilled about it but I was sick of basically wasting money on them. Never once was those 5 pages missed and about 2 weeks into the school year all the kids notebooks looked beat up so it didn't matter.

 

[Ceila]

I swear, the three prong, plastic folders with pockets are going to be the death of me.

I think I got those at Staples last year.

The part I really don't get is how the generic list for all kids in the grade is so specific. Are all 19 3rd grade teachers using the same color coding method?

Around here, we have much smaller teams, but they do coordinate and put out one list for the entire grade.

 

[Aristocath]

OK. Who else besides me wants to hear the rest of THAT story???

Well, you know this involves my MIL. She was coming over to babysit my DS2 at the time and my son who must have been about 4 months. I was going shopping as we were having a couples baby shower at our house that weekend. So MIL, who has always been both very helpful and very frugal, shows up with Rose Art Play Dough to entertain the two year old.

While I'm gone she's holding the baby while watching my son play with the play dough and realizes the consistency is not quite like that of the regular Play Dough brand. She also gives him my rolling pin to play with and work the dough. Of course the baby chooses this time to have a diaper explosion so she leaves the room to change him, leaving two year old playing quietly in the kitchen. I'm guessing she must have been changing the diaper for a while. I get home about the time she walks into the kitchen and we are both stunned.

The fake play dough in multiple colors wasn't really sticking together and fell on the floor, which of course my son steps in and tracks around the kitchen and down the hall when he went to check on Grandma. It also stained his clothes. And got in the cracks of my white tile top kitchen table and stained the grout. And stained my rolling pin. And it was like little crumbles of it were everywhere.

It was such a mess to clean up. And my MIL said, "I'll watch the kids while you clean that up."

 

[spacemountainmom]

Ugh to the roseart playdoh story!

My cousin gave me a fabulous child tip that I always used. Play doh is used only in the garage or the backyard. I don't have a finished basement, so I have let them use it down there a couple of times with the express direction that it did not even come near the steps which were carpeted. No nasty play doh stories in my house.

Then again....let's not talk about what has been done with crayons!

 

[scrapquitler]

Ugh to the roseart playdoh story!

My cousin gave me a fabulous child tip that I always used. Play doh is used only in the garage or the backyard. I don't have a finished basement, so I have let them use it down there a couple of times with the express direction that it did not even come near the steps which were carpeted. No nasty play doh stories in my house.

Then again....let's not talk about what has been done with crayons!

I had a bad experience with RoseArt play doh once when my DD was given it as a birthday gift...we had stains everywhere from it.

These days, PlayDoh is banned from my house entirely. The kids make too much mess with it and I end up finding tiny bits of it everywhere. Now they can play with it outside if they want, but it's not coming inside. Of course I have a certain relative who still buys them Play Doh for every gift giving occasion and then she says "Oh yeah, I forgot that you deprive your children of the joy of playing with play doh" Whatever Take it to your house and let them play with it there and you can clean it up.

 

[tlbwriter]

Why? Why are basic bathroom necessities not provided by the district? On another note, I stock the bathroom (and soda machine) in my business out of my own pocket too. Toilet paper, paper towels, soap, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, tissues, soda for the Coke machine. It gets written off a business expense. I don't ask my students or their families to supply these items, and yeah it's a pretty big investment but it's the business I'm in so I do it.

Sounds like you're the business owner? If so, a better analogy would be if you didn't supply these items, and your employees had to buy them.

The folders with the pictures on them cost exactly the same price as solid color folders, so your scenario where the poor kids get teased because they have plain folders makes no sense at all.

Not in my experience.

It is a hardship for me to find a teal folder, a magenta folder, a dark green folder, a light green folder, a sky blue folder, a navy folder, a black folder, and a maroon folder, all heavy duty laminated, two pocket, no center paper fasteners, preferably Mead. (Last year's list).

That's insane! I'd have to buy white folders and a set of markers to color them.

As for the OP, I don't mind when they ask for brands. I know Rose Art crayons and markers are junk. But dd was asked for three spiral notebooks (80 or more sheets) this year. All Target had were 70 sheets (other than cutesy ones that cost 4 to 8 times as much.) I bought them, because I also know that when she brings them home at the end of the year, each one will have about 10-20 sheets filled in, and if she really uses up the 70 sheets in one year, I will be happy to buy more notebooks part way through the year.

