milano
Emerald
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Post by milano on Aug 3, 2021 9:47:29 GMT -6
We don't start school until after Labor Day, but I am starting my back-to-school shopping.
I have never sent a child to school for longer than 2.5 hrs (other than a toddler in daycare, but that was years ago), so I feel very #new and clueless about what I need to prepare. Please share your tips, tricks, anecdotes, heartwarming tales, whatever you feel compelled to share regarding having school-age children. I am shopping for: lunchbox, mask/sanitizer accessories, backpack contents, etc. I already got the back to school supplies list and everything for that is ordered.
*This thread was created to be a general school thread so feel free to ask additional questions, vent, etc regarding School in the Time of Covid, 2021/2022*
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milano
Emerald
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Post by milano on Aug 3, 2021 9:49:22 GMT -6
I am looking at Bentgo boxes and thermos funtainers. I only need them for J, since M is going to be in morning-only preschool and won't need a lunch. J eats a big lunch everyday so I feel like he needs lots of space for food. Kids take water bottles to school, right? I know they need a drink for lunch but do most schools let them keep a water bottle at their desk as well?
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milano
Emerald
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Post by milano on Aug 3, 2021 9:50:20 GMT -6
I don't know yet if masks will be required here, but I feel pretty confident they will be. And either way, my kid will be in a mask. Lanyards are good, right? And extra masks in his backpack?
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nikkipal
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Post by nikkipal on Aug 3, 2021 10:02:08 GMT -6
I don't know yet if masks will be required here, but I feel pretty confident they will be. And either way, my kid will be in a mask. Lanyards are good, right? And extra masks in his backpack? Yes to all of this, and also able to keep a water bottle at their desk in my experience.
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Post by mintyblueair on Aug 3, 2021 10:02:14 GMT -6
Following! My older two will be doing K (mornings only) and preschool (2x a week for 2.5 hours).
I have yumbox snack boxes and I love them! Highly recommend. They come in bigger sizes as well.
Our favourite kids' masks are from Gap and this reminds me that I need to place an order for new ones.
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Post by mintyblueair on Aug 3, 2021 10:05:37 GMT -6
L (5yo) has trouble getting his own shoes on. Are Crocs ok as an indoor shoe at school? I suspect they'll do some activities in the gym and they might not be great for that 🤔
Any recs for runners that are stretchy or wide at the opening?
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nikkipal
Sapphire
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Post by nikkipal on Aug 3, 2021 10:05:56 GMT -6
Rant: M’s school sent out a supply list a few weeks ago (school starts tomorrow). It was crazy specific and I had to go to two different stores to get it all (plus I ordered dice from Amazon). Cost around $100, not including her backpack. Fast forward to last Friday (5 days before school starts), and they send a new list that is much shorter. The only new thing on this list is baby wipes. So now, not only did I spend all that time gathering supplies, but I have to go return most of the stuff. I’m happy I’ll get the money back, but seriously, WTF.
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rugger
Amethyst
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Post by rugger on Aug 3, 2021 10:09:58 GMT -6
Get a sturdy backpack and synch the straps down for your littles! It drives me bonkers seeing big floppy bags hanging super low (b/c it's so bad for their necks and shoulders).
I'm a fan of Pottery Barn lunch boxes. They do go on sale, too.
And a water bottle that doesn't leak work an easy sip/straw spout. We tried to find ones that didn't require their grubby little hands to touch the mouth piece.
Yes to extra masks. A's favorite last year (1st grade) were the 32 Degrees brand kid ones, from Costco. And Gap kids fitted style. This year, she prefers the Athleta Girl ones b/c they fit better now. (And they are on super clearance and have neutral colors)
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rugger
Amethyst
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Post by rugger on Aug 3, 2021 10:11:49 GMT -6
L (5yo) has trouble getting his own shoes on. Are Crocs ok as an indoor shoe at school? I suspect they'll do some activities in the gym and they might not be great for that 🤔 Any recs for runners that are stretchy or wide at the opening? I wouldn't do Crocs. A lot of PE teachers don't consider them active shoes. Toms, new balance, Nike, lots of options that are easy to put on. It's a good time to practice that skill so he can show his teacher
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sarenu
Amethyst
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Post by sarenu on Aug 3, 2021 10:13:06 GMT -6
I am looking at Bentgo boxes and thermos funtainers. I only need them for J, since M is going to be in morning-only preschool and won't need a lunch. J eats a big lunch everyday so I feel like he needs lots of space for food. Kids take water bottles to school, right? I know they need a drink for lunch but do most schools let them keep a water bottle at their desk as well? How much does he eat? I found the Bentgo Boxes smaller. We use Plant Bots large boxes. Also if you want some I can ship you some of my good ones. Whatever you go with, test it out with him and make sure he can open it and that you are sending the right amount of food. I like stainless steel water bottles. I like Zulu, Sip, or contigo.
