I always pick up extras at the after-back-to-school sales when things are even cheaper!

We buy pens/pencils & notebooks to send to our guys and gals overseas.

We buy lots of extra supplies to help support a school in Haiti through our church.

And, our family usually adopts another at Christmas time. It's nice to provide each child in the family with a backpack full of new school supplies along with our other gifts.

And, there are usually some cute items (shaped erasers, folders, theme pencils, etc.) we can put back for Easter, Christmas, birthday, party favors, Sunday School gifts, Halloween "treats", etc.

One year I bought all the women in our family Vera Bradley purses and filled them with pens, sticky notes, etc. that I had purchased at these sales. They loved it!

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Homeschooling Mom to Daniel (13 Years), Andrew (10 Years), Stephen (8 Years) and Emily (4 Years)

I wanted to remind people to stock up on school supplies for the whole year! Take advantage of these sales by stocking up for your own children, but also try these other ideas.



* The obvious- Get the supplies your children need now and for the rest of the year. Depending on the responsibility level of your child, you can make sure he/she has all the pencils and paper they need throughout the year. This may mean restocking them at the end of a quarter, at the beginning of the month, or even each week. I am a teacher and I always have kids that run out of pencils, paper, crayons, etc. They usually lose them and end up taking a lot of time looking for them, asking neighbors to borrow one, etc. This takes up a lot of classroom time.





* Use one drawer for all extra school supplies. If Johnny is out of pencils, he won't have to ask you if he knows where to get them. This really saves time when you are heading out the door.



*Buy some for your student's teacher. A wonderful gift for a teacher is 25 brand new notebooks. The teachers can use them as a journal for students, in their reward box, or just for students who don't have the means to buy them. At 9 cents each during stock up time, this is a great gift that is reasonably priced and much appreciated!



*Remember to stock up on the items your children will use. (No one needs 4 protractors even if they are just 12 cents.)



*Price-match! Bring your ads to Wal-Mart and they will match the prices. This saves you lots of trips to different stores and gas.



*Buy classroom treats now. Last year I bought 30 boxes of Crayola crayons for 20 cents a piece. My daughter's birthday is in May. Instead of candy, we gave each student a new box of crayons. It was perfect for them to take home for the summer art projects!



*Stocking stuffers - a new box of crayons and scissors are perfect stocking stuffers.



*Gifts for throughout the year. I also pick up coloring books when they are on sale, and I have a last minute gift for a big brother or sister when the baby is born.



*Gifts for crafty kids- I have a niece that loves anything crafty. I get a new pair of scissors, glue sticks, crayons, popsicle sticks, markers and paint for her every year. It makes a great Christmas present.



*Don't forget to do the Target clearance sales after kids go back to school. Eventually lunch boxes and backpacks will go down to $2.49 or so each. I had my kids pick out 2 last year. This year when it is time, they can pick which one they want. The other one will go to an organization that provides school supplies for low-income kids. Everyone wins!





I hope these help!

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Darcilew

LOVE the "whole class" gift idea, especially since the teacher is the one to benefit most. And picking up cheap books throughout the year to throw in is a great idea!

And i also have a few nieces and nephews with summer birthday's so school supplies make great additions to their other "fun" presents. (I think their parents really appriciate it too, they aren't really bargain shoppers so probably pay much more than i do when it's actually time for school to start!)

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Love my little Ashley Lynn (12/14/06)!!!

With glue as cheap as it is right now, here's a fun craft idea. It calls for one cup of glue, which is about two bottles. (I found mine on sale at Walmart for $.22 each)

Homemade Silly Slime

1 c. Elmer’s glue
1 c. water
1 tsp. Borax
1/3 c. water
Food coloring

Mix 1 cup glue and 1 cup water. In a separate bowl mix 1/3 cup water, Borax and food coloring. Add first two ingredients slowly to the Borax mixture and continue to stir until you have obtained a "slimy" texture. Note: Borax can be found in the laundry section of your grocery store.

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Please share how you melt them down with out getting one giant muddy colored crayon. I tried it and all the colors mixed and looked terrible and I didnt know how to form it so just tossed the whole mess! Thank you.

Ah, so many good ideas. You guys make me wish my babe was older so I could participate too. Oh well, all in good time, right? I suppose I shouldn't rush....

Anyways- my ideas. For those of you who are scrappers you can scrap/decopage over the fronts of those comp notebooks. Add some ribbon on to tie the covers shut and you have a pretty nice notebook. The ladies from my MOMS Club did these as gifts for the annual "end of season" meeting. I wish I could give better directions but sadly I wasn't able to help make them this time around.

Right now I'm in the process of going through my old mags and clipping the pieces I like so I can get rid of them. Then I glue the articles down to plain paper to store for later use. I put mine in a binder with some plastic sheet savers but you could probably use a notebook for this too.

Remember those valentines & x-mas cards that hold candy? I'm betting you could throw a pencil or pen in there instead.

i love school supplies and my kids love them to. we use spiral notebooks as coloring books they are a heck of alot cheaper than buying ones at the store and they can use their creativity.

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SILENCE IS GOLDEN BUT DUCK TAPE IS SILVER.

I think I'm going to try that HOMEMADE SILLY SLIME. My Ds would love that...


I also stocked up on a TON of glue sticks since I'm a scapper and LOVE gluesticks...

Don't forget that pencil boxes are a great way to organize, and are usually fairly cheap.

I loved the idea for a gift for the classroom!!!
My daughter's kindergarten class has everything pre-bought and so we just turn in money to the teacher. We went and bought about $8 worth of school supplies and gave them to the 'mission project' at our church that is collecting school supplies for a school district in the area that has many needy families. My kids had alot of fun picking different things out.