School Supplies Question

Yes it sounds normal.
And you wouldn't believe how cheap and breakable most of these school supplies are nowadays, especially the off brand crayons and pencils!
American taxpayers don't like funding education so this is where we're at. Begging parents to spend money on basic supplies.
Sad, sad, sad :(

Looks like the lists we get here. We are also asked to provide printer ink and photo paper. Education is a low priority in this country, so budgets have been axed like crazy. If we don't buy the supplies, the teachers pay out of their own wallets. I am not happy to pay so much for supplies, but will gladly do it so the teachers don't have to on their small salaries.

community property, redistribution of school supplies, kids are not taught to use up what they have

I went to a short school meeting. One of the teachers had stacks of boxes of crayons. She handed both my daughters their own boxes to color with. When it was time to leave, we tried to give them back & she said no keep them, we have plenty. I was quite agitated knowing that this is were all the *extra* supplies were going, right out the door for absolutely no reason.

Seems like every year there is a post like this, and the lists just get more and more ridiculous. Yes, I understand that the schools just don't have the budget for things anymore. But, hey, here's an idea:
Let's stop teaching our kids that a broken crayon isn't worth using and we need to throw it away. Let's let our kids learn how to be responsible with the things we give them to use and not make everything so organized for them---a zillion ziplock bags? Really? We didn't even HAVE ziplock bags. They'll figure out how to keep up with their stuff. Or.... oh yeah, they might have to do without. Can't have that. Let's teach them as early as possible that it is okay to not respect anything, that SOMEONE will replace it if they tear it up or waste it or break it. And let's be sure, starting as early as we can, that they understand that everyone is ENTITLED to exactly the same things...right down to the pencil brand. Who cares if you can afford something nice, we will divy it up with every other kid and your kid will end up with the cheap ones that the lead is always broken in and doesn't sharpen straight, regardless of the fact that you spent extra money to purchase better quality.

Sorry.
Vent over.

(btw, I don't fault the teachers. It isn't their fault that it has turned out like this)

ETA: Well, for kindergarten, I bet you're right about the gallon ziplock bags. Seems strange to me though, still, b/c... um... what are you putting the kid IN if you are taking off wet things? Those clean clothes must be stored in something, if there are any sent in at all. My kid's clean "just in case" clothes were IN a ziplock, so that the clean came out and the wet went in. Of course, she needed that a grand total of ONCE her entire K4-1st grade "career".

I know it makes things easier for the teachers, too. And I appreciate that they have a difficult job for not great pay. But the teachers in the later grades will be complaining that the students come to class unprepared. Why do you think they do that? Umm, b/c they have been TRAINED to not be prepared or take responsibility to show up with a pencil/paper. Face in palm.

Yes, due to school budget cuts, the schools used to have these types of supplies on campus, but not any longer.

But each year as education cuts happen, we are asked to provide the supplies needed for the entire school year..

Most of these supplies are for the classroom and some for the special areas like Art, Music and PE.

IF you cannot afford all of them at this time, just send a note to the teacher and let them know you will send them in as you can afford them.

Many schools the students cannot afford these supplies and literally the teachers purchase themselves for their students! Can you even imagine?

I liked to purchase lots of extras and just take them to the school office so they could help the families in need.

If further into the school year the supplies are used up, They may even request more.

Such a shame our schools are not funded for these basics.

That sounds similar to what we have to do for our two elementary aged children. The funny thing is at the end of last year my daughter's teacher actually asked each student if they would be willing to donate their items for next year's class. We of course did it because we know that too often the children already do not get to do things due to the budget cuts.

I taught 2nd grade before leaving to raise my children and I now have twins going into 5th grade. I can tell you from my experience as a teacher and mom that the number of crayon boxes, paint sets, large glue sticks and markers seems definitely high! It's always been one box of markers, one box of colored pencils and one box crayons. I do have to say that I've seen plenty of unclaimed pencils on the floor after dismissal. I would pick them up because the custodians would just sweep them up and toss them out. I am guessing that that is why your child's teacher wants 24 of them. Pencils constantly roll of the floor and get forgotten about in some classrooms. I also had "pencil patrol" go around and place the "lost pencils" in the classroom pencil container. (We usually only let the students have 2 or 3 in their desks at a time because it would just get to be too many otherwise.) I never asked for a ream of paper nor has my children's school. Other than that, I do have to buy all the "PLUS" stuff you mentioned. I don't see scissors and ruler on your list and that's pretty common.

