Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love to hear from teachers. Are they annoyed at the whole school supplies issue? Surely it’s a problem to have to fill all your cabinets with tons and tons of supplies (maybe getting them 2x a year would be better?). Are teachers annoyed that other teachers want the composition books and they don’t?

We always get a plea mid year for more Kleenex and wipes. I wish teachers and schools would be honest and admit they aren’t ever going to have our kids using 12 pencils a year or more than 5 pages in a notebook because we are “rich and lucky enough” to have iPads for each kid starting in kindergarten. 4 boxes of Kleenex, 2 tubs of wipes, a box of ziplocks, a box of markers or colored pencils and a 5 pack of pencils is all each kid needs, sadly.

We get this plea for Kleenex and antibacterial wipes too. I don’t understand. How does a class go through 80 boxes of Kleenex and 60 antibacterial wipe tubs (3x20)? And all before Christmas? The math ain’t mathin. And I see everyone bringing the correct supplies on back to school night.

30 glue sticks a person is kinda wild too. I’m super into art projects and my kids go through maybe one glue stick a month for all 3 of them.

Anonymous wrote:I’d love to hear from teachers. Are they annoyed at the whole school supplies issue? Surely it’s a problem to have to fill all your cabinets with tons and tons of supplies (maybe getting them 2x a year would be better?). Are teachers annoyed that other teachers want the composition books and they don’t?

We always get a plea mid year for more Kleenex and wipes. I wish teachers and schools would be honest and admit they aren’t ever going to have our kids using 12 pencils a year or more than 5 pages in a notebook because we are “rich and lucky enough” to have iPads for each kid starting in kindergarten. 4 boxes of Kleenex, 2 tubs of wipes, a box of ziplocks, a box of markers or colored pencils and a 5 pack of pencils is all each kid needs, sadly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just order the supplies kit that gets delivered to school. Yes it might be an extra $10, but worth it not to have to go to 4 different stores and search online for specific supplies and then second guess brands and types. I’m sure the teacher prefers this method too.

No way! That is one junky box. Not one name brand pencil or crayon in there and there's dollar tree type of headphones. I'm not into brand names usually, but Crayola and Ticonderoga and Expo do work better than some off brand. And then I'm pissed off when other parents buy the junky box and my kid gets stuck with those waxy crayons that don't work instead of the .99 cent Crayola box that I bought. I feel like those boxes are predatory on poor families who don't understand what's going on (we are a Title 1 school). They're way more than an extra $10 though

Huh? I’ve bought the school kits at two different schools and there might be off brand expo markers, index cards, or scissors but the crayons are Crayola, pencils are brand names, composition notebooks are normal, haven’t had an issue with the junky stuff. It’s usually $100-130 for the box depending on the grade.

Anonymous wrote:I’d love to hear from teachers. Are they annoyed at the whole school supplies issue? Surely it’s a problem to have to fill all your cabinets with tons and tons of supplies (maybe getting them 2x a year would be better?). Are teachers annoyed that other teachers want the composition books and they don’t?

At my school they traded excess supplies with each other. Mostly they seemed interested in pencils that sharpened well (even Ticonderogas aren't reliable anymore) and cleaning supplies. Most had tons of markers and crayons.

Anonymous wrote:In my daughters’ parochial school, they required parents to label every crayon, marker, pencil, pen! Every year. The thought was, if a crayon fell on the floor, you did not have to say, “Whose crayon is this?” I guess. All of us parents joke that we have become super *masters* of labeling.

I love that our parochial school is having the parents pay a flat fee and is acquiring the supplies in bulk.

I’d love to hear from teachers. Are they annoyed at the whole school supplies issue? Surely it’s a problem to have to fill all your cabinets with tons and tons of supplies (maybe getting them 2x a year would be better?). Are teachers annoyed that other teachers want the composition books and they don’t?

Agree with much of this.

I'll buy whatever but would like to know what should be labeled and what are community supplies.

