Back from vacation and there are Things To Do to get ready for school. Granted, we don't go back until September (what feels like the latest school start date EVER), but still the school supplies are starting to look picked over at Target.
Plus, I actually need the kids to go with me to shop for clothing now because I can no longer guess their styles and/or sizes. This is a little tricky with Allison because I don't want her ENTIRE closet to be filled with Monster High apparel (which is almost all she picks). So, I've spent more than a little time browsing online for that ven-diagram intersection sweet spot of Knit Dresses : Size 8-10 : Style Appropriate for 6th Grade.
Interestingly, some of the best finds are those stores that I've typically avoided because they sell clothes that make 7 year olds look like 14 year olds (why do we push them to grow up so fast??).... but when you have a 11 year old who is the SIZE of a 7 year old.... this suddenly becomes a viable shopping destination. The other good finds are the "classic" stores - places like Gap and Lands End.
This is also about the time of year when I do the School Supply Rant. This year's search involved an 8-pocket, polyvinyl organizer, non-accordian style. WTH is that? I had to google it, which led me to Office Max - incidentally NOT the cheapest place to buy school supplies. So we're swimming in scissors, markers, colored pencils, glue sticks, and wide-ruled notebooks. We've managed to get almost everything in just two trips... the few missing items occupying very specific requirements: "red, 3 subject, wide-ruled notebook." Time to get on Amazon.
I also ended up in a conversation the other day with someone who had relatives buy school supplies for her children because the cost was so high, but they didn't qualify for any of the free backpack programs. Which also led me to think about the free supplies and how does that program know that your kid needs an 8-pocket polyvinyl organizer? Suddenly, I was grateful that my headaches of school supply shopping was limited to *finding* the items and not *affording* the items or sending my children to face the embarrassment of not having any school supplies or having the wrong school supplies.
The way we do school supplies is so wasteful. Schools and teachers don't have supplies or money to buy supplies - so they create these long lists with everything your child might need for the year - plus a little more. (Ask a teacher how successful it is to request supplies in the MIDDLE of the year, it's better to be proactive at the beginning). Many of the supplies return home at the end of the year - hardly used but enough lost pieces that it becomes difficult to recycle them into another school year. (8 rainbow colored markers become 6 markers where three are blue - someone, somewhere has a wicked collection of black markers). And few things irritate me more than notebooks that come home at the end of year with 10 of 70 pages written on. Either there was a more efficient and less wasteful way to do that work - or - my child was supposed to do something on the other 60 pages that he/she never did.
Then we're also asked to supply the classroom with things like dry-erase markers. I don't actually mind doing this, but I can't help thinking that the school could get them cheaper in bulk than parents can get them 3 at a time from CVS.
Which leads me to the final point about school supply shopping - items are NEVER packaged in the quantity that you need. 3 packets of Post-its? You can choose 1 or 4. Incidentally, buying 4 is often the same price as buying the three individual packs you need. Then you debate "well, this is a better deal.... but then what do I do with the extra?" Pre-sharpened pencils only come in packs of 18. If you want the 24 pack - you'll sharpen your own.
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