When I try to do this, my daughter says "MOM! It says it has to have AT LEAST 80 SHEETS!" She's convinced she'll be penalized for having an inappropriate notebook.

That being said, the district buys the worst, sandpapery tissues so I never argue with them I buy Puffs with lotion 2-3 year at BJs and I find kids I don't know coming in between classes to ask for a tissue Word spreads which teachers have the creature comforts (especially when sinus infection season rolls around).

That's great, and I love them for blowing my nose, but if the kids need to clean their glasses or wipe watery eyes, tissues with lotion are not a good option.

Our high school doesn't give school supply lists at all. On open house day, you have to figure out your kids homeroom teacher from a list, go there to get the list of classes/teachers/rooms and go to each room and take a picture or write down the list of stuff needed for each class.

We get a school supply list the day they pick up their schedule (about a week before school starts), which is really frustrating. What's more frustrating is that we tend to get a second list once school starts.

 

[hereyago]

Our high school doesn't give school supply lists at all. On open house day, you have to figure out your kids homeroom teacher from a list, go there to get the list of classes/teachers/rooms and go to each room and take a picture or write down the list of stuff needed for each class.

Then you only have 4 days to find it. Since it's just before school starts, most things are picked over and difficult to find or the sales are done so you are paying full price.

See, this would just tick me off. DD goes to school the tuesday following Labor day weekend. Her Open house usually is 4-6 days before the start of school. so right before the holiday I would hate to be getting the ENTIRE school supplies list then and trying to have to hunt down specific things with everyone else. as I wrote before, we have the 'basic" list but still have to wait open house to see if certain teachers request certain things for their class.


Ever since 6th grade(dd will be in 8th this year) they have used those black and white composition books, no spiral notebooks allowed or wanted. however, their list past couple years have said: 8-10 b&w composition books. well i wasn't sure if they were going to be put into a "supplies closet", but DD actually used about 8, they would change out for new ones(which were kept at home) like every marking period or so and they would use all the pages except towards the end of school but not many pages empty.

 

[wishesuponastar]

So, Costco has binders. 4 to a pack for about $9 for the 2" ones. I thought that was a good price. Teacher is being specific about the color of binders, red, blue. So what I'm going to do is put a piece of construction paper in the front plastic covering of the Costco binder. I hope teacher doesn't mind.

What a horrible mess from the Rose ARt playdough!

 

[roscoepc1]

Here is the issue I am having...May seem petty, but it is SO strange to me.

The crayola 24 pack are on sale at Wal-Mart for 40 cents. My kids'(Pre-K) list specifically says the 8 pack which is not on sale and costs 70 cents.

I feel like I HAVE to get the 8 pack, even though the 24 pack is a better deal.

I bought the bigger pack, then took out the specific ones that are in the 8 pack and sent them in a baggie. Kept the rest at home for them to use here!

 

[roscoepc1]

I was informed by one teacher that they specify colours on notebooks etc so they can have everyone use the same colour for math, spelling etc...

Basically so they can say "Take out your red notebook/binder/whatever" instead of saying "Take out your spelling notebook/binder/whatever". It's supposed to be faster and easier.

 

[roscoepc1]

My all-time faves were:

1) the plastic rubbermaid (specified) container with SPECIFIC measurements they HAD to have, that I had to drive 40 miles to the nearestWalmart to find....all the kids showed up that day lugging the d*** things along with their ultra-heavy bookbags full of all the other stuff they had to buy....End of the first day? They all brought them home again and said they didn't need them!

2) Filled the entire two page list with specific requirements for each supply listed, then was informed after school on day 1 that they also need a 2GB memory stick....the next day! We live in the boonies. I told dd I would buy the dang thing the next time I went to town, and if the teacher didn't like it, she could call me and get an earful! Someone stole it before Christmas anyways!

 

[MM27]

We have to supply tissues in our building. The only ones stocked are in the nurse's office and they won't let us have any.

That being said, the district buys the worst, sandpapery tissues so I never argue with them I buy Puffs with lotion 2-3 year at BJs and I find kids I don't know coming in between classes to ask for a tissue Word spreads which teachers have the creature comforts (especially when sinus infection season rolls around).

