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school supplies!



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 3rd 08, 05:42 AM posted to misc.kids
Anne Rogers[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 47
Default school supplies!

If you want to get stressed, I have a good recipe...

....try to get school supplies on the evening before school starts!

I'm really grumpy, not being local, we didn't even know DS would need
school supplies until we got a list 10 days ago, let alone that said
list would be so rigid. We were on holiday last week so there hasn't
been all that much opportunity to shop for them and I'd glanced down the
aisle at the drug store and seen they had what I needed and decided to
wait until I had the list on me.

So off I go tonight to the local big supermarket, which is sold out of
almost everything I need, erasers of any colour were an empty section of
shelving, let alone getting the specified pink one (and why to you have
to get pink anyway - friends have told me that it's always been this way
and some of them started school 40+ years ago!). To make matters worse
having remembered to take the list with me, it somehow managed to escape
from the trolley between the entrance and school supplies aisle, so I
don't even have a difinitive list of what I'm trying to buy!

We also didn't find out until that same mailing that we needed a doctor
signed physical form, call our paediatricans to find that for the doctor
to sign it without seeing the child, they have to have had a physical
within the last year, and we'd missed that by two weeks, not that we
hadn't attempted to schedule a physical for a year after the last one, I
called at the end of April and we have an appointment in 3 weeks time
(that's a 5 month wait!).

If I find things this difficult when I speak the same language, how hard
must it be for a parent who doesn't have English as a first language? A
lot of this stuff is cultural, not language, even something like "a roll
of scotch tape" is none trivial, do you mean it has to be scotch brand,
or is that just what everyone calls sticky tape and if you do mean
scotch tape, there were at least 3 that passed for a roll of sticky tape
(transparent, gift wrap and magic). I can't claim us brits are any
better as we would likely say sellotape, which is also a brand name, to
mean any kind of tape, but then I've never seen such a prescriptive
school supplies list in the UK, so it probably matters less!

I had to buy a lot of chocolate to calm myself down. It's only
orientation tomorrow anyway. Local school district is on strike, so I
bet we'll have some very crazy parents soon, thankfully DS is in K based
at a christian preschool, so not effected by the strike.

DS has just got back from the drug store with all the things I couldn't
get at the supermarket - I've reminded myself exactly why I shop online.

Cheers
Anne
  #2  
Old September 3rd 08, 11:03 AM posted to misc.kids
Sue
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 613
Default school supplies!

Yep, pretty stressful. For the exception of this year, I tend to buy school
supplies throughout the year and in the beginning of the summer when it is
not a hardship financially or on my sanity. However, with you being a first
timer in school, it would be very stressful since you didn't anticipate
having to need supplies. You will from now on, so perhaps you can be more
prepared. Our elementary finally did start sending a school supply list in
the beginning of the summer that I thought was helpful, but a little too
late for me as my kids are in middle and high school. Unfortunately, I
waited until the last minute this year and it was very crowded and
stressful, but the stores still had supplies. I don't buy supplies from a
grocery store, as they are too expensive. I buy them from places like
Target, Walmart, etc.. And yes, I had to have some wine Monday night to calm
my nerves. Chocolate doesn't do it for me ;o)

Scotch tape, just means any type of sticky tape and not something like
masking tape. It doesn't have to be that exact brand.

Now that I have bought the basics in school supplies, my 8th grader brought
home yet more specific supplies that she needs. Oy.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..
If you want to get stressed, I have a good recipe...

...try to get school supplies on the evening before school starts!

I'm really grumpy, not being local, we didn't even know DS would need
school supplies until we got a list 10 days ago, let alone that said list
would be so rigid. We were on holiday last week so there hasn't been all
that much opportunity to shop for them and I'd glanced down the aisle at
the drug store and seen they had what I needed and decided to wait until I
had the list on me.

So off I go tonight to the local big supermarket, which is sold out of
almost everything I need, erasers of any colour were an empty section of
shelving, let alone getting the specified pink one (and why to you have to
get pink anyway - friends have told me that it's always been this way and
some of them started school 40+ years ago!). To make matters worse having
remembered to take the list with me, it somehow managed to escape from the
trolley between the entrance and school supplies aisle, so I don't even
have a difinitive list of what I'm trying to buy!

We also didn't find out until that same mailing that we needed a doctor
signed physical form, call our paediatricans to find that for the doctor
to sign it without seeing the child, they have to have had a physical
within the last year, and we'd missed that by two weeks, not that we
hadn't attempted to schedule a physical for a year after the last one, I
called at the end of April and we have an appointment in 3 weeks time
(that's a 5 month wait!).