The 8 count/10 count thing drives me crazy. Do you just want a lot of glue sticks? Or do you need 3. Do you not know the notebook you want happens to be red at staples this year?

I won't do the boxes but wish a few of us could band together and just go buy the community supplies. I wished this more in preschool because they needed more wipes, bleach wipes, gloves that really were cheaper in bulk.

Anonymous wrote:I just order the supplies kit that gets delivered to school. Yes it might be an extra $10, but worth it not to have to go to 4 different stores and search online for specific supplies and then second guess brands and types. I’m sure the teacher prefers this method too.

It's way more than a $10 price difference.
And the stuff is junky, often missing supplies (it's a generic box and not really specific to the grade), and otherwise a huge waste of money.

I still have a big Ziploc bag of my son’s unused supplies from Catholic MS. They kept unused extra stuff in their lockers and refreshed from that stash. In public school, nothing came back home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my daughters’ parochial school, they required parents to label every crayon, marker, pencil, pen! Every year. The thought was, if a crayon fell on the floor, you did not have to say, “Whose crayon is this?” I guess. All of us parents joke that we have become super *masters* of labeling.

Do you get the unused or partially used supplies back at the end of the year, or what happens to them? We just switched from public to parochial and I was surprised that parochial wants twice as many pencils per kid and way more composition notebooks as well as filler paper. I guess (and hope!) they will do a lot more writing.

Jealous! Yes- that is what it means. Parochial schools don't have the kids on chrome books for 5 hours a day like the public schools do.

Anonymous wrote:I just order the supplies kit that gets delivered to school. Yes it might be an extra $10, but worth it not to have to go to 4 different stores and search online for specific supplies and then second guess brands and types. I’m sure the teacher prefers this method too.

No way! That is one junky box. Not one name brand pencil or crayon in there and there's dollar tree type of headphones. I'm not into brand names usually, but Crayola and Ticonderoga and Expo do work better than some off brand. And then I'm pissed off when other parents buy the junky box and my kid gets stuck with those waxy crayons that don't work instead of the .99 cent Crayola box that I bought. I feel like those boxes are predatory on poor families who don't understand what's going on (we are a Title 1 school). They're way more than an extra $10 though

Anonymous wrote:In my daughters’ parochial school, they required parents to label every crayon, marker, pencil, pen! Every year. The thought was, if a crayon fell on the floor, you did not have to say, “Whose crayon is this?” I guess. All of us parents joke that we have become super *masters* of labeling.

Do you get the unused or partially used supplies back at the end of the year, or what happens to them? We just switched from public to parochial and I was surprised that parochial wants twice as many pencils per kid and way more composition notebooks as well as filler paper. I guess (and hope!) they will do a lot more writing.

I just order the supplies kit that gets delivered to school. Yes it might be an extra $10, but worth it not to have to go to 4 different stores and search online for specific supplies and then second guess brands and types. I’m sure the teacher prefers this method too.

Anonymous wrote:It drives me crazy that every year the school/teacher asks for like 5 composition books, but every year these books come back home in June with only 10 pages used.

Why bother asking for them if they're barely used?

I've stopped buying them and rip out the used pages, but its just extra clutter and wasteful

Lol same.

I got nowhere suggesting that my kids' elementary school be more rational about supply lists.

I actually learned from observation that rare weird things on the list that are hard to buy usually don't get used.

Composition notebooks are a waste. In my K-12 experience with oldest kid, only one teacher used the books past the introductory part of the school year.

My kids didn't really need supplies after elementary school beyond paper and pencil and backpacks.

I would say the kindest thing is to assume supplies may be commonized, don't drive yourself crazy to get everything (but don't buy garbage brands like cheap pencils that will get trashed because they don't sharpen), and plan to assist mid-year when the teacher sends requests. That's when the stuff is most sincerely needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a teacher give a labeled pencil case to someone else?

Equity

that's bullshit.

if the school or teacher wants people to have the same supplies, then supply them at school.