Why? Why are basic bathroom necessities not provided by the district? On another note, I stock the bathroom (and soda machine) in my business out of my own pocket too. Toilet paper, paper towels, soap, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, tissues, soda for the Coke machine. It gets written off a business expense. I don't ask my students or their families to supply these items, and yeah it's a pretty big investment but it's the business I'm in so I do it.

Not knocking teachers...just "the system".

In my school we don't get tissues, paper towels or any other cleaning type supply in our classrooms. The custodians put those things in the bathrooms, but they are not given to us for our classrooms. If the kids don't bring tissues, it's either up to the teacher to supply them or the classroom just doesn't have tissues. Some teachers I work with will snag a roll of paper towels from the custodian's supply closet if he leaves it unlocked and they put that out for the kids to use. They are the hard, thin, bathroom paper towels, not the type that most people buy for personal use.

I usually go to BJs when they have coupons for cases of tissues and paper towels, but I will not share with other teachers. Why should I pay for these things and other teachers don't, but they end up using them? Not going to happen. I have had teachers send kids to my room with hand over their nose and I send them to the bathroom. Or some of them will be bold enough to send a kid in and ask for a whole box of tissues. It's not my job to supply the school with tissues.

It wasn't latex free erasers but rather latex free pencils.

Latex free pencils are latex free because the eraser on the end of them is made from something other than latex. It's not the pencil itself that is latex free.

 

[krcit]

So, Costco has binders. 4 to a pack for about $9 for the 2" ones. I thought that was a good price. Teacher is being specific about the color of binders, red, blue. So what I'm going to do is put a piece of construction paper in the front plastic covering of the Costco binder. I hope teacher doesn't mind.

What a horrible mess from the Rose ARt playdough!

I did the same thing last year with the binders.

 

[wishesuponastar]

great minds think alike LOL

 

[golfgal]

Our high school doesn't give school supply lists at all. On open house day, you have to figure out your kids homeroom teacher from a list, go there to get the list of classes/teachers/rooms and go to each room and take a picture or write down the list of stuff needed for each class.

Then you only have 4 days to find it. Since it's just before school starts, most things are picked over and difficult to find or the sales are done so you are paying full price.

This year I used last years list and I'll just supplement it when we go to the school.

I do have my DD's list already and it's full of items we either already have leftover from last year or that are on sale and easy to get. Finally, an easy shopping school supply year for her.

About those annoying black/white composition notebooks coming home at the end of the school year with only 5 pages used? I ripped out those 5 pages and the kids used them the next year even if they were all beat up. The kids weren't real thrilled about it but I was sick of basically wasting money on them. Never once was those 5 pages missed and about 2 weeks into the school year all the kids notebooks looked beat up so it didn't matter.

We don't get lists for high school either but I know they will need notebooks, folders, pens/pencils, etc. and get all of that on sale. In 9th grade they needed Elmer's School Glue-not just the white glue, it had to be school glue for a science experiment. We looked all over the place for that-finally found it at Walgreens. They needed Play-dough that year too-we laughed when we saw that but they used it to build a model of the earth's crust in science. Other then those and a grahphing calculator, we haven't really had to supply anything else in high school.

 

[book_junkie]

Ok, I am bad at math, but wouldn't a scientific calculator also have the 4 basic functions on it? or not? her list has 4 basic function calculator and a scientific calculator. TIA

My guess would be that there will be test where they are not allowed to have MORE than the four basic functions to work with and thus the need for the basic calculator, as well as times when they will need the functions.

The only reason I can think of for this is that some classes (science) may want the scientific calculator for some functions that aren't in your standard (easier to do numbers to the power of x etc). However Math may only allow a 4 function calculator since scientific ones will automatically do many things that she may be supposed to be learning by hand. I had math teachers that didn't allow scientific calculators so if you didn't have a 4 function you couldn't use one at all.

It's to stop the cheating. You would be amazed at what can be stored in a graphing calculator (formulas, cheat sheets, whole passages of Shakespeare, etc.) so if it's not necessary for a class, around here they aren't allowed. According to the kids I work with, all cell phones, mp3 players and other things that store information have to be stowed and turned off, and you're not allowed to get them out of your backpack/ purse /etc.

List One and List Two and List Three are the big ones around me, but a lot of the kids that I work with won't be able to have the general supplies, let alone the specific ones.

