Sometimes, however, stocks of these supplies are a struggle to maintain for the entire year. What can you do to help? One way is to make sure your student is fully prepared. Check out this list of must-have school supplies and make sure your kids are stocked up.
The basics
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Extras
We might call them “extras,” but more and more schools recommend them.
Let’s start with planners. You already know that students can always use help with planning and staying organized. Many schools provide planners or offer them for sale. Take advantage of them: They’re sanity-savers for you and your student. A basic one such as this academic planner will help your student keep track of homework, tests and important dates. If it only came with someone to remind them to actually write things down, it would be perfect. With the use of technology on the rise, your child likely spends a lot of time on electronic devices. Many of the programs and apps kids use are geared toward individual work, and headphones keep them from disturbing those around them. Many schools provide some for students to use, but students must share them. Avoid the “ick” factor of rarely cleaned, shared headphones, and send these simple headphones or basic earbuds to school with your student. Post-it notes and Post-it flags help kids mark text in books, jot down quick notes as they read, and make “to do” lists. Be prepared: These things are addicting! By the time your budding mathematician gets to middle school, she’ll need a scientific calculator to help her with her homework. You will, too, when you help her with homework.
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Bonus supplies teachers love
Kids of all ages are walking germ and dirt magnets. Whether playing on the playground equipment, hunting for worms in the dirt, doing cartwheels in the grass, or sneezing into their hands, they need help staying clean — and teachers need help with kid-cleaning supplies. Forget the “Best Teacher” mugs or drugstore candy: Teachers appreciate sanitizing supplies for gifts:
Sneezes are like yawns: highly contagious. A classroom of students can empty a brand-new tissue box in one day. Consider supplying your child’s teacher with extra tissue each month or so. Classrooms often run out of antibacterial soap. Some extra bottles to set at the classroom sink would sure help with dirty hands after recess, before lunch, after crafts, after sneezing — really, all day long. Speaking of washing up, many classrooms lack sinks for hand washing altogether. An extra supply of sanitizing wipes and bottles of hand sanitizer are like gold to a teacher. Last but not least, desks get covered in dirt, pencil markings, dried glue and other unidentified substances but don’t always get washed as often as they should. Teachers need a good supply of cleaning wipes to get through the school year.
