Ready, Set, School !

School Supplies

School time is almost here and parents usually have a love/hate relationship with the whole process of shopping for school supplies. It is understandable. For one thing, it is exciting to see the progression of your own children from last year's grade to this one. Each year, they have different needs in school, at home and everywhere. What used to be a simple dictionary is supplemented with a thesaurus. But on the other side of things, you see your children get excited over new materials such as new pencils, new pens, new binders and new trappers which are not inexpensive in this day and age.

Well, before you start shopping for school supplies, it is better to plan things out with your child. Planning things out will improve not just her or his organizational skills but yours as well, not to mention the savings rewards when you actually make a list of the things you and your child will buy and when you stick with the list, rather than storming from store to store, being attacked with new trends, colors and supplemental supplies that students these days just have to have - the ones we managed to live without, years back.

Before You Make A List

Before writing down what type of supplies your child needs for this coming school year, you might want to take a look around your house to see if you already have those supplies. As parents, we tend to overstock our pantries with snacks for our kids after school. We unknowingly supply our closet with school supplies which we never take inventory of. How many pencils does your child have? Does he really need more? Didn't you buy 5 rims of notebook paper from Wal-Mart just a few months before school ended last spring? Parents need to canvas around their house for supplies. Chances are you may not need to buy that much pencils or that much pens. You'll be surprised at how much supplies are lurking in your closets. Also, each year Math teachers (especially in the middle and high school years) give students a list of math supplies for the school year. This list includes protractor, compass, calculator, graphing paper, etc. There is a high chance that these supplies are still in your child's room. Check. Because when you bought supplies last summer, you may have been too eager to save extra dollars since everyone is having these huge "Back to School Days Sales" and you may have ended up with more supplies for more savings. And now those same signs are up again, luring us parents in their stores. Again, check around the house to see if you really need these supplies. Otherwise, you'll end up with duplicates and ten years from now, you'll have1 5 pairs of scissors with rounded corners, 115 erasable pens, 18 erasers, 3 calculators, 4 Thesaurus, 19 trappers and 3 dictionaries. Check. Be prudent. Show your child how prudent and how wise of a shopper you are.

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