School Supplies

School Supply Shopping for Mia has been QUITE comical. With Bailey and Camden, we always received a short list of basic supplies to send in within the first few days of school. Of course it was expected that everyone bring some type of back pack or bag (often the only stipulation was no "rolling bags" because they scratch the hall floors). Then there was always the typical 3 ring binder, pencils, paper, washable markers - that was about it....Well, with Mia it is shockingly different....

Back in April, we received a list of required school supplies (and yes, I am just now - this month -tackling it. The list is amazingly specific, and extremely confusing for this non-fluent Mom. My friend has been helping me accumulate the items on the list, and even though I am getting closer, I still need about 8 more items to buy. Some of the specific items include, "pencils with natural coating (not the shiny glossy finish that I am used to), a German back pack (this, I may add, sells in the 75 to 125 euro dollar range - CRAZY), a lesefreude (a 30 euro kit that holds small letters in which kids begin to learn to form words - on the back of the printed letters are the cursive version of the letters), VERY specific sized notepads with even stipulations as to how far the lines are apart from each other, specific paints, specific sized paint brushes, wax pencils, colored pencils, pencil sharpener, eraser, chalk, a mappien (which is a daytimer-type looking container that holds pencils, paper etc.), sport bag, shoes, pants, and shirt to keep at school, specific sized folders, certain type of glue, scissors, ruler, crayons without plastic paper around them, and believe it or not the list goes on. I keep telling my German friends that there is no way Americans would be O.K. with purchasing all of this stuff. From my very short stint as a teacher, my conclusion is that in a class of 20 people, you MAY have 5 that would come prepared with everything on the list, about 10 would come with SOME items, and about 5 would come without even a pencil to write with. One of the MANY differences to come I am sure... - I am a little nervous too because I guess the individual teachers for Bailey and Camden will give them their required school supplies within the first weeks of school ( I have no idea what to expect at those grade levels - hopefully it is nothing like the 1st class :-)