Public School Flashback: 10 Things I Hate About The School Supply List

I have one homeschooled and two still in school.  While choosing a curriculum is a headache, and of course you need to get some school supplies at home, it is no where close to the headache I go through with my two public school kids.  

This is not a criticism of the need for school supplies--nor criticism of the teachers or school for asking for stuff.  I totally get that what they ask for are reasonable things to ask in exchange for educating my children, and I know the teacher's own shopping list is just as long (I once taught in public school...so I get it).  But like many other necessary things, it's still a pain in the butt sometimes every single year.  


10 Things I Hate About Back to School Shopping

• Spending an hour+ searching for things on the list.  It's like a scavenger hunt, only less fun.

• Cryptic descriptions of school supplies I've never heard of.

• Having to go to 3 stores to find that ONE required color folder that always seems to run out.

• Finding the exact brand the teacher asked for, specifically, and right next to it finding a seemingly identical product by another brand for half the price.  

• Accidentally mixing up some of one child's school supplies with another's.

• Clothes shopping with a picky child. 

• Getting your kids new clothes and shoes, just to have them walk through the mud in their new shoes the day before school.  (Mental note...next time I will not let my child use their new shoes early, no matter how worn the old ones are, or how much they beg me).

• Not being able to find all the things you actually can re-use from last year (like scissors and earbuds), buying another, then finding the one's from last year 2 days after school starts.

•  Realizing after the first day of school that after all that time and effort you STILL managed to miss some things. 

• Having to repeat all this hullabalu a week later when your high schoolers and middle schoolers bring home the lists for their classes. 

If, like me, you have some kids in public school, take a breath and remember we at least we only have to do this once a year!

If you are exclusively homeschooling, take a moment to stop and reflect on the blessing of getting to  skip all this!   I remember how relieved I was when I went "back to homeschool shopping" for my youngest for the first time...dry erase markers, a notebook, some paper, a dinosaur book and sweat pants.   THAT WAS IT.  (Ok, ok...maybe that's not accurate.   I guess I wasn't counting the months I spent searching for the right curriculum.).   

Whether you are homeschooling or traditional schooling or a little bit of both, hope you and your children have a great school year!