Looks to be the norm. But these may be for not just his use but that of others, too.

My nephew was in 5th grade last year and my sister bought everything on his list, gave the teacher a ton of extra stuff to help out with students whose parents couldn't afford them, AND the Staples gift card she received for a purchase over a certain amount.

The teacher told those who brought supplies, to put ALL of them into a bin on the tables they sat at, 6 students to a table. At my nephew's table only he and another student had supplies. Within 2 weeks the supplies were already dwindling, kids were taking them, and there weren't enough colored pencils for my nephew to color a map for an assignment. He went to the teacher to tell her and she said, "well, you'll have to finish it at home." He said OK, but that he didn't have colored pencils at home, and she told him his parents would just have to buy him some then :-/

Needless to say my sister was livid, she HAD purchased what she thought were his supplies for the year, and for the rest of the year had him keep the new ones she purchased in his backpack for his use. He was reprimanded by the teacher at one point and told to place them in the bin, my sister had instructed him not to and had to go to the school and tell the teacher he would not be sharing them and why, in front of the principal.

Of course there are families who cannot afford supplies, especially if they have more than one child, but this could be something the PTA helps out with, as we did when I volunteered, we gave each teacher a stipend to purchase supplies his or her class needed..

As a previous elementary teacher, this is probably a little much, but not TOO much. Often, the one box of each thing lasts until about Dec. or so, and then parents are given a note home asking for more of whatever runs dry (usually crayons, markers, pencils, glue sticks, and folders).

I would much rather buy extra NOW while it is dirt cheap than buy more in the winter at crazy high prices.

When I taught inner city Las Vegas, *I* bought ALL the supplies for ALL my students out of pocket. I had approx. 23 kids (3rd grade) (with about 1/3 of them transferring in and out....so really around 30 different kids by the end of the year). I bought around 35 boxes of everything at the beginning of the year and around 100 folders.

The zip bags are used a lot. To take projects home, put left over snacks in, broken necklaces, etc. (just like at home).

The copy paper is actually pretty smart! I got one case of paper a semester for my then 35 5th graders. I became a paper nazi, but it still wasn't enough paper.

I also think that schools used to fill in the gaps for supplies when they ran low, but with all the budget cuts they can no longer do that.

We have 4 school aged children. Our school supplies typically cost us $300 each time. Also, buy the better back packs or you will just have to turn around in a month and purchase another one after the first one falls apart. We also have to deal with shoes and clothes. Our enrollment fees cost 1,500 and we take them to a public school! That includes the high school laptop insurances, the pay to play fees, the new gym uniforms, busing and so on. Best wishes, it's the pits!

What gets me is that most schools pool everything and put it all in the teachers supply closet. So when someone needs a pencil she gets whatever one is on top and hands it to the child that needs the pencil.

My grand kids don't even get to use the cool stuff that they were given by some friends. She got pencils for them with their names on them...They all went into the supply closet.

I think this stinks.

A friend of mine has 7 kids. When they were all in school there was one in kindergarten, one is 3rd, one in 4th, one in 6th, one in 8th, a 10th grader and a Senior.

Each and every one of their supply lists required 10 red folders with the tabs and pockets in them for assignments. We have thousands of kids in our school system in this area. They sold out of red folders the first day.

Each child had numerous exact requests like this. She ended up going to OKC, Tulsa, even ordered a bunch of it online. Her school supplies that one year cost her over $600. She even addressed the school board on this topic and told them they needed to tell the teachers they needed to keep their lists shorter and not so specific. So what if an assignment got handed in in a green folder instead of a red one or the homework folder was orange instead of red.

It was ridiculous. Our school's from the level of middle school on up have gone book-less. They rent you a laptop that the child is supposed to do their entire school experience on. It is the text book and the home work book too.

One of our grandparents raising grandchildren support group friends came to the September meeting last year and was so shocked at the enrollment process. Her son had died from the flu and she got all 4 of his children. There was no child support, no mother anywhere to be found to help pay, no other resources or others to help. She was told the child going into this middle school could not even enroll until she paid a $75 for the process and the computer stuff. Then she had to buy a carrying case for the computer that was $50. That was her grocery money for the rest of the month. She luckily had not gone to buy groceries yet or she would have had to take him back home until she had enough money to pay for it.

They told her they didn't have any resources for her even if she was low income. That stinks.

I think no one presses the school systems policies and they allow teachers and schools to take advantage of our positions. We are not able to home school if we work, nor are we able to just let the kids show up with no supplies.

