03.03.15 Day 3
School Supply List in the Mail Day is one of my most favorite days of the summer. When my daughter’s teacher letter and supply list arrive in the mail, it takes everything I have to not rip that letter out of her fingers. Do I feel shame over this? A little. I just want to get my hands on that list of supplies and plan the shopping trip and throw the kids in the minivan, leave the house to drive to the store to buy said supplies, and unwrap every package, and pack them into her school bag in all the right pockets, slots, and Velcro pouches. (Well, or at least watch her do those things.)
I can’t help it. Do I blame the teacher within me? Yes. But the roots of this obsession go back to my own time as a kid and loving the same exact thing. My Mom always made a big deal of going shopping with our lists and I relished setting my own backpack up each year.
The novelty (OBVIOUSLY) has not worn off. And my son, the soon-to-be kindergartener, will get his list too, in August and then four years later it will be the baby’s turn! In my calculations, that factor in fifth grade as being possibly, the last year of great interest in acquiring school supplies, that’s at least TEN more years of that letter arriving, the shopping trip, the preparation of the backpack. TEN more years of getting them excited about learning through the annual school supply ritual. TEN more years of School Supply List in the Mail Day.
lettersfromcoachk 
I love this! I completely agree…I LOVE shopping for school supplies! It reminds me of that line from the movie “You’ve Got Mail”…Tom Hanks says, “Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils.”
Thanks for sharing!!
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Ha! So true. And that is why we became teachers. That is how you can tell who will be a teacher when they grow up. Watch kids. See who likes to shop for their school supplies and set up their backpacks. They are the teachers of the future. Start the college planning now if you see signs of it in your little ones!
Oh, and I’m retired. I STILL like to look at the school supplies, and I STILL love a good backpack. Sometimes I help homeschoolers now…I have to carry supplies somehow.
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I’m with you on this. School supplies are right up there with shoe obsessions. Something about pens and notebooks. I always feel guilty about asking student to buy their own supplies. I had never thought about the pleasures associated with them. Hmmm.
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It’s when the stores start advertising the back to school supplies that makes my heart race a bit faster. I get the urge to dash to the store before everyone else snatches up the deals. Too funny that you are counting how many years you GET to do this school shopping. I predict you will still have the fever when your kids are in high school. They just won’t want to go with you.
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You made me laugh! I love notebooks and pens, but I always hated the list that came home for my daughter. Sometimes almost two pages long. Really??? I have also learned to keep my list to minimum as my students are all at-risk students/new to the country with very little extra money for spending. Or maybe there is a little shopper in me as I go during summer and buy the notebooks and other necessities.
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