School Supply Shopping

Today I learned one of the impacts of a mid-school-year move.

This afternoon I ventured out for the school supplies the boys need for their new school.  Their first day is tomorrow.

Dave brought home the school supply list last month after he registered the boys for their new school.  Whoa!  Not only was the list much longer, and had many "collective classroom" items, but it was also extremely specific.  "Crayola crayons", "Fiskars scissors", "Mead composition notebook", "4 plain plastic folders with 3 prongs and pockets", etc.

Fortunately, the Super Walmart right up the street from their new school has everything on the list neatly arranged in a single aisle, right down to the brand names.  It wasn't hard to find at all.

This whole thing got me thinking: I was seriously spoiled in Nebraska!  My boys' school supplies list in Bellevue was short and consisted of the basics: crayons, glue, scissors, pencils and a pencil box.  Bellevue Public Schools provided a LOT of the supplies for the entire class...especially the collective items, like tissues and hand sanitizer.  Homeowners in Bellevue will tell you that they're definitely footing the bill, though :-)

I'm sure for many of you reading this (such as my sister in central North Carolina), you're used to it.  I also understand that my boys won't be denied an education if I chose NOT to provide these items.  However, the thought of the teacher having to provide many of these items out of pocket for every student who is unable to provide everything gives me the chills.

And I certainly wasn't ready at all to buy everything at full price!  A consequence of starting my boys in a new school mid-year.  I know what many of these items will cost during the August Back-to-School sales and I'm pretty certain in the future these school lists will cost us about 1/3-1/2 as much.

Timmy's school supplies.  Note the FIVE boxes of crayons in the front.  And the ream of card stock.  Definitely unusual items.

From 2010 11 28 New School Supplies

Jacob's school supplies.  His list was just as long, but his items apparently were smaller.  There's a purple box under the markers filled with pencils, erasers, glue and scissors.

From 2010 11 28 New School Supplies

Everything is bagged up and ready to haul into school tomorrow morning!