Do You Reuse......?

They get sent to school with new supplies (that's part of the fun of back to school!) but then as the year progresses, they use last year's stuff. I'm not made of money. If it works, we use it!! I only buy new stuff as needed; I can always find TWO new pencils for the first day of school ;)

We always buy new and keep the old ones at home for use at home. I think they should start the year off fresh and clean.

In our school, most of the supplies for the class are pooled together. We aren't guaranteed that the exact supplies we bring will go to our son. And at the end of the year, we do not get back most of what we put in. My son might bring home 15 broken erasers but no colored pencils. We have no choice but to buy everything new.
I was surprised this year our list calls for *60* pencils for each 3rd,4th, and 5th grader. I wonder if each kid really needs a new pencil every 3 days. Or are they just inflating the numbers to cover kids who don't bring supplies?

I do some of each.. This year ds needed three boxes of colored pencils--all of which are pooled, same with markers, erasers, etc. I sent a new box of each and a baggie full of old. And we still have a stash at home. I sent in 40 new pencils and 20 not-quite-new. I agree that it is ALWAYS fun to have new things, but really, it is not being environmentally conscious to teach our kids that everything has to be brand new. They do get new spirals and folders-those are not shared and that is where we have our fun and they (sometimes) get to show their personal taste (except when the teacher specifies that they must have a red, a yellow and a blue folder. That's a bummer!)

Andif they need a new spiral in May, we pull a used one out of the box if there is one there. I think it is better overall to teach to reuse and recycle.

Like Jess in Tx said we do the same. I still have my 22 yo sons first ruler and pair of scissors. We just pass the down.
I also only put first initials and last names on things like scissors and stuff.

The teacher shouldn't care. The other kids may joke with her or make fun of her about not being able to buy new stuff. So just keep that in mind. If my son were in school, I'd likely reuse scissors, rulers, and stuff like that, but buy him a fresh set of markers/pencils/crayons.

I am buying new for the school year, but add all the ones that were from last year--to a special craft box at home. That way he has what he needs but we use the others just the same.

M

I always liked to start my children out fresh each year too! Bag the pencils, crayons, etc and donate them to your local Goodwill, nursing home, or shelter.

If they are pretty much unused I sent the same ones. But if they are used down to stubs buy new ones. They always have them on sale so cheap at this time of year. Keep a box of craft stuff at home. (we actually used to keep a bag in the car that was for when we went out to eat. it had markers, crayons, colored pencils and paper in it. each kid had their own spiral notebook for when we ate out. they could color and draw while waiting for the food.

I send what we have. Some times I had to buy new sometimes I didn't.

If you are rich, it doesn't make any difference, except your cast-offs will fill our landfills unnecessarily. I recycled before it became politically correct.

BTW, we shop the back to school sales and buy for the entire year. I pay about 2 cents each for pencils

Good luck to you and yours.

My kids school pools all the stuff together so the only things we get back are rulers, scissors and stuff like that.

So nothing to go back, ya know? If I did have stuff I sure as heck would send it back.

some things i reuse others we don't. with 3 kids in school, and after homeschooling 2 of them for 3 years, we have a huge stash of stuff. Rulers we reuse, folders if they are in good shape, scissors, pencils I sharpen at home for them to take (i'm only homeschooling 1 of the kids this year) so most of those aren't exactly "new". Crayons and colored pencils, again I have 3 kids in different grades, so different things get used more than others, so i generally can come up with one fresh box of each that i don't have to buy, and that doesn't look like it came from last year. Short, broken, or those peeled of paper crayons go in our home use collection. Markers if they aren't dried out we reuse as well. Oh and backpacks.

I send new ones to school and keep what ever is left from the previous year to add to our art supplies. They have so many projects during the year we end up going through a lot at home.

Only if they have been rarely used. When they were younger and used them more I bought them new every year. At the middle school level it has been different. I use the old supplies at home. Pencils, markers, and crayons have their own bins.

I throw out the old ones and buy all new ones. At my house it seems impossible to keep the crayons, pencils, colored pencils, markers, chalk all separate so each of my 3 kids have them all in a big container. So I buy a new set for school and a new set for home and kind of 'start over'. Good luck!