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sarenu
Amethyst
Posts: 5,084 Likes: 10,327
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Post by sarenu on Aug 3, 2021 10:23:20 GMT -6
Get a sturdy backpack and synch the straps down for your littles! It drives me bonkers seeing big floppy bags hanging super low (b/c it's so bad for their necks and shoulders). I'm a fan of Pottery Barn lunch boxes. They do go on sale, too. And a water bottle that doesn't leak work an easy sip/straw spout. We tried to find ones that didn't require their grubby little hands to touch the mouth piece. Yes to extra masks. A's favorite last year (1st grade) were the 32 Degrees brand kid ones, from Costco. And Gap kids fitted style. This year, she prefers the Athleta Girl ones b/c they fit better now. (And they are on super clearance and have neutral colors) I like the pottery barn teen one I got for the kids in summer. They can put snacks on top (or juice/water) and a large planet bot container in the bottom. The zippers have held up better than the target character ones…
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sarenu
Amethyst
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Post by sarenu on Aug 3, 2021 10:24:49 GMT -6
Yes to extra masks.
We like the adjustable old navy ones. I think I have 10 packs of them. They clearanced a lot of them in summer because mask mandates were being removed.
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Post by charlotte on Aug 3, 2021 10:27:02 GMT -6
I found the old navy children’s masks to be too small for my DS1’s face (but maybe they’ve changed since I purchased them a year ago). It’s weird because the adult ones are very generous and cover my face exceptionally well.
I ordered a pack of mask ties.. lanyards(?) off of Etsy last year that I will send attached to DS1’s mask.
I think you’ll definitely need a large water bottle. Our school is going to have water fountains turned off due to COVID.
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Post by mintyblueair on Aug 3, 2021 10:28:00 GMT -6
L (5yo) has trouble getting his own shoes on. Are Crocs ok as an indoor shoe at school? I suspect they'll do some activities in the gym and they might not be great for that 🤔 Any recs for runners that are stretchy or wide at the opening? I wouldn't do Crocs. A lot of PE teachers don't consider them active shoes. Toms, new balance, Nike, lots of options that are easy to put on. It's a good time to practice that skill so he can show his teacher Ok, we won't do Crocs. The New Balance pair we had was super tight around the ankle but I think we'll go into a store and try a bunch. It's been so long since we went shopping for shoes/clothes it'll feel strange lol. We do practice a lot. It's a mental thing for him, he gets anxiety about it if he meets even the tiniest bit of resistance. And being on the spot to do it quickly is nerve-wracking for him.
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Post by ovenrack on Aug 3, 2021 10:31:29 GMT -6
Ohhh following. Camp worked out - we had a good assortment of lunch/snack containers, but I need to reassess for school since T will need lunch, too.
I love bento boxes. My kids eat so much more with a variety of things on their plate.
Bentgo was good for M for preschool, and I’ll probably use that for T. I think H wanted more food than it fit during K, though, so I’ll switch M to the large lunchbots (stainless steel is my preference) and H to the planetwise I bought for him before first grade (which was then entirely at home ha ha ha).
But I didn’t buy the planetwise lunchbox at the same time, So now I need to find out what fits in what.
We probably won’t get supply lists until a week before school starts, which I find super annoying.
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Post by pbandj714 on Aug 3, 2021 10:35:51 GMT -6
I'm new to all of this with the kiddos starting K this year. We go back on the 18th! I got them Land's End backpacks and lunchboxes. I am also eyeing the Thermos funtainers. Will be sending their Owala freesip water bottles. I am obsessed with them...they don't leak, they're insulated, the straw/chug combo is hidden from germs under the lid, and the carry handle also doubles as a "lock" to protect from accidental leaks. So great. I have some silicone lunch containers we need to practice opening, hopefully those will work well. They're like collapsible bento boxes. mintyblueair, for tennis shoes, we do these. They open nice and wide and just have the one velcro to fasten.