I do not think it is fair for anyone else to have to pay for my grand kids supplies but I also do not think it is fair for them to not be able to go to school if their caregivers would rather put food on the table instead of a bunch of pencils and tissues in the school supply closet for everyone else to use.

Yes, that sounds about right. At my son's school the list specifies that you don't put your child's name on things because they will be collected and distributed on the first day of class - so I'm pretty sure the reason they ask for so much stuff is that some families can't afford to purchase supplies.

Looks typical. Gosh, I went through boxes and boxes of crayons and pencils. This was before the school supplies were dispersed for the class, and we kept them individually. I can't imagine how they would keep up with kids like I was, if it weren't asking for several boxes.

Just to add, I loaded up on supplies for the house at walmart today. Crayola markers were .97 a box, and the crayons, watercolors, and pencils were less. You might hit them up!

Yeah except for the multipes of crayons on your list ours is about the same. They pool all the stuff and last year started running out of stuff. Mine need 24 pencils and 18 glue sticks but only one box of crayons.

My biggest peeve is my neighbor who is well off, buys all her kids supplies at the dollar store. She just bought a Volvo suv and has a nanny so she can see her personal trainer daily and not be around her kids. My kids have to share those supplies at school. If I am going to follow the rules and buy Crayola she should too. Ugg.

I have four kids, my youngest is starting kindergarten this year. I printed out his list the other day and was SHOCKED at what was on it. He needs 14-glue sticks. FOURTEEN! I know they are cheap, that isn't the point. That seems crazy to me. There was also 2-regular bottles of glue on the list. I realize that they glue a lot in kindergarten but, come on! My kid is only in school for 9 months out of the year. That is a stick in a half of glue a month. They also need 48 pencils. Really?

I miss the good old days when parents bought school supplies for you, not to be put in a "pool" for all the kids to use. You can't help but to feel like you are buying school supplies for all the children that parent's do not! I would rather just buy my kids supplies for him/her to keep and then give the teacher an extra $10 in case there was someone that didn't have any supplies.

I don't think this list is normal at all. Seems really excessive to me. WHy all the duplicates of things???? I wonder if they are going to make the kids who DO bring in stuff share with those who do not. What I would do if I were you is buy everything but only send in one of each thing. Keep the duplicates at home to send in as they are needed. Let the teacher know this is your plan.

Also-you might want to wait to get the list directly from your teacher. Our district publishes a list that is much different than what individual teachers are asking for.

That is the list that is sent home, however, you buy what you can afford. You also do not have to purchase the specific brand that is requested - I only do if I can find them and afford them. Most of the supplies go to a community bucket, which infuriates me (mainly b/c of germs) but in most cases that is how it goes.

It does seem like a little much, maybe they anticipate it to last all year? We have always had large lists, but that was a a Catholic School. This year they are going to puclic school and I thought I would get a little break, doesnt sound like it. :(

Sounds about right. I have no idea what they used half the extra stuff for, art maybe? I have a box I keep all the stuff that goes home over the summer. I sometimes think they ask for worst case and most of it comes back at the end of the year.

We only have one box of crayons, one pack of markers and one pack of pencil crayons our lists, and both my boys will be able to use last years again this year. I will just replace as needed. We are to label all of our kids supplies, and they alone use them. The only communal item is the 4 boxes of kleenex. ETA-we also don't supply zerox paper or anything like that.

Most of the time these supplies are pooled... either in the workroom for all classes, or in the classroom itself. It is amazing how many crayons and colored pencils a class goes through, though...... and especially in Kindergarten, they will do a lot of coloring.

Kids go through pencils so fast.... even when they don't move from class to class, it seems that they are sharpening pencils constantly. (And... pencil sharpeners or the pencils themselves are so cheap now... they don't sharpen "straight", so the kids keep re-sharpening them, wasting so much of the pencil.)

Also, parents frequently buy supplies at the beginning of the year, but forget to check to see if their child needs replacement supplies throughout the year. This helps take care of when a child runs out and doesn't have pencils of their own.

I know money is often very tight at the beginning of the school year, but so many places have big sales on supplies then, so it does help to buy the supplies at that time.

I agree, though, that some schools are taking this to the excess..... I've been in that situation, also, where everything is given to the teachers, and it seems that I was buying supplies for all the kids that didn't get supplies taken to school.

That seems about right for what we bought for kindergarten, except the copy and watercolor paper. It was a break when we switched schools this year and just wrote a check for $45 that the teachers used to buy all the supplies for everyone...

