Wednesday, July 20, 2011

School supplies: they're supposed to be fun

I'm currently obsessed with school supplies.

I've been writing about them all over the place. I mentioned them on my blog for Nashville Parent's website, and I blogged about my fondness for the Trapper Keeper at my writing blog.

The reason for my fixation is that William is starting kindergarten in just a few weeks. And his new school has a very long and, shall we say, detailed list of supplies that each student must bring to school. In fact, the list is rather freakishly specific. He can only bring one particular brand of No. 2 pencil, for example, and he will be turned away at the door if he shows up with anything but the washable Crayola 8-count markers.

Also, he must bring 20 gluesticks of a particular brand and size. That's right: 20 gluesticks. I trust that I'll see some Serious Artwork that utilizes large amounts of glue at the end of the year.

The rather rigid requirements are threatening to take some of the fun out of shopping for shiny new school supplies. There's no room at all for choice or personal preference. But that's okay. It's still fun to look at all the new crisp boxes of markers and crayons and pens, even if I'm not actually going to buy any of them. I still get to peruse the racks of colored pencils and ballpoint pens and pencil boxes and, yes, Trapper Keepers.

And anyway, William doesn't seem to share the same love for school supplies. He's mildly interested in them, yes, but he'd rather scamper off to check out the new Star Wars Lego sets. Or the Hero Factory Lego sets. Or the Toy Store Lego sets. Or the Harry Potter Lego sets. Really, any Lego sets at all. If they made markers or scissors that somehow incorporated Legos, however, he'd be all over them.

So I will dutifully fill my cart with 20 gluesticks, and 24 Ticonderoga No.2 pencils and the "suggested" reams of copy paper and containers of cleaning wipes. But maybe I'll get myself a new box of pens while I'm there. New office supplies, after all, are almost as fun as new school supplies. I'm still enjoying the multicolored paper clips that I bought at Staples last year.

1 comment:

Ali...Mom...Jeff's Wife...Barb's Daughter... said...

Emma refuses to get the pre-packaged boxes of school supplies her school makes available since there's no fun in that at all. I have created this monster within her. We do not care how much the supplies cost, only that they are AWESOME!! School supply shopping day is one of the most anticipated days of the year - seriously! We share your love of crayons and Ticonderoga #2s (they ARE the best). As he gets bigger, you'll probably have a little more choice in what you can buy. He might not care, but at least you'll have more fun!