If I find things this difficult when I speak the same language, how hard
must it be for a parent who doesn't have English as a first language? A
lot of this stuff is cultural, not language, even something like "a roll
of scotch tape" is none trivial, do you mean it has to be scotch brand, or
is that just what everyone calls sticky tape and if you do mean scotch
tape, there were at least 3 that passed for a roll of sticky tape
(transparent, gift wrap and magic). I can't claim us brits are any better
as we would likely say sellotape, which is also a brand name, to mean any
kind of tape, but then I've never seen such a prescriptive school supplies
list in the UK, so it probably matters less!

I had to buy a lot of chocolate to calm myself down. It's only orientation
tomorrow anyway. Local school district is on strike, so I bet we'll have
some very crazy parents soon, thankfully DS is in K based at a christian
preschool, so not effected by the strike.

DS has just got back from the drug store with all the things I couldn't
get at the supermarket - I've reminded myself exactly why I shop online.

Cheers
Anne



  #3  
Old September 3rd 08, 11:46 AM posted to misc.kids
Penny Gaines[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 124
Default school supplies!

Anne Rogers wrote:
If you want to get stressed, I have a good recipe...

...try to get school supplies on the evening before school starts!


I was in Tescos yesterday, and that was full of stressed out parents
trying to get stuff before school starts today.

[snip]
So off I go tonight to the local big supermarket, which is sold out of
almost everything I need, erasers of any colour were an empty section of
shelving, let alone getting the specified pink one (and why to you have
to get pink anyway - friends have told me that it's always been this way
and some of them started school 40+ years ago!). To make matters worse
having remembered to take the list with me, it somehow managed to escape
from the trolley between the entrance and school supplies aisle, so I
don't even have a difinitive list of what I'm trying to buy!


At secondary, Kiddo needed a specified calculator, but that was so the
teachers knew how it operated. Apart from that they are fairly lax.
Maybe it is because we have school uniforms, and teachers are used to
the slight variations between brands of white shirts etc.

[snip]
(transparent, gift wrap and magic). I can't claim us brits are any
better as we would likely say sellotape, which is also a brand name, to
mean any kind of tape, but then I've never seen such a prescriptive
school supplies list in the UK, so it probably matters less!

[snip]

I think there are always some things specific to schools. For instance,
when my eldest started at school, we were just told a plain t-shirt for
PE. At the end-of-year sports day, I found out that they would also
need a plain t-shirt in house colours for the games. If you had been to
the school (a significant number of parents had), or had older kids
there, you knew about this already. If this was your first child, you
didn't know until a few days before the games.

How about this for pressu J needs a red school sweatshirt. They
changed the design, and the new designs weren't going to be available
until yesterday. The suppliers hadn't sent any! New sweatshirts not
available until the morning that school started. Luckily she still
fitted into the old one...

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three
  #4  
Old September 3rd 08, 12:09 PM posted to misc.kids
Welches
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 849
Default school supplies!


"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..
If you want to get stressed, I have a good recipe...

...try to get school supplies on the evening before school starts!

I'm really grumpy, not being local, we didn't even know DS would need
school supplies until we got a list 10 days ago, let alone that said list
would be so rigid. We were on holiday last week so there hasn't been all
that much opportunity to shop for them and I'd glanced down the aisle at
the drug store and seen they had what I needed and decided to wait until I
had the list on me.

So off I go tonight to the local big supermarket, which is sold out of
almost everything I need, erasers of any colour were an empty section of
shelving, let alone getting the specified pink one (and why to you have to
get pink anyway - friends have told me that it's always been this way and
some of them started school 40+ years ago!). To make matters worse having
remembered to take the list with me, it somehow managed to escape from the
trolley between the entrance and school supplies aisle, so I don't even
have a difinitive list of what I'm trying to buy!

We also didn't find out until that same mailing that we needed a doctor
signed physical form, call our paediatricans to find that for the doctor
to sign it without seeing the child, they have to have had a physical
within the last year, and we'd missed that by two weeks, not that we
hadn't attempted to schedule a physical for a year after the last one, I
called at the end of April and we have an appointment in 3 weeks time
(that's a 5 month wait!).

If I find things this difficult when I speak the same language, how hard
must it be for a parent who doesn't have English as a first language? A
lot of this stuff is cultural, not language, even something like "a roll
of scotch tape" is none trivial, do you mean it has to be scotch brand, or
is that just what everyone calls sticky tape and if you do mean scotch
tape, there were at least 3 that passed for a roll of sticky tape
(transparent, gift wrap and magic). I can't claim us brits are any better
as we would likely say sellotape, which is also a brand name, to mean any
kind of tape, but then I've never seen such a prescriptive school supplies
list in the UK, so it probably matters less!

Try the (state) juniors #1's going into. They need for the start of year 3:
(all named of course)
pencil
pencil crayons
felt tips
ruler
glue stick
homework folder
rubber
pencil sharpener
small pencil case.