This looks like a standard list to me. My oldest is in 7th grade and my youngest in 2nd. The baggies they used to send home little readers in. I will say that my youngest went through about 3 boxes of Crayons last year. Between using them and breaking them. Alot of schools do pool supplies in their room and with all the budget cuts some of our schools ask for Xerox paper for the school use. Sad but true. If you watch your sales you can get some really good prices right now. But the website to order it all is so convenient.

We do t get a supply list, but I can assure you that at the end of the 2nd grade school year, last year, my kid had 47,394 pencils in his desk!

Yep, sounds a bit similar to my kids' supply list... when my son/daughter was in Kinder.

What grade is your child going to be?

For my son's school, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders have to bring 60 pencils each. That's like 1 new pencil every 3 days!!

I will tell you this: I teach 4th grade and my kids bring 48 pencils each. I am begging for pencils around February. We never have enough glue sticks and the tissue runs out by Christmas. That's a lot of crayons... But I'm sure they color a lot more than 9 year olds do and we even run low on crayons! Other than that, this seems pretty reasonable to me. Judging by my own school district and my friends' kids' lists, I think this is reasonable. :-)

It seems like a lot for Kindergarten. My son is going into second grade, and we have to get most of the things on your list (plus a few more) but not in the quantities that you have to. It does kind of sound like the parents are having to stock up the supply room, but I think schools are just so strapped that they are asking more and more from parents.

My son's 1st grade teacher used the gallon ziplocks to separate and store each child's drawings and stories throughout the school year, and then at the end of the year,she made a folder with all of these for the parents. Sometimes, she'd send little projects home in these bags. The smaller bags were used for snacks; parent helpers would make single portion sizes from the large bag of pretzels, crackers, etc. ahead of time. That seemed like a bit of a waste to me, but I realize she did it as a time saver, and I get that.

Seems just like the trend now. Wonder what we'll be paying for in the coming years?

This is a very easy list. My daughter has had much more complicated supply lists than that.

And yes, she goes through more than one box of crayons in a year. They usually switch after Christmas break to the new box for the new semester.

And pencils... kids lose those daily.

I just had this conversation with my cousin in Colorado the other day. And in answer to your question, "Is this common?" Yes, it is. I'm not sure where you live but here in our state and local school district, a list like this is normal. You can thank all of our politicians and government for this (and all of those people who "aren't willing to pay anymore taxes"). At the rate spending is being cut on education (at least here in our state), pretty soon the kids aren't even going to have schools to go to! And unfortunately on their paltry salaries, the teachers don't have enough money to supply their classrooms either so it unfortunately falls to the parents. I buy the supplies (albeit grudgingly) because I want my son to have a good education and enjoy all forms of activities in school.

Sorry if I sound a bit bitter, but I live in a district where school levies are repeatedly not passed, and what those voters don't realize is it is only hurting the children and the schools. It really gets my goat. Good luck and I hope you don't go bankrupt trying to buy school supplies for your kids!!

I have it easy, I just have to send a check for $25.00. Love it!

Everything is identified by brand name which means it is probably pooled for room use. Our school asks for donations by brand name b/c they have material data sheets (MSDS) on these items. Too bad they don't identify what is for personal versus shared use.

Sounds like my first graders except we even supplied dry eraser markers for the teacher. Then half way through the year a note was sent out asking for more supplies....didn't make sense to me, butt I know they were shared by the entire class.

My daughters' school isn't so specific or have as large a list as the one you just gave. What my daughters' school does is have you put it all together in a pile so that the kids who's parents don't buy all the stuff can use the supplies that all the other parents bought. This irks me to no end so I took a page from my sister-in-law who is also just scraping by like myself. I wrote my daughters name in extra fine point sharpie on all the supplies I bought on every side I could. Things like the:
2 boxes 24 count Crayola colored pencils
4 boxes 24 count Crayola crayons
5 large Elmer's glue sticks (22 gram)
5 Elmer's glue sticks (6 gram) - not purple
3 boxes 8 count washable Crayola Classic thick markers
24 pre-sharpened #2 Dixon Ticonderoga pencils
2 8-color Crayola watercolor paint sets
We gave our children one of each of these kind of items with their names written all over them & instructions that if they ran out of that Item to ask us for more at home as well a notifying the teacher of our plans. If the teacher had a problem with my plans the teacher could write me a letter as to why my child needed all these supplies, right now this instant.

I haven't gotten any letters.