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rugger
Amethyst
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Post by rugger on Aug 3, 2021 10:36:32 GMT -6
I wouldn't do Crocs. A lot of PE teachers don't consider them active shoes. Toms, new balance, Nike, lots of options that are easy to put on. It's a good time to practice that skill so he can show his teacher Ok, we won't do Crocs. The New Balance pair we had was super tight around the ankle but I think we'll go into a store and try a bunch. It's been so long since we went shopping for shoes/clothes it'll feel strange lol. We do practice a lot. It's a mental thing for him, he gets anxiety about it if he meets even the tiniest bit of resistance. And being on the spot to do it quickly is nerve-wracking for him. I feel like most kids enjoy shoe shopping. I bet a Nordstrom Rack or Finish Line type place will have a good variety. And apologies if my practicing comment came off the wrong way. I know clothing tasks can be really hard for kids. I'm sure he'll find a great pair he's confident with ☺️
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Post by pbandj714 on Aug 3, 2021 10:37:50 GMT -6
Our district works with a school supplies company that enables parents to order all their school supplies in one fell swoop and have them shipped to the school so they're ready to go day 1 with almost no effort on my part. I am all about that life.
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Post by charlotte on Aug 3, 2021 11:37:21 GMT -6
Our district works with a school supplies company that enables parents to order all their school supplies in one fell swoop and have them shipped to the school so they're ready to go day 1 with almost no effort on my part. I am all about that life. We did that too! It was probably more expensive but not having to go out shopping right now made it worth it.
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stringy
Opal
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Post by stringy on Aug 3, 2021 12:07:42 GMT -6
I feel like our bentgo's are getting raggedy since we've still used them all year...
But then last year M decided buying lunch was cooler. What will this year bring?
I cannot spend $43 dollars on a bento box for a stainless one. Why? Other options?
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stringy
Opal
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Post by stringy on Aug 3, 2021 12:08:50 GMT -6
We don't need any school supplies which is both great and sad, cuz some of it is fun to get.
They do both need sneakers though.
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snowmoon
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Post by snowmoon on Aug 3, 2021 13:14:42 GMT -6
I’m still not even sure if B will be going back to school. They don’t even want to give us a placement meeting or an IEP because, since he doesn’t struggle academically, he will manage in a mainstream class. I don’t have it in me right now to fight them and think he will be better off being homeschooled. But then I remember how tired and unorganized I am.
He’s going to forest school one day a week though so he needs a new back pack, lunch bag, and sneakers.
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jnu76
Gold
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Post by jnu76 on Aug 3, 2021 13:17:32 GMT -6
I don't know yet if masks will be required here, but I feel pretty confident they will be. And either way, my kid will be in a mask. Lanyards are good, right? And extra masks in his backpack? Yes to a lanyard so they don’t put it somewhere gross when they’re eating. Try to find one with a breakaway clip in the back. I love the Jaanu masks for both me and the kids- comfortable and fit well ETA- get 5x the number of masks you think you need. They’ll need a couple extras for their backpack and they might use more than one a day if it’s full day. Also, I worked with kids in K-12 last year. All of the kids were great about mask wearing and none of them thought it was a big deal or whined about not being able to breathe. Like so many other school related things, it’s adults who make it a problem.
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Post by violajack on Aug 3, 2021 13:27:47 GMT -6
We're homeschooling again, but I want to play too!
We soft started "school" today. We did morning read-alouds (currently reading the Burgess Bird Book for Kids and Telling God's Story), then violin, reading, and "math". D will just find something and start reading if you don't pay attention to him for more than 2 seconds, so that was easy, and N actually asked to do one of his readers. He did remarkably well considering we hardly asked him to read anything aloud over the summer. He might actually make the transition to independent reading this year, woo! Math is in quotes because we didn't touch any curriculum, just got out the abacus to show S more about adding and subtracting and then help N through some place value change adding. I froze a water balloon to prepare for a science demonstration tomorrow.
I didn't have to buy much this year since most of our core curriculum comes in a 4 year elementary pack. D will finish it this year and N will be in year 2. Math we do online, so that's just a recurring monthly thing. I did get a giant US history set that I need to plan out for the year. And, after much begging, I got D a beginner dissection kit. We did that Saturday. Other than that, our biggest office supply expense is printer paper. We still have plenty of lined paper left over from last year. I'm hoping that pack lasts us through the elementary years. We're going to try lapbooks for science for N this year, so we'll be printing and cutting and pasting a lot more.