I'm told this will increase over the year too, and each year.
The uniform includes a purple shirt which you can only get from one supplier
at £14 for 2 (against government guidelines). And I'm told they're fussy
about it too.
Apparently this is a sneaky way of improving the intake, as low income
parents avoid it as it's a expensive school then.
Debbie
Ps It's the only viable option for us




  #5  
Old September 3rd 08, 12:12 PM posted to misc.kids
Donna Metler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 309
Default school supplies!

For future reference, most schools/districts have their supply lists online
(and often posted in stores like Target) long before they send out the
packets. There's also enough uniformity from year to year that you can
generally predict on some things if you've seen the prior year's list. In
the schools here, you can count on yellow #2 pencils, 24 count crayola
crayons, and wide lined notebook paper being on the list, as well as 2
pocket folders with prongs in a rainbow of colors. You can also count on
probably not needing a binder for anything until grade 6, scissors never
being on the supply list (they're considered weapons, and teachers are
required to keep them in their control and hand them out as needed. Same
with compasses), and spiral notebooks generally being excluded in favor of
composition notebooks.

I agree it's very prescriptive. One of my friends commented that the only
thing her 1st grader got to pick out this year was the color of her pencil
sharpener. Between the school system's uniform dress code (white polo
shirts, navy or khaki slacks, shorts, or skirts) and the supply list, there
wasn't much else to choose.






  #6  
Old September 3rd 08, 12:25 PM posted to misc.kids
Donna Metler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 309
Default school supplies!


"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...
Anne Rogers wrote:
If you want to get stressed, I have a good recipe...

...try to get school supplies on the evening before school starts!


I was in Tescos yesterday, and that was full of stressed out parents
trying to get stuff before school starts today.

[snip]
So off I go tonight to the local big supermarket, which is sold out of
almost everything I need, erasers of any colour were an empty section of
shelving, let alone getting the specified pink one (and why to you have
to get pink anyway - friends have told me that it's always been this way
and some of them started school 40+ years ago!). To make matters worse
having remembered to take the list with me, it somehow managed to escape
from the trolley between the entrance and school supplies aisle, so I
don't even have a difinitive list of what I'm trying to buy!


At secondary, Kiddo needed a specified calculator, but that was so the
teachers knew how it operated. Apart from that they are fairly lax.
Maybe it is because we have school uniforms, and teachers are used to the
slight variations between brands of white shirts etc.

[snip]
(transparent, gift wrap and magic). I can't claim us brits are any better
as we would likely say sellotape, which is also a brand name, to mean any
kind of tape, but then I've never seen such a prescriptive school
supplies list in the UK, so it probably matters less!

[snip]

I think there are always some things specific to schools. For instance,
when my eldest started at school, we were just told a plain t-shirt for
PE. At the end-of-year sports day, I found out that they would also need
a plain t-shirt in house colours for the games. If you had been to the
school (a significant number of parents had), or had older kids there, you
knew about this already. If this was your first child, you didn't know
until a few days before the games.

How about this for pressu J needs a red school sweatshirt. They
changed the design, and the new designs weren't going to be available
until yesterday. The suppliers hadn't sent any! New sweatshirts not
available until the morning that school started. Luckily she still fitted
into the old one...


I think that's a lot of the issue-that there's some assumption that parents
know what's going on.

My DD is at a private school for pre-K this year, and I kept getting
conflicting information on uniforms. They're required for K-6, and I got the
uniform list sent out at least 3x, but on the website, there was a statement
that they weren't required.

Finally, we got the word that pre-K only had to be in "substantial
compliance" with the dress code, but that the prime consideration should be
that the child could handle the clothes themselves. Ok, not a problem. DD
and I picked out skirts, shorts and the like which generally matched the
school uniform, but had fasteners which 3 1/2 yr old fingers could manage
and would be practical on the playground and in gym, which is what I assumed
"substantial compliance" meant.

Apparently, my definition of substantial compliance was a lot more vigorous
than most, because while DD's there in her little skirts and shirts with
collars, her classmates are arriving in high school musical and spiderman. I
believe there are three children in her class who dress more formally-and in
all cases, we're the ones for whom this is our first child in the school
(and, I suspect, in all cases we're the parents for whom this is our first
experience with private school in general).

Oh, well. My DD loves dressing up in her "school costumes" like the big
kids, and it doesn't bother her that her classmates don't, maybe because
hers is one of only two classes in the school that don't wear uniforms. And
it should be an easy transition when she starts K and actually has to wear
uniforms (which, since we have the "uniform dress" in public school, will be
the case no matter where she goes, unless I home school).