There are usually city sponsored (backed by corporations) supply drives closer to when school starts that are based on income and other factors, but the kids that come into my workplace after school do not have basic supplies with them to do their homework- no paper, no pencils, no erasers, just photocopied workbook pages they're expected to do...

 

[bumbershoot]

I prefer Prang crayons to Crayola any day. And Crayola has changed so much. I bought a tin for some anniversary something like 15 years ago, and the crayons are MUCH different, MUCH better, than they are now. In my opinion and experience. But I love Prang. (thank goodness I'm the one that sets up the school lists for DS)

The crayola 24 pack are on sale at Wal-Mart for 40 cents. My kids'(Pre-K) list specifically says the 8 pack which is not on sale and costs 70 cents.

I would buy one 8 pack, for the package, then as many 24 packs as I feel like, and just refill the little one as needed.

Though if it's pooled (communism! LOL) that doesn't work so well. Then I'd send in secret packages for my kid (contraband!). Meh, who knows what I would do?

Oriole is a brand of pencil that has been around for YEARS ! They do make a difference. When we take our high stakes tests we always request that the admin get pencils made in US because they are so much better.

But....java says...

Oriole is another "brand" of pencil made by ticonderoga's parent company. They were the last "brand" by that company to be made in America but they are not anymore.

Hmm.

The reason we needed this stuff is that she wanted the kids to decorate a marble notebook with actual items (not pictures) of things that were meaningful to them, like merit badges, jewelry, plant materials, etc. and laminate the whole shebang so that these 3D items stayed attached. The kids understandably grumbled about the need to ruin stuff that had meaning for them by attaching it to their notebooks.

I hate that whole story! As a kid I couldn't have done this...I couldn't just put things that I treasured onto something else.... And OMG has she never heard of packing tape? Or even just Contact Paper? Both totally respectable ways to secure something to a piece of paper.

They wanted tennis balls(ok I get that for the chair bottoms)...


The teacher actually said that because 50% of the kids are on free lunches we have to send extra supplies to cover their supply needs and that she can't afford to.

I get the tennis ball thing, too, but...what happened to the ones from the year before? What happened to the ones you supplied at the end of the year?

As a kid who was on free lunch through elementary school, I deeply resent her implication that it's only those students who don't come in prepared. I mean, one of the reasons why we had free lunch was that THAT was offered, but "free supplies" was not, and having free lunch freed up some money to *buy* those supplies. Harumph. And for her to SAY such a thing in front of the parents! Awful.

...the teachers give extra credit on tests for each box of tissues- 10 points on first test for two boxes of tissues etc.

Fainting at this concept. Don't get me wrong, I'd bring in a ton of tissues, but omg I'm just shocked. I had a high-end math class taught by the head of the Math dept in college whose extra credit questions were about The Beatles, and that was shocking enough (I didn't have TIME to include studying up on who wrote Penny Lane!), and that was annoying enough, but flat out bribery?

2. the kids who don't bring them 'borrow' other kids crayons because they are so much better.

I'm very pollyanna about how school should be, but...shouldn't that be seen as a theft problem, and corrected in such a way?

It wasn't latex free erasers but rather latex free pencils.

Not the erasers on the end of the pencils?

Doing the School Supplies Scavenger Hunt isn't the only thing parents have to do in their spare time. Many hours of my life that I will never get back were wasted on these excursions. Oh, and gallons of fossil fuel.


Another pet peeve of mine is the composition notebooks. Every teacher insists that each kid get at least 8 composition notebooks. At the end of the year, said notebooks get sent home, each with no more than 10 pages used. But they are always too beat up from being jammed into tiny desks and cubbies all year to be recyclable for next year. Somebody knows somebody in the Composition Notebook Mafia.

I think I've just found myself a job at back-to-school time! I *love* looking for supplies like that, love going to many stores, love spending other peoples' money, and DS and I would have fun doing it!

about the CNMafia. When the heck did composition books come back into style, anyway? My mom used them in school, and maybe in movies, but I never EVER used them all through school, but all of a sudden a few years ago I started seeing them in schools. So odd.

We get a school supply list the day they pick up their schedule (about a week before school starts), which is really frustrating.

That's really annoying. Here I see lists from schools for each grade actually AT the stores. Target and Office Max, at minimum, have special stands for them.