Last year, listening to French radio, I heard a surprising report:\u00a0 school supply shopping is\u00a0the second most\u00a0stressful occasion for\u00a0a great many parents, second only to Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n
If that’s true,\u00a0it doesn’t need<\/em> to be.\u00a0 What’s more, I\u00a0can explain why:<\/p>\n 1) With Christmas shopping, you’re not told what to get – whereas with school supply shopping, you usually are.<\/p>\n 2) While, with Christmas shopping, there is a deadline, there really isn’t one in the same way when it comes to school supply shopping.<\/p>\n I’ve heard that a lot of people fear the expense of back-to-school shopping.\u00a0 I can’t comment on the other dimensions of it (clothes, for instance), but I can tell you this:\u00a0 school supplies don’t have to be (that) expensive.<\/p>\n In front of me I’ve\u00a0got two big-box store flyers from Friday’s paper.\u00a0 I’ll admit that if you have to shop today, you might pay around $15 for a zipper binder (of course, you can pay a lot more if you want), then another $15 or more for a school bag.\u00a0 (This is all before tax.)<\/p>\n Coloured pencils, if you need those, might run around $2.50 to $6.00.\u00a0 Buy a good name – not<\/em> cheap ones.\u00a0 When you’re a tutor, you see a lot of school supplies.\u00a0 I’ve noticed that many kinds of coloured pencils – especially cheap ones – don’t hold a sharp point.\u00a0 You don’t want your kid to be\u00a0stuck with coloured pencils whose leads keep breaking.\u00a0 Ask what the good names are.\u00a0 I use Staedtler, but there are other good ones around.\u00a0 I’d guess a name like Hilroy would be pretty trustworthy – although I’ve never tried their coloured pencils.<\/p>\n For\u00a0just normal pencils (rather than colour), I prefer mechanical rather than wood.\u00a0 Get 0.7 leads – they last longer and break way less often (as opposed to 0.5).\u00a0 A twelve pack of Bic 0.7\u00a0plastic pencils\u00a0will cost maybe $4.\u00a0 If they don’t get lost, your kid probably wouldn’t use more than half of them the whole year.\u00a0 Pens are even cheaper than pencils – unless you want to pay more for something special.<\/p>\n One note, though, about mechanical pencils:\u00a0 you can’t get them for most kids until they’re in grade 5 or later.\u00a0 The reason is that the kids just play with them.\u00a0 If your kid is earlier than grade 5, you probably want wooden pencils.<\/p>\n Erasers:\u00a0 get white ones.\u00a0 Staedtler is one kind I use, but most white erasers are pretty good.\u00a0 At one place, they’re on for\u00a0less than a dollar apiece right now.\u00a0 If it’s not lost, one could last you for years.<\/p>\n Paper – both loose leaf and graph – might be the most variably priced item.\u00a0 You might have to pay a lot on a given day at a given place.\u00a0 However, my wife says she’s seen 150 sheets of loose leaf\u00a0for less than a dollar recently. If you’re paying more than that today, you should probably look elsewhere.\u00a0 Graph paper is usually more – you might have to pay 3 or 4 dollars for around 100 sheets – but you can sometimes get it for a lot less.\u00a0 Kids don’t usually use much of it, anyway.<\/p>\n Markers, if you need them, might be around what coloured pencils cost.\u00a0 A ruler you can get for less than a dollar.\u00a0 A scientific calculator shouldn’t cost more than $15.\u00a0 I know I could get a good one for\u00a0less.\u00a0 The less fancy, the better.\u00a0 As long as it has sin<\/em>, cos<\/em>, and tan<\/em> on it, as well as square root, you’re probably pretty safe.\u00a0 Of course, you shouldn’t need to buy a new calculator every year.<\/p>\n There are other odds and ends, but let’s make a rough total of the items I’ve mentioned.\u00a0 You might be looking at around $60 to $75 before tax.\u00a0 You could do better, depending on where you live and how much hunting you’re willing to do.<\/p>\n Where I live, some stores have school supply lists right at the front entrance.\u00a0 You can find your kid’s school and grade, then pick up a list of supplies.<\/p>\n If your kid goes to the first day of school with just a few pencils and pens, some paper, a binder, a calculator, and the coloured pencils, they’ll probably be all right.\u00a0 When they get home, they can tell you what they’re missing, and you can get the rest that night.<\/p>\n One final point:\u00a0 Look for school supplies again in a month.\u00a0 Watch the prices go up and down.\u00a0 Eventually you’ll probably\u00a0be able to get almost everything cheaper than you can today.\u00a0 Stock up when it’s cheap.\u00a0 Ask your kid what works and what doesn’t – and why<\/em>.\u00a0 If you familiarize yourself with school supplies, you’ll be on top.\u00a0 Like most things, they’re best to buy before you need them.<\/p>\n Good luck!<\/p>\n