We did the shoe shopping before our summer campapalooza in July since both kids had been going barefoot and we didn't realize how tight their actual shoes were getting. They also got water shoes for the creeking camp which we hope to keep using as long as the season is good for it. We've got plans to canoe/kayak with friends sometime this summer.
I have sectioned tupperware containers that I got off amazon to do lunches and they worked well enough for camps. I am so glad that I don't have to do the lunch packing thing regularly. D makes his own food whenever he feels like it these days, and S is good about grabbing a piece of fruit if he gets hungry outside of an offered meal, so the food prep insanity has gone down greatly around here.
We don't have to play the mask or no mask game because we ditched the co-op this year. It just doesn't align with the path we're headed down curriculum wise and we're starting to make more friends who align with our own family values better, so we didn't feel the need to continue. There was an anti-masky contingent there too, and because I'm a chicken, it was nice to play it off to the director as the curriculum mismatch that it was, but also, there are some families I won't miss being in an enclosed space with.
ETA: I'm actually trying to be organized about it too, so I got a homeschool planner. It'll be interesting to see how well we can all follow an actual schedule.
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sarenu
Amethyst
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Post by sarenu on Aug 3, 2021 13:36:54 GMT -6
I feel like our bentgo's are getting raggedy since we've still used them all year... But then last year M decided buying lunch was cooler. What will this year bring? I cannot spend $43 dollars on a bento box for a stainless one. Why? Other options? So I have 2 of the large stainless steel ones. They are easier to wash and dry. Plus they don’t have plastic clips that break. So I don’t bother with a backup for each kid. I think they are worth the investment. But I will probably use them for myself when the kids are done.
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mc13
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Post by mc13 on Aug 3, 2021 13:39:06 GMT -6
R used the Bentgo boxes all last year. They definitely don’t hold a ton of food but it was enough for her (she’s petite). Whatever you get, buy at least 2! That way, I could have one in the dishwasher and 1 clean, ready to go.
The Bentgo boxes do fit nicely in the McKenzie style pottery barn lunchboxes. My girls got the large PB backpacks. They’re big, but will last a few years. R easily fit her folder, lunchbox, and jacket in hers.
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mc13
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Post by mc13 on Aug 3, 2021 13:40:32 GMT -6
If you can afford to, buy extra hand sanitizer, paper towels, ziplock bags, hand soap. The teachers really appreciate it - I even sent a whole package of extra supplies in with R after christmas. Her teacher was very touched.
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sarenu
Amethyst
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Post by sarenu on Aug 3, 2021 15:06:44 GMT -6
Our district works with a school supplies company that enables parents to order all their school supplies in one fell swoop and have them shipped to the school so they're ready to go day 1 with almost no effort on my part. I am all about that life. We did that too! It was probably more expensive but not having to go out shopping right now made it worth it. I buy the school supply kit. Everything is ready for them at school for the first day. I don’t need to search for 4 packs of expo markers with extra fine tips. Or run to 3 different stores. It is more expensive, but the proceeds go to our PTO.
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snowmoon
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Post by snowmoon on Aug 3, 2021 17:00:36 GMT -6
violajack, can you tell me more about your homeschool planner?
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Post by violajack on Aug 3, 2021 17:18:47 GMT -6
violajack, can you tell me more about your homeschool planner? I signed up for a year of homeschool planet. A few of the programs we use are available ready made, so I just had to set the start and end dates of my school year, select which holidays I want to take off, and it automatically mapped the lessons out for the year. I found it really easy to create lesson plans for other stuff too. You can also add activities like music lessons and sports as well as chores to check off each day. I tried making daily checklists for the kids last year, and it was good on the days I remembered, but I wasn't consistent and had no plan beyond open the book and do the next thing. I think as the kids get older, the daily checklists will help them take more responsibility for their own work. And seeing the whole book mapped out for the year will give them a bigger picture perspective. It's apparently also really good at rescheduling when you miss stuff, but I'll see how all that works as the year plays out. I also got them all set up with greenlight accounts and debit cards. N asked for his own bank account and $500 for his birthday, which was yesterday, so I finally took the plunge on that. I can tie their allowance into chores, one of which, for them, is schoolwork. I figure, that's what adult life is, go to work, do work, get paid. Why not try it here? You can also set one time bonus chores for money too, so if they weed for an hour, they can earn more. And greenlight offers investments now too, so D can buy his own stock, which he's been wanting to do ever since I've looped him in on the stocks I've been buying and showing him the ups and downs. So, we'll probably also be doing a unit on compound interest for math this year.
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