Will I get to stitch today???

I wish I could be there to act like your wife and do some of the scut work for you, but I can't even get my car out of the garage. All the corners are flooded here and instead of going down, the water looks like it's going up a little.

It doesn't look like it will reach my house, but it's a mess out there.

Lucille

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Ours starts tomorrow (earlier and earlier). I wish I could say we're

100% ready but the kids have hit the "I don't know what I need until I get to class" stage. And by the time the teacher makes the decision, the stuff is off sale (sigh).

At least DD doesn't have practice until Tuesday. That only leaves DS with baseball practice.

Have fun with the birthday party!

Linda

I heard them say on our radio that Fay could take three bounces on Florida, hope not for your sake.

Be safe.

Or be safer and come visit between bounces... Cheryl

They used to do that to us, too. First day of school was always marked by an afternoon trip to the store -- some teachers wanted bound black-marble composition books, others wanted spiral notebooks or looseleaf, and they wanted them by tomorrow morning. Mom always muttered "what about the working mothers who can't do this?" (I assume they bought one of each in advance and returned the unneeded ones.)

Around here, the teachers submit their lists to Admin, Admin transmits them to the stores. Walk into OfficeMax (and I'm assuming the other office supply stores, too), and there's a carousel with photocopies of dozens of school shopping lists: you grab the one for your school and your grade, and it lists all the teachers' preferences, so you just have to know if your kid has Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Jones.

That's what they do here too, but the parents claim that something essential is always left off the list and requires a last minute run to the store.

Lucille

Down here each school district is independent and provide the local stores, Walmart, Office Depot, Office Max with lists from each disctict by grade and believe me, some of these lists are single spaced, three pages long.

64 No. 2 pencils? 3 boxes of crayone 5 bottles of white glue

on and on. If the kids bring it and have special stuff, Hannah Montana, or Harry Potter, etc. it is still thrown into a big pool box and given out as needed, so your kid doesn't get their own stuff back. My neighbor just came back and she spent over 75 dollars just on school supplies. If they come up short, the teacher winds up buying suppiles out of their own pockets. The average teacher spends 600 dollars a year for their rooms. Totally insane.

They have those lists here for elementary school and middle school. JHS and up, it's wait until you get to class.

Many of the grade schools here discourage/forbid "special" notebooks and folders and specifically say "4 plain pocket red folders" for much the reason you cite - everything is thrown into a pool and used by all. I agree teachers shouldn't have to spend out of their own pockets, but sometimes some of the stuff is a bit ridiculous - one year we were expected to provide two bottles of hand sanitizer. What happened to soap and water?

Linda

Or the teacher changes his/her mind about something?

Me - I'm still wondering why a particular/brand style pen is required, instead of black fine line....

C

But the list is at Office Max, not the local Staples or Wally World.....

C

Can't have bathroom monitors to remind the little darlings to wash their hands.

What do you suppose would happen to the kid who dared to be different? Maybe that's part of the problem in our schools, they don't encourage individuality.

>

That says to me that maybe they are hand in glove with whichever supply place. Especially if they ask for specific felt pens etc.

Makes me think of Harry Chapin.

Don't get me started

Why "rolling ball gel pens"...

C

More like not enough time to send every kid who needs to wash his or her hands to the bathroom (with a partner), and not enough time to stand and wait by the bathroom for everyone to go in and wash hands before lunch. Too many kids in the hallways and missing out on classwork, so they keep the hand sanitizer in the room. (Not all classrooms have sinks.)

Best wishes, Ericka

Gee, I wonder how I managed to grow up without hand sanitizers in the classroom. I went to elementary school during WW2 and we had so many kids in the class that we had to share desks and seats in many classes. My husband, whose last name started with a Z, complained that all through his early grades he often had no desk of his own and used to lean on the radiator cover in some classrooms because they sat you in alphabetical order.

I will venture a guess that we were encouraged to wash our hands in the sinks in the bathrooms and we survived those germs without too much of a problem.

How things change.

I'm not saying it's better or worse now, just different.

Lucille

Unfortunately, we have given kids so many antibiotics over the last few decades that our immune systems are not developing correctly and have become dependant on antibiotics. That dependence has caused very resistant strains of bacteria which cannot be controlled with the use of antibiotics unless they come in a bag and an IV pole with Vancomyacin (sp?).

When I was growing up we swam in the East River in NYC. We were allowed to get dirty. Since the majority of play time is geared toward video games, I believe it has enhanced the condition of these resistant strains of super infections.

If I had a child and wanted him or her to have their own, personalized preference of school suppliies, that's what they'd have. I remember the excitement of picking out school supplies when I was a kid. It made the transition from summer to schooltime a fund time.

V