back-to-school shopping
all we need is wheelbarrow
and lottery win
Y’all. Holy shit. We just got back from buying the wee one’s school supplies for Kindergarten. School starts 8/27 so we’re a little early, but I ordinarily love school supply shopping and we were itching to get all the stuff.
I seriously think we just bought supplies for half the class. Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s the list, straight from the school’s website:
Kindergarten
(all supplies preferably NOT
Roseart brand)
1 – plastic supply box
1 – clipboard (letter size)
3 – composition books (No spirals)
2 – packages #2 pencils (sharpened)
4 – boxes 16 count crayons (basic colors only-NO Roseart)
4 – 8 oz. bottles Elmer’s white school glue (NOT COLORED)
1 – backpack (large enough to hold a 1" binder)
1 – box 200 count tissue
1 – pkg. pink erasers (no pencil toppers)
1 – pair child Fisker
brand scissors (no plastic scissors)
2 – boxes Crayola basic color markers
1 – package 6 count dry erase EXPO markers (medium point)
3 – containers of liquid soap
2 – packages seasonal/fun
stickers
2 – red pocket folders (no brads)
1 – Kindergarten rest mat and towel
1 – yellow highlighter
Girls only:
1 –
package plain paper plates
1 – box Ziploc
plastic bags (gallon or jumbo size)
Boys
only:
1 – box Ziploc bags (quart or
snack size)
1 – package plain paper lunch bags
(white, if possible)
1 – box wipes
That is a LOT of stuff. Especially when you’re at Target and you grab a different school’s list to see what those kids need, and those kids have 1/4 of the stuff to bring. Not only that, but this list seems designed to inflict irritation.
Clipboard? That’s going to take a special trip to an office supply store, because Target doesn’t have them.
A set of 6 dry erase markers? There are only sets of 4. Or 10. Or 12.
16 count crayons? $2.49. 24 count crayons? .20.
8oz glue? $1.57. 4oz glue? .15.
1 box of 200ct Kleenexes? I could only find boxes of 120ct or 180ct.
JEEZ. It was very vexing trying to buy these supplies, because nothing matched the list. And the things that did match the list were a lot more expensive than the things that were close, but not exactly right. Sigh.
So I’m going to be that mom. The one who supplies her kid with the right amount of stuff, but in various and sundry quantities.
I understand that teachers have specific reasons they ask for the supplies they do. And probably much of those reasons hinge on knowing that the school can’t afford to provide a lot of the things we take for granted – like crayons. I know a lot of times teachers end up spending a lot of their own money on things they shouldn’t have to. And that’s probably why we’re being asked to provide so. much. stuff.
And yet, I wish the things on the list weren’t such a pain in the ass. White lunch bags? The hell? I know they make better puppets, but no one sells them. Or if they do, they’re like 1,000 times more expensive.
Ah well. I grouse and complain and admit to being a little prickly about my kid having to bring four times more shit to school than most of the other kids in the district, but it was still fun to go get everything. I still remember the fat Snoopy pencils I had rattling around in my backpack on my very first day of school. And so we’ll pile all of this crap into a wheelbarrow for the first day and the wee one will show up grinning and scared and excited in shiny new clothes, with a sparkling new backpack, emanating that smell of newly sharpened pencils.
I can’t believe he’s starting school in just less than a month.
That should give me just enough time to track down the ever elusive clipboard.