The Back to School Supply Lists, 2011

Every year we receive The Lists, the ones for school supplies for the three Picket Fence Post kids that never cease to surprise me with their specificity and length. Even in a down economy -- or perhaps because of it -- I wonder how parents who might be out of work or short on cash right now can afford all these supplies, never mind the other unexpected costs (for field trips and the like) which spring up throughout the school year.

The Spouse and I spent one very long hour inside a local Staples over the weekend, trying not to scream or lose our patience as the kids ran around the store, clutching their lists (I finally found The Youngest Boy's fifth grade list stuffed inside his report card from June) and trying to slip some unnecessarily, overpriced goodies into the shopping cart, like an $11 3-ring binder when a $2 one would suffice. We spent over $100 to purchase supplies from their lists and we still have items left to buy, not including back to school clothing because the kids keep doing that growing thing.

What kind of supplies do suburban schools in the Greater Boston area ask parents to purchase for their children?

Here's the fifth grade list:

• "1 soft, zipper pencil case (not the hard box)
• 1 small, handheld pencil sharpener
• 4 highlighters*
• 4 pens (black or blue)*
• 4 'jumbo' glue sticks*
• 4 black and white composition notebooks (marble, 9 3/4 X 7 1/2) not recycled paper
• blue pocket folder (plastic is strongly recommended as it will last the whole year)
• purple pocket folder
• green pocket folder
• red pocket folder
• orange pocket folder
• yellow pocket folder
• large size, soft, stretchy book cover for Social Studies textbook
• 1 box of small binder clips
• 2 boxes of #2 pencils*
• 2 boxes of tissues*
• 2 packs of 3 X 5 lined index cards
• 1 roll of paper towels
• Clorox Wipes
• hand sanitizer

*These items will need to be replenished throughout the school year.

Also, please do not buy a 'trapper keeper.' Our experience has shown us that they do not facilitate good organization. An accordion style organizer works better."

And this is the one for seventh graders for which we had to buy double because we've got two students going into the seventh grade:

• "One box of tissues per student (to be given to the homeroom teacher, so that every teacher has close to a year supply)
• A 3-ring binder with paper for science and social studies
• A 2-inch, 3-ring binder with paper for language arts and reading
• A composition book or small spiral bound notebook for reading journals
• A 7.5 X 10 inch hardcover composition notebook for science
• A spiral notebook, many pencils, two dry erase markers and choice of a two-pocket folder, accordion file, or 3-ring binder for French or Spanish
• A small, hand-sized notebook for Leaf Collection
• A supply of loose leaf notebook paper
• A two-pocket folder for the science classroom
• Many blue or black pens, red correcting pens, and pencils, frequently replenished
• A package of five notebook dividers for Language Arts binder
• Highlighters
• Note cards
• 5-7 book covers (NOT BOOK SOCKS!! They can ruin the book)
• 12 GB flash drive

Optional: A calculator for home use (a scientific calculator will be available in all math classrooms). Also, you will need an assignment book or planner. A [SCHOOL SPECIFIC] assignment book may be purchased for $5.00 when school reopens. If you choose not to purchase a [SCHOOL SPECIFIC] planner, please bring your own planner on the first day of school."

What about your kids' school supply lists, are they extensive, too much or just about right?

Quick Hits: Youth Hockey ... Already, School Shopping, Doggie Rescue Part 2 & Like This Blog? Vote for It!

Youth Hockey

Yes. Hockey. In August. When we’re still going to the pool, eating ice cream cones outside, running the air conditioning and having barbecues.

And I’ve already received several e-mails from The Youngest Boy’s new hockey team about upcoming practices for the August-through-April youth hockey season (because, you know, you need to GET READY, you know, for THE NEXT LEVEL, therefore you need to play 447 games per year to perfect your game, when you’re in elementary school and are still losing your baby teeth). Not that I’m bitter or anything.

I’m so not in the right frame of mind for the season to begin at this moment. However this time, I’m not going to be caught unprepared, I'm not a rookie hockey mom any more. For example, before the games begin in earnest, I think I’m going to buy some of those folding stadium chair thingies, the ones that provide back support, for those freezing cold games which I’m convinced kept me persistantly sick through much of last winter.



School Shopping

I have done approximately . . . nothing. Nada. Zippo.

I still, surprisingly, have The Youngest Boy’s school supply list that he got from his teacher in June. (Or I think I have it. I remember putting it away for “safe keeping.” If only I can recall where “safe” is.)

The supply lists for the twin seventh graders are available online.

Those pesky flyers advertising Back to School Sales have been everywhere. But I haven’t looked through them. I don’t want to.

I’m in denial.

No . . . I’m . . . not . . . ready for the madness to begin anew.

Doggie Rescue, Part Two?

When we brought Max the dog to his doggie camp during our Cape Cod vacation week, he was thrilled to be dropped off at “camp.” He simply adores playing with the other dogs. In fact, as soon as we pulled into the driveway, he started going nuts and scrambled to go outside. Once outside, he pulled really hard against the leash, never looking back once he was taken by one of the staffers to go into the yard to play with the other canines.

After relating this story to The Spouse he asked, “Do you think we should get Max a friend? Maybe he’s lonely. I feel bad.”

