Thinking I need to go through all our supplies and see what we need. This is our first year homeschooling and I am trying to get very organized this summer - which so far is going well. Not quite sure how much I will need to stock up for a 3rd grader and a 4yr old. And trying to decide if we are just going to pitch old stuff and start with fresh supplies or if it is worth to go through what we have and reuse some. How much do you buy or what I items are you sure to buy at back to school sales? I am thinking crayons, markers, pencils etc.. are at the best discounts now so stock up on those. Any other not so obvious ones? I am guessing I will look through our old school list and get some ideas. Thanks and thankful for a forum such as this!
Rulers (we always lose them, so I keep several on hand), scissors (for the same reason), glue sticks, Staples usually has little dry erase boards cheap, post-its, index cards, folders... I'm sure I'll think of more later.
I just cleaned out our supplies drawers and made a list of what we'll need (this will be my 6th year hs'ing - ages 11, 9, 8, and almost 6). I am planning on hitting Walmart tomorrow for school stuff! loose notebook paper spirals/journals (we need 12! science, writing, and foregin language) pencils, map pencils crayons, markers handwriting paper construction paper drawing paper (I have enough glue, sharpener, folders, paints/brushes, scissors, pencil boxes, misc. art supplies, erasers) Also - I went through our Apologia science lab list and I'll get everything for our labs, plus a strorage box. That list is a little harder; things like glass jars, cooking products, duct tape, plaster of paris, rubber bands, ect. Last year I didn't buy everything and we ended up skipping a lot of labs! Later, I'm going to go through our History/Geo texts and come up with a few projects, I'll also get those supplies in advance so I'm not tempted to skip them!
Here a fabulous hint: Don't shop and spend money...or spend as little as possible. My MIL is a 6th grade teacher and she gives us school supplies from 2 years back. All of the supplies are unused: crayons, markers, colored pencils, scissors, glue and glue sticks, regular pencils, chalk and so on. Parents are asked to buy a whole slew of stuff before school starts and they have no idea that these items (asked to buy every year) are things they hardly use, if at all. I tell parents with school kids to ask for their kids' stuff back to use for next year because it will be in great condition most likely. If you know any area teachers ask them if they have any spare supplies they would be willing to lend. If that doesn't pan out then you can go to Wal*Mart's back to school sale. We shop during the tax free days for special items. These are things that have come in handy for us: Construction paper Scissors tissue paper stickers hole punch duct tape/scotch tape/masking tape Watercolor paints 5 subject notebooks (all homework notes or ideas in one spot!) Dry erase board with Markers I hope this helps just a bit.
CONTACT PAPER! lol. I knew I forgot one. I use contact paper ALL THE TIME to laminate things to keep them longer. You cna also laminate coloring pages, workbook pages, and letter tracing pages to make them dry erase.
Yes, yes, yes! And sheet protectors. I use them when I have a worksheet or game I want to use a couple of times and then toss. That way, I don't waste contact paper on something I know I'm not going to keep.
I always stock up during the sales. If we are not going to use the items for ourselves we are always finding other needs for them like Operation Christmas Child or stuffing backpacks at church. I like to have the supply here so I can just pull the stuff out as I need it. I usually get: Glue sticks, white glue, crayons, erasers, pencils, sharpeners, folders (lots of folders), binders (the really cheap ones for co-op), spiral notebooks, loose leaf paper, rulers(the numbers wear off the plastic ones after awhile), markers, pens, tape, index cards, protractors, little staplers, pencil cases and post it notes.
paper, paper, and more paper. I bought tons before our school year started and it didn't last the whole year. Pencils, pens, crayons, markers, scissors, tape, glue, and dry erase markers are essential here. Only my youngest really uses the glue though. I like the bottles of glue better than glue sticks. Make sure you have ink for your printer as well.
I only buy what we need. This year I only bought blue pens and White-Out. If the paper was on sale I would have bought some but right now it is the same price as usual.
I need glue sticks, white glue, pencils, colored pencils, and I would love to try the dry erase crayons since most of my k'ers stuff is going to be done dry erase style in page protectors. Construction paper. Markers. Crayons are normally on my list but I had my mom pick me up 36 boxes of the 24ct crayola at toys R us tonight. So glad she came across that deal! .25 a box is a great price and I bought enough to use as party favors when my son turns 5 next year too. I have an actual laminating machine so I buy pages for that as I need throughout the year and we have tons of lined paper. We use computer paper for drawing so again that's just something I buy throughout the year when we run short.
My oldest is in ps so yes I have to buy school supplies during the mad rush. My youngest is hs'd and we don't follow the traditional school year so we usually use whatever the oldest didn't use the previous year. She recently gave me so much paper, dividers, page protectors and more pens and pencils than are in stock at wal mart!
