Help With Buying our school supplies because… Everything has changed… Not really

I know, we have done this blog before, but we haven’t had a normal school year in a while.  While their ads are great for their marketing, those big box stores can be overwhelming.   The volume of stuff in the aisles, the glitzy displays that talk you into buying way more than you need, the other shoppers with carts filled to the brim can make you buy way more than your child really needs.  So, what to do now that we are back to needing school supplies?  We need to be strategic and demonstrate the organization and purpose that we will expect from our school-aged students beginning in September.

Organizing materials needs to encompass school supplies, home supplies, and transport supplies. Your teacher[s] will most likely give a list of supplies within the first week of school.  These lists are usually only suggestions and not mandatory.  The point where these supplies become mandatory is if a binder is going to be graded, a certain calculator is required for the class that is being taken, a spiral or folder is being used for a specific class activity, or supplies are designated as being used for a graded purpose. 

School supplies should always include pens, pencils, a good eraser, necessary math tools, loose leaf paper, a laptop if your child uses one, binders or spiral notebooks.  If spirals are used, you will also need a binder/ accordion folder/ folder for papers that are used in class.  You will also want some sort of dividers for your child’s binder (we use the plastic, double sided dividers with pockets. Having a pencil pouch to keep everything organized is also a very good idea.  Anything else that you buy for school will either be required by a particular teacher or more than you actually need. 

Home supplies should include materials that are necessary for homework and for creating a filing system.   In addition to the school supplies that will also be used at home (so buy enough,) you will want to have index cards in a variety of sizes for test prep, colored pens and pencils, highlighters, sticky notes in a variety of sizes, a large month-at-a-glance calendar for chunking long-term projects, manila folders and a dedicated file drawer in a desk or a plastic crate for keeping your files. 

You need to put the most effort into choosing your transitional supplies.  Your child’s backpack needs to have the size and compartments that fit what they need to carry to and from school.  Finally, the most important supply is your child’s planner.  Choose one that has enough space to accommodate the size of their handwriting, enough lines to be able to add all your child’s classes, and make sure it has a calendar. 

Supplies are essential to school success. Making sure that your child has the supplies that are necessary for their individual success is easy as long as you use a strategic approach to your shopping. It’s been a while since we have had to consider what supplies our children will need for home and school success, but, with a little thought to the shopping list, we’ve got this.