Extra School Supplies at Home?

I always kept a stock at home, actually, I still do because it is just habit.

A mainstay was always markers, colored pencils, crayons, graph paper, extra notebooks, erasers, pencils, rulers, protractor, and pretty much you name it. I had a large bin in my pantry that was all school supplies.

Today, most of it has dwindled and my bin is not nearly as full but you can bet my junior in college daughter goes through it when she comes over for dinner weekly to see if there is anything she needs. :)

It was harder for me to keep the poster board and keep it in pristine condition. Most of the time, I ran to Staples for that.

I buy the whole school supply list in double.

One for home and one for school.

When everything is on sale it is no big deal.

We have so many extra colored pencils at home that I didn't even buy any for school this year. I sorted through what we had and was able to put together two 24-color packs of slightly used colored pencils in plastic slider boxes.

We've always had a stock of basic art supplies at home. I also keep new for-school supplies in a little cabinet. Boxes of pencils, bottles of glue, note cards, highlighters, etc. are in a drawer. Extra notebooks, folders and such are on the shelves. After elementary school, they tend to go through a lot of notebooks in class so it is best to stock up on those when they are cheap on sale. When they need some for school and tell me at 9:05pm the night before, I have that kind of stuff on hand.

It's the less usual stuff that ends up surprising me. Like the year I discovered I should keep a spare compass and protractor at home. Or when one kid needed a composition notebook, but I only had regular lined writing comp books and he needed a graph paper comp book.

Special projects materials are the things that suck. Sometimes a run to a craft shop or office supply can't be avoided. It annoys me, especially at the last minute, but I try to remind myself that I'm fortunate to be able to make that run.

ha! smart idea!
when my kids were in school i don't think i ever kept 'extras' hanging around. we were broke, i was frazzled, and our little house was so cramped. when we started homeschooling, of course, we always had a lot of stuff on hand, and stuff more tailored to us rather than what the school list said to buy.
i never have kept poster board on hand, though, weirdly. that's one thing that i've always only bought as needed.
khairete
S.

We have a "homework toolbox." It is an actual plastic toolbox I purchased from WalMart. In it are the "usual" items needed to finish just about any regular homework project - glue, colored pencils, regular pencils, erasers, an extra calculator, crayons, markers, note cards, etc. I almost always have extra paper on hand somewhere, but I do have graph paper in the box just in case that is needed. I have had this system for about 6 years and I use left overs from the end of the prior year when the kids clean out their lockers to restock it.

Good luck!

I have a rolling plastic cabinet that has all extra school supplies

Scissors
Glue
Composition books
Color markers
tape
lined paper
colored pencils
letters (your know the ones you affix for projects)

We just went through and verified that the markers are all working. Any that weren't were thrown out.

Since this cart is next to my hutch, I have the large boards for projects. There is no excuse not to get work done!! :)

I would PREFER NOT to run and grab. It makes life more difficult. I tell my boys - lack of planning on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on my part....they have to learn to plan and think ahead at some point, right?

Hmmm...I don't keep a deliberate stash but that would probably be a good idea. If things come in a multi-pack and there are leftovers, those stay at home (e.g. teacher specifies 3 red pens, the come in a 10 pack, 7 will be at my house). Also, anything usable left over from the year before stays at home. Right now it's really just a mishmash of extras and leftovers thrown together in a box. We've got 4 kids and this is the 13th year of school for the two oldest so I've accumulated A LOT of stuff over the years but I should probably organize it so that when they need to make a poster or whatever, I know exactly what we have on-hand and can direct them to the supplies vs. counting on them to rummage through a bin of broken crayons and dried-out markers and glue sticks.

ETA: I'm with TF on the poster board. I used to try to buy tri-fold boards and posterboard in multiples but we either had the wrong size/color/thickness or it ended up warped from humidity or beat up. I gave up on that and just buy it as needed. Luckily I live near a Staples that's open until 9 PM most nights.

Dollar Tree is great for alot of the items for extras to have on hand. I keep an area with alot of art supplies along with extra school supplies.

We usually have extra stuff on hand, but this year I made sure to grab an extra blue and