We're still waiting for the official school t-shirt for sports and field
trips to arrive. Apparently, when they ordered them, they only went down to
a small, forgetting just how tiny beginning of the year preschoolers are.
Since their first field trip is next week, hopefully the t-shirts will
arrive in time.



  #7  
Old September 3rd 08, 02:15 PM posted to misc.kids
MarieD[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 86
Default school supplies!

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..
If you want to get stressed, I have a good recipe...

...try to get school supplies on the evening before school starts!


I have been really shocked at the amount of school supplies parents have to
provide and even more shocked that the lists specify brand! When I was in
school, we just needed some "things". A notebook and folder for each class,
some pens and pencils, a calculator/protractor/compass, and crayons in lower
elementary. Now, the lists say Crayola 24 count crayons, what color and
brand of pencil, it's outrageous. Kleenex, antibacterial hand stuff, WHY do
people think it's ok to constantly use that antibacterial stuff.
And why do parents continue to agree to buy all this stuff, especially down
to the specified brand? If you can get the generic or cheaper, in the same
color and count, why isn't that acceptable? I am a homeschooler and I keep
finding it strange the things parents put up with when it comes to the
schools. Every parent with school kids I know complain and complain but no
one does anything about it(or tries to)!
Marie

  #8  
Old September 3rd 08, 02:48 PM posted to misc.kids
MarieD[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 86
Default school supplies!

"MarieD" wrote in message
...
brand of pencil, it's outrageous. Kleenex, antibacterial hand stuff, WHY
do people think it's ok to constantly use that antibacterial stuff.


Hand sanitizer is what I was thinking of...I couldn't think of what it was
called.
Marie

  #9  
Old September 3rd 08, 02:48 PM posted to misc.kids
Nikki
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 486
Default school supplies!

Anne Rogers wrote:
If you want to get stressed, I have a good recipe...

...try to get school supplies on the evening before school starts!


It gets a little ridiculous doesn't it! I waited a little to long and
had to make two stops to get wide lined one subject tablets. We
actually get the school lists on the last day of the previous school
year but that doesn't help the first year student/parent. The lists are
also posted in all the stores. Of course - we get their and the teacher
has a few more items that she wants for her specific classroom.

I have heard horror stories about the cost of supplies and I'm lucky in
that regard. I spent $35 for two kids so I didn't think that was to
bad. Wipes was the most expensive thing. Baby wipes are apparently an
integral part of classroom education these days, lol.

--

Nikki
  #10  
Old September 3rd 08, 02:59 PM posted to misc.kids
NL
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 444
Default school supplies!

MarieD schrieb:
"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..
If you want to get stressed, I have a good recipe...

...try to get school supplies on the evening before school starts!


I have been really shocked at the amount of school supplies parents have
to provide and even more shocked that the lists specify brand! When I
was in school, we just needed some "things". A notebook and folder for
each class, some pens and pencils, a calculator/protractor/compass, and
crayons in lower elementary. Now, the lists say Crayola 24 count
crayons, what color and brand of pencil, it's outrageous. Kleenex,
antibacterial hand stuff, WHY do people think it's ok to constantly use
that antibacterial stuff.
And why do parents continue to agree to buy all this stuff, especially
down to the specified brand? If you can get the generic or cheaper, in
the same color and count, why isn't that acceptable? I am a homeschooler
and I keep finding it strange the things parents put up with when it
comes to the schools. Every parent with school kids I know complain and
complain but no one does anything about it(or tries to)!
Marie


In germany we have different lined paper for the first 3 years of
school. We start with three lines in a large format, then 2nd grade has
the same lines but at a smaller scale, third grade only has the middle
two lines.
We got our list at the first day of school, which sucked, because all
the shops had school supplies on special during the summer holidays and
I did buy some things, but of course I didn't happen to buy what Sam
ended up needing... Ugh.
I don't buy brandname things except for gluesticks and watercolors
because I personally thing the non brandname stuff doesn't work as well.
I remember having a box of watercolors that would not dissolve with
water, meaning you could not paint with them. Infuriating! Same with
some cheaper gluesticks, they stick stuff together for 5 seconds and
once it's dry it comes apart...
One teacher in pre-school (remember, germany, different system, I'm
talking about the grade before 1st grade) specified crayons that come in
blocks. there is only one brand which is super organic, kind of
anthrophosophic, all ingredients have to be collected by virgins no
older that 14 in the light of the full moon,... otherwise I can not
explain the price of that box of 12 crayons which was a whopping 18€.
Sure, they were made from beeswax and you could probably eat them for
lunch, but seriously, 6 y.o. kids will draw with anything, they don't
need crayons for 18€! And yes, I did tell her that that amount of money
buys a very nice birthday or Christmas present in our family.

cu
nicole
 




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