You have seen the commercial; the lyrics "It’s the most wonderful time of the year" don’t just remind us of Christmas anymore. For anyone with a child going back to school, it means school-supply shopping. So what do they need, what don’t they need, here’s some basics. Now, before we begin, you may be wondering "what makes her an expert on back-to-school shopping?" Four kids and 13 years of shopping later, I have a pretty good handle on what is needed and what will just plain make your life easier.
1. A backpack. For younger children, remember that they don’t need a backpack as big as they are, a junior-size backpack should work fine. For older kids, If you invest in a better-quality backpack in a darker color, you may be able to get more then one year out of it.
2. A calendar. Check with your child’s school, most of them pass out planners at the beginning of the year, but you should make sure. Even younger students should use one to track their assignments, teaching them organization at an early age
3. A pencil case. For younger kids this will probably mean a plastic box, for older students a sleeve that will fit in their 3 ring binder should work fine.
4. A binder and folders. Older kids will need bigger ones with dividers and folders for each subject, younger ones can get away with just a folder to keep their work neat.
5. Pencils and pens. Most schools require kids to supply their own writing materials. Along with that get, a small pencil sharpener to keep in their pencil case, and erasers.
6. A calculator. Obviously this won’t apply to elementary school kids, although I always keep one at home to quickly check work. By 7th grade, a more advanced scientific calculator will be a huge help; invest in a good quality one. By high school it may even be required, depending on the courses your child takes.
7. Book covers. These won’t be a necessity until about 3rd or 4th grade, but by middle school you will probably need one for each subject. I used to wait until school started and I saw what books they had before buying any, but found that by then all the "nicer" ones were gone, and many of the teachers required the book to be covered the first night of school, sending me scurrying out to the mall in search of the necessary covers. Now I buy a supply of them and keep them at the house with the at home school supplies; I don’t worry about having too many, since one rarely lasts the whole year.
8. Art supplies. For elementary school students, they will still need to be bringing crayons, markers and colored pencils to school. Older students will probably still need them, but only for home work. Whenever I buy the coloring supplies I make sure I have a set of each at home for homework assignments. I also make sure we have glue sticks, scissors and tape in our home supplies box.
9. A computer. Obviously this won’t be necessary in elementary school, but by middle school it will be helpful and by high school it will be a tough road without one. Many of the textbook companies have their own websites where you can go in and watch tutorials on lessons you didn’t understand, most teachers are requiring assignments to be typewritten and many times teachers will make information like spelling lists available on their website.
10. Textbooks. I know, this one may seem a little unusual. But for my middle and high school students, I have found that it’s very helpful to have a copy of the textbooks from each class available at home when possible. You eliminate the problem of books being forgotten, you lighten the load on your childs’ back (carrying those books home every night gets heavy), you make it possible to help your child when they tell you they didn’t understand a lesson or a unit, and you will be able to do some of the extra assignments that are almost always available in each chapter that the teacher doesn’t assign. You can find out the name of the books and authors ahead of time from the school and the books are readily available usually on www.amazon.com, many times they are even available used.
