Elementary School Lessons

School year 2011 – 2012 is fast approaching. For the homeschoolers no more, we only have two weeks left of our summer (now rainy) vacation left.

The children have been enrolled and now we face the task of getting the school supplies needed for the school year.

At the start of the summer vacation, I managed to go over the school supplies that the children used and saved several things like pencils, erasers, papers, pencil cases and unused art materials. I gathered these together and put them in a big plastic tub together with the other supplies we have accumulated through the years.

Since the school give us a list of what we need to bring, we more or less have an idea what we would need.

The list would include:

• a sleeping mat for the third grader (this was the same sleeping mattress that the high schooler used when she was in Grades 1 -3) since the children up to third grade have nap time during noon
• health kit which includes soap, face towel, a roll of tissue paper, toothpaste and toothbrush (we already have the plastic boxes from last year and we will just re-use with new supplies inside)
• school supplies like art materials in plastic envelopes (the unused art materials have been saved so these can still be used)
• uniforms have been “whitened” during summer for use when school opening comes
• shoes have yet to be shined and cleaned (the son will still use his since the shoes are a size bigger and this goes for the high schooler, the youngest daughter has a new pair)
• bags still need to be cleaned (high schooler got a new bag hurrah! since she alternately use backpacks she’d have since 4th and 5th grade and had no bag upgrade ever since)

I still need to look at the used books and see which ones can still be used (to think I had given some away at the start of summer!) . We have to buy books this school year and this is a bit of a burden with us who have three children. For as long as my eldest child had been enrolled in the school (this is her 11th year in the school) school books have been included in the miscellaneous fee. Now we have to pay for the books separately. Sigh…

Are you parents ready for the new school year?

In a way, we’re not ready yet but we do have a certain excitement in meeting new challenges and in the chance of doing better this school year.