Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Back To School Supply List Shopping
It is that time of year again. My kids are back in school in less than three weeks. Some genius who shall remain unnamed planned our tickets to get back on the 28th of July. School starts the 30th. That means I have exactly one day to get the house in order, the kids de-jet lagged, new tennis shoes for all of them (they've killed the shoes they brought out here), new pants for Captain E (he no longer has a pair without holes, I swear his knees are sharp as razors), grocery shopping for EVERYTHING (because our fridge, pantry, and freezer are completely empty), and finally pick up all the items on their School Supply List, and that my friends is what I want to complain about right now. This is not a cost complaint. Sure the supplies for each kid will probably run me about $50 a kid, and with three kids going to school this year that's $150. My mom is a teacher though and so I'm aware of how much out of her personal pocket she spends every year on supplies. It is crazy, and so I'm ok with pitching in my part. What I hate is how ridiculously hard these dumb list can be to follow. I can't tell you how many times I've had to go to multiple stores looking for the Fiskar brand scissors they are insisting on, or expo markers in dark colors because the store I'm at is sold out, or how many dumb minutes I've spent trying to figure out if by "art pouch" they just mean pencil pouch, or if they want the blue and black pens to be erasable, or what the heck they mean by seven subject accordion file. I hate buying school supplies for actual school. Don't get me wrong, I love buying crayons for 25 cents and notebooks for 10 but the more kids I have, the longer and more specific these school supply list get, the more and more I DESPISE IT! And please don't get me started on sending a kid to school lugging this stuff around...The school that Captain E went to for kindergarten and 1st grade had a PTA that actually sold school supply boxes. You'd sign up, write them a check and on the first day of school there would be a box on your child's desk waiting with all their supplies. I'm sure it was a lot of work and maybe the prices weren't as cheap as they'd be if you went around to every store having a sale, but it was so WORTH IT!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
LinkWithin
School begins July 30? Whoa!
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed hearing about your trip. You need a personal shopper to do some of that stuff for you. :)
I remember one school where you could just buy the school supplies in a package, all gathered up, and it was indeed glorious! School supply shopping is no picnic, And after you see all the need in Africa, some of the things on the lists probably seem a bit frivolous, too. Too bad you will have such a short amount of time before school starts! Good thing you are such a tough cookie! You can handle all those kids in Africa; you can get this done, too!
ReplyDeleteYour trip is so much fun to read! I am so glad you and your family had this awesome opportunity!
ReplyDeleteMy first thought for school supplies was get everything online and make sure it's before school starts next year. If you feel REALLY ambitious, you could probably gather things up or make school boxes for them at the end of the year and take them out when school starts again! I never liked shopping for school supplies when I was a kid because I felt like I hardly used them and their list is too long! Broken crayons, lost pencils/pens etc throughout the school year always bugged me.