EDMONTON- From pencils to paper and binders to backpacks, kids and parents are gearing up to head back to class.
But as parents run through their children’s school supply lists, it seems as though they’re much more detailed and somewhat more unusual than they used to be. And the lists vary quite widely, depending on the school.
“48 pencils. Sharpened,” said Francine Wiwchar, whose daughter is going into Grade 1 in September.
“I have 64,” replied her friend Jen Schaefer, whose daughter is going into Grade 1 at a different Edmonton-area school. “You know what? I’m not buying all these pencils. I’m going to buy two sets. 24.”
“You think buying them all is a bit ridiculous?” Wiwchar asked.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Schaefer. “I can’t imagine my daughter going through that many. It seems excessive.”
“Well, yeah. There’s no way they’re going to use all of those pencils in a year,” responded Wiwchar.
The two women spent their day at Staples Thursday, shopping for everything their daughters will need for another school year. But trying to decipher the school’s supply list seemed to be half the battle.
“Look at this- four packages of sticky notes- yellow. Two square and two small rectangle,” said Wiwchar.
“Wow. I don’t have sticky notes on here,” replied Schaefer.
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Global News compared Grade 1 supply lists from several schools in the Edmonton area, and what students are asked to come to school with, and how many of each item, varies quite a bit from school to school.
For example, one school asks for five Duo-tangs, while another asks for 15. One schools asks for 10 pencils, another 64.
Some students are now required to have items like disinfectant wipes, Ziploc bags, facial tissues, USB drives, and headphones.
“One of the things we’ve actually been carrying now for a few years… (is) headphones specifically designed for children,” said Tony Cronin from London Drugs. “They fit over the children’s ears nice and comfortably. But more importantly, they limit the total volume output. So they can potentially not harm your child’s hearing.”
But not only have the items on the lists changed over the years, the way some schools distribute supplies has as well.
Some parents say they’re asked not to put their children’s names on the supplies, because they’re all put into a shared bin and handed out to students as they’re needed. Most of the parents Global News spoke with say they’re fine with this policy, but like to be made aware of it in advance.
“I’ve had parents in the same classroom that had no idea… and customize everything for their child and then are just so upset they spent more money, they spent more time, and they weren’t told ahead of time that ‘hey, you know what? It’s going to be up for everybody.’ So I disagree with that. I think that schools need to be really clear from the get-go,” said Felicia Dewar, who has two children heading back to class this fall.
“I don’t mind at this early age. They don’t really care about having individualized items. I think as they get older, when they want to bring their special fuzzy tipped pencil to school, then maybe it will be a bigger deal. But as long as everyone’s bringing in the same brand named Crayola pencil crayons, at the end of the year everything’s divided up and you get it back again, I don’t really mind it,” added Wiwchar.
At the end of the shopping day, these moms say they’ll do their best to get everything on the list.
“I might hit up the dollar store to see if I can find something. If not, I might be a rebel and she might just not have sticky notes,” Wiwchar said with a laugh.
Some schools also provide parents the option of ordering supplies through the school.
Two of the Grade 1 school supply lists have been published below:
With files from Julie Matthews, Global News.
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