My Rant About School Supplies

This year, I had to buy more school supplies than I ever have...  OK...that probably isn't true, but for the last few years, we have reused many of the supplies from previous years, and this year I had to buy ALL new stuff (because our household goods were still en route and we were living out of suitcases).  Talk about breaking the bank!!  AND some of the supplies were A LOT ridiculous.  What 3rd grader do you know of that is going to need FOUR HUNDRED 3x5 cards?! and why am I stuck with supplying the teachers with dry erase markers?!  I know my kids aren't going to be writing TWELVE pens worth of stuff on any dry erase board...and why do all my kids need HEADPHONES to go to school?  seriously!?  Another thing that really bugs me about the school supply lists is the number of those (black and white marbled) composition books they require.  I have to send each kid in with no less than four of these every year, and at the end of the school year, they all bring them back to me with like 20 pages written on, and the rest is BLANK.  You can't tear out the used pages, because if you do, the back 20 pages will fall out...and you don't ever use them for anything else since the first 20 pages are written on...so we WASTE at least EIGHT of these books each year!  One more thing...  You have to label EVERY SINGLE pencil/crayon/marker/glue stick/eraser/folder/everything!!  I spent FOUR nights and SIX sheets of avery 5160 labels (each one had the child's name printed on it twice...and then I cut them in half lengthwise so I wouldn't have to use 12 sheets of labels) applying their name to every single item on the list!  AAARRGGGG!

I decided to add up all the supplies I bought this year that were required for the first day of school for two elementary school students and one middle schooler.  (Brooklin was easy...one accordion folder, some notebook paper, two pencils and some of the leftover pens from the packs required for the other kids...oh, and $98 for fees/yearbook/activity card).  Here it is:

• Headphones - 3
• Boxes of Kleenex - 4
• A 1 GB thumb drive
• Sheet Protectors - 50 total
• Black Sharpie Markers - 4
• Scotch Tape - 3
• Scissors - 3
• Rulers - 3
• Protractor - 1
• Packs of Post-It notes - 4
• Paper Folders w/ prongs and pockets - 20
• Pens - 6 black, 6 blue, and 4 red
• Colored Pencils - 3 sets
• Pencils - 48 SHARPENED plus 12 MECHANICAL
• Rolls of Paper Towels - 5
• Markers - 3 sets
• 3x5 cards - 8 packs of 100
• Highlighter markers - 10
• Graph paper - 2 packs
• Glue Sticks - 6
• Liquid Glue - 4
• Manila Folders - 6
• Tabbed Binder Dividers - 1 pack
• 3-Ring Binders - 4
• Loose Leaf Paper - 7 packs
• Large Erasers - 4
• Eraser caps - 1 pack
• Crayons - 3 boxes
• Dry Correction Tape - 3 (Liquid WhiteOut was apparently banned for some reason...)
• Composition Books - 12
• Combination Lock - 1
• Calculator - 1
• Book Covers - 8
• Dry Erase Markers - 12
• Multiplication Flashcards - 1 set
• Hand Sanitizer - 2
• Household Cleaning Wipes - 4 containers
• Pencil Sharpeners - 3
• Soprano Recorders - 2
• Accordion Folders - 1

That's the list...I had to go to four different stores to find all of this crap stuff too!  Every store was out of something, so I had to play the game and run to several different stores to find it all.  Ok...done with the rant.  I'm glad they are all in school and that I can have the house to myself for a bit. =)