I LOVE shopping for school supplies. I know, I have issues. Lol. I fill a cart a few times during sales. What I don't use, I donate to my church.
I usually hit Office Max for their 1 cent sale. Packs of paper, notebooks, etc for 1 cent. They said last year they may up it to 10 cents but that is still a deal. What isn't on sale there I get at either Sams CLub or Walmart. For kids 11 & 13 I load up at the beginning of the year on pencils loose leaf paper notebooks lab books Sheet Protectors dry erase markers/erasers 4-colored pens toner for the printer index cards of various sizes and white out The only things I usually run out of are index cards toner Sheet Protectors and I refresh the dry erase markers. Kim
I shopped Walmart at the beginning of the week and stocked up. What we don't use immediately when we start our school year I'll save for later.
Thanks so much! So many things I didn't think about. We were in PS last year so I do have some good stuff but things like crayons - I have no desire to sharpen etc are going to be discarded. Also I am sure the kids will enjoy helping to pick up stuff we will need. I want to give them a chance to make some decisions on that
I'm looking at picking up another flash drive or two for my older kids this summer. I noticed an 8GB drive for 5.99 at Staples and then I qualify for the .01 price on several of their school/office items. We don't have a printer on each of the kids computers, so the flash drive allows for moving docs to the computer with the printer. Plus, DS uses them to save his PowerPoint presentations for his college classes. The dry erase boards (8x10) are great for the kids working math problems or spelling quizzes. Pens to use on the boards are good to pick up at the cheaper prices. We stock up on mechanical pencils (and lead refills), sheet protectors and report sleeves, file folders, looseleaf paper AND notebooks, 2 pocket folders, pens (in different colors), index cards, slim markers, and colored pencils. I can usually find 1/2-in and 1-in binders at the dollar store, which is usually cheaper than the office places. Oh, and every year I seem to need another plastic pencil box or two- they are great for in the kids backpacks to take to co-op. Watch for calculator prices for older students, and planners. MT3
You can never have enough paper and glue. Seriously. Personal lap size (paper sized) dry erase boards were one of the best purchases I ever made for my kids. I got the two-sided where one side is plain and one is penmanship lines since mine are so young. Pencil boxes have tons of uses for organization and are cheap. File folders-I love file folders. And 3 ring binders. If you need to make a big purchase now would probably be the time (computers, printers, etc) but we always have to make those at tax refund time I always stock up on crayons/markers, etc at this time of year. Better to pay $0.25 for something now than $1.25 for it later. But I don't buy off brand markers/crayons because I find they aren't worth it.
Anything durable we reuse until it absolutely falls apart. Clipboards, pencil boxes, scissors, ring binders, rulers. I also take unused pages out of notebooks (mostly we have the ones that are perfed - when you want them to tear out cleanly, they don't, and when you want them to stay in, they don't) at the end of the year and keep it in a ring binder for scratch paper or looseleaf. But I always stock up on some things at WalMart -- a couple dozen one-subject spiral notebooks, one 3-subject spiral notebook for me, a few packs of looseleaf, some packs of colored pencils, regular pencils, erasers that fit on tops of pencils, a few bigger pink-pearl erasers, a few hand-held pencil sharpeners (although we have TWO electric ones), glue sticks, a few boxes of good crayons (colored pencils work out better in our CLE workbooks, and the kids feel like they're more "grown up" than crayons, so we don't use as many as you'd think), a few packs of colored dry-erase markers... This year I may actually get one new pack of wet-erase markers, for stuff I WANT to stay up on the board. If any of the "durable" stuff got broken, I'll replace that. Colored pens for ME (my dh thinks I'm plumb nuts for colored pens - I like to use red, orange, and bright pink for marking work and recording grades, and blue for ordinary desk work, green for homework, and blue, aqua, purple, green, for marking corrected work correct, and each month I change the color of ink I use on their report cards - blue, black, brown, green, a different green, pink, orange, aqua, purple - 9 report cards, 9 colors.) I have so many reward stickers still in my desk I won't have to buy any more of those for about two or three more years....
I do get some things at special deals like the ones at Staples, but most years I wait until the markdowns after ps starts and the aisles are vacant. This year I mostly need wide ruled notebook paper and usually there is some left over after the main sales to be marked down.
Over the years I have accumulated so many supplies that it is rare that I need to buy anything other than pens and paper. This year my White-Out was so dry that I replaced it but I actually gave a lot of supplies away because they were coming out of our ears. I am able to get folders through friends and the church. This year the church moved so I received enough binders and folders to last us the next four years and then some.
