Essential School Supplies

It's that time of year - Back to School! Students of all ages will need to replenish their supplies for the year - here's a few lists and ideas of things you might want to make sure are in the backpack, desk, locker, or dorm room before that first bell rings...
Depending on what level your student is, the supplies will differ. If you're lucky, your child's teacher or school will issue a list of required supplies and you can go from that, but there are also likely to be a number of things not on that list that your student simply MUST have. Either way, use this list to generate ideas and make sure you have your bases covered:

Classroom Supplies:
crayons, markers, highlighters, pencils (and sharpeners), pens, color pencils, glue sticks, safety scissors, erasers, anti-bacterial wipes/hand sanitizer, facial tissue

These are likely to be the supplies needed more in the lower grades, and your student's teachers may have preferences. Anti-bacterial products are an especially good idea at school where hand-washing might not always be immediately possible.





Organizational Supplies:
notebook paper, graph paper, notebooks, binders, folders, backpacks/bookbags, lunchboxes, locks, student planner/calendar

The actual classes and subjects your student is enrolled in will help you decide how to best organize, so take that into account.

For more guidance and ideas about backpacks, you can also read our Backpack Buying Tips.




Technological Supplies:
netbooks/notebook computers, graphing calculators, cell phones

Check with your school to make sure that students are allowed to have computers (they might even be required!) and what capabilities you need your machine to have. Cell phones also need to be cleared with the school - students may be allowed to have them, but turned off during class.






Personal Supplies:
Clothes, shoes, gym clothes, gym bags

Always check with your school's dress code or uniform code before you pour a lot of money into your wardrobe. Also, even if you don't have school uniforms, you might have gym uniforms. Either way, having a separate bag for the dress-out clothes might be a nice practical idea.
Don't forget to LABEL everything - even the best-intentioned children will lose things and having a label makes recovery of lost items just a little easier.