Hailey and I went school supply shopping today! The stores have started to put out the back to school supplies on their shelves. I wanted to make sure I had them before all the craziness begins of gathering them near the start of school. As a teacher, supply shopping was always fun. I wanted to do it with Hailey minus all the shoppers. She wasn't too excited when I told her what we were doing because she didn't really know what it meant. So when I started piling lots of fun stuff into the shopping cart, she got really into it. On Saturday, I let her pick out a backpack at the office supply store. I was surprised she picked out a pink one out of all the color choices. I liked it because it was free from a character and labeling and she liked it because of what was in the zippered pockets - a pencil case, lunch bag and a wallet! The reality that she will be entering Kindergarten is setting in now.

* This is what was on her school supply list to pick up!

9 large glue sticks, 10 #2 pencils sharpened, 5 boxes 8 count crayons, 1 box 24 count crayons, 1 set of water color paints, 1 bottle of hand sanitizer, 1 pkg non toxic dry erase markers, 1 quart size Ziploc bags, 1 large backpack, 1 red folder, 1 green folder, 1 yellow folder, 1 blue folder (all with brads), 1 ream of white copy paper, 1 box tissues, 1 box of baby wipes, 1 bottle of white glue, 1 box washable markers, 1 small student markers

All for a grand total of $50.65 plus tax at Wally World

The $20 school supply fee where I taught sure seems like a better deal! The most annoying thing about it all is that the backpack is the only item that completely belongs to her. All other items are not to be labeled and has been the case in public schools for many years. I sure hope she gets her fair share of the supplies. From my experience as a Kindergarten teacher, children do not like not having their own scissors and having to wait to complete an assignment because someone else was busy with the few scissors in the classroom. But I did teach in low income schools so I picked up the slack many times if needs were not met. I just hope all the parents in her class actually bring the required school supplies! It was fun shopping with Hailey for these supplies anyway regardless. Yeah for new supplies!