*palm smacking forehead*

We went through this last year, when I was telling him that I thought Max would thrive if we got another companion dog as he often looks bored when he’s home with me and I’m sitting with my laptop computer all day. Whenever another dog is around he simply lights up. But The Spouse was resistant. Energetically resistant. Then after the awful chocolate incident, I dropped the matter entirely.

And now The Spouse is raising a second dog as a possibility, the notion he thoroughly dismissed as yet another one of my hair-brained ideas. Which means I’m now finding myself irresistibly drawn to PetFinder.com, the web site where we found Max (it features listings from dog shelters) and am e-mailing said dog listings to The Spouse.

No, I have no idea what I’m thinking. As if things aren’t already chaotic enough around here.

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This blog – along with my pop culture blog, Notes from the Asylum – has been nominated in Boston’s Most Valuable Blogger contest held by the local CBS affiliate, WBZ.

If you’d like to support the Picket Fence Post goodness you see here from yours truly, you can vote for it (and, unlike in real elections, you can vote once a day).

Here’s the link to vote for Notes from the Asylum. Thanks for your support!

School Supply Shopping: It's Not Just About Pencils Any More

There was this one scene from the movie You’ve Got Mail where Meg Ryan, who played the owner of a children’s bookstore, is happily arranging freshly sharpened pencils on her check-out counter after her e-mail “pen pal” had written to her, "Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”

All those lovely, nostalgic thoughts about the promise of the new school year can get me in the mood for autumn, but any poetic sentiments I might’ve been holding about the smell of freshly sharpened pencils were immediately eclipsed the moment I walked into the store (two separate stores, actually) to buy my kids' school supplies. Why? Because back to school time is no longer just about some pencils and notebooks and maybe a new backpack. It’s about these dang school supply lists whose items parents are supposed to buy because schools no longer provide the stuff.

I spent this afternoon racing back and forth in a wildly disorganized fashion through the packed, disorganized aisles of Target and Staples with the three Picket Fence Post kids trying to locate the items on their school supply lists. I started off hoping that we’d get this done quickly, sans drama, but alas, it wasn’t long before I started getting cranky and frustrated.

(The Youngest Boy suggested that after we found the school supplies that we pick out school clothes. This proposal was swiftly rejected. I told him there was no way that I was doing that again without his father in tow. I’ve been down that road before, taking the three of ‘em clothing shopping alone. Wound up sweating, racing from one changing room to the next, trying to get the right sizes, demanding that they show me the clothing on their bodies to check how they fit, arguing with them . . . not doin’ that again solo if I can help it.)

If you can believe it, Target was out of block erasers. They were also out of those sturdy, 100-page composition books with the black and white covers. I must’ve looked five times in the school supply and office supply sections, but had no luck. When I was finally resorted to asking a clerk about those items, he shrugged and led me to another guy who was nice but gave me that, “Boy are you late lady,” look and said, “Sorry, we’re all out of those.”

Later at Staples, the kids could only find these fairly expensive erasers, and I needed to buy a total of 24 of them. I refused to believe that Staples would be completely out of those pink block erasers, so I asked a sales clerk there if those were the only erasers Staples had in stock and he . . . you guessed it . . . shrugged his shoulders. I later found cheaper, Staples-brand pink erasers, no thanks to that guy.

And for what, pray tell, were we shopping? Here’s the exact list that my fourth grader’s teacher sent to him:

“1 pair of Fiskar pointed-tip kid scissors

2 large glue sticks

2 packages of 12 #2 pencils with erasers

1 box of 8 ct. Crayola washable markers (conical tip, fat)

2 Ultra fine tip black Sharpie markers

1 box of 24 ct. Crayola Colored Pencils

1 – Sharpie Accent Highlighter

7 twin pocket folders, one of each color: red, green, blue, purple, orange, yellow, white

2 twin pocket folders – your choice of color or pattern

3 (100 pg. wide ruled) Mead Composition books, black and white firm marble covers

2 Black 3-ring binders (1/2”)

1 package (100 sheets) 3 hole punched line paper

1 plastic pencil box

4 packages of “super sticky” post-it notes (3”X3” size, solid colors)

2 rolls of scotch tape – clear

2 boxes of tissues”

We couldn’t find a white pocket folder, so we bought a clear plastic one. The only pointed-tip kid scissors were larger and for older kids, but I bought them anyway. (Speaking of which, why do we have to keep bringing in a new pair of scissors every year? Where did the ones we bought last year go? Why can't the kids put their names on their stuff and be responsible for their own scissors?)

Here’s the recommended supply list for the two older children, who are starting sixth grade next week:

“8 Two Pocket Folders, one each- red, yellow, blue, green, purple, orange, and two colors of your choice

24 Pencils

12 Red Pens

12 Erasers

Ruler (Vinyl)

Protractor

Package of Index Cards

You will also need an assignment book or planner. [The Middle School] assignment book may be purchased for $5.00 when school reopens. If you choose not to purchase a [Middle School] planner, please bring your own planner on the first day of school.”

Additionally, in a letter sent home to the middle schoolers by the principal, the students were told they also needed “a notebook.”

Total cost of all of the above supplies (not including the “extras” the kids wanted/said they needed, like stuff for the middle school lockers, multi-subject notebooks and expandable folders to keep their papers organized, etc.): $81.45.

Me, I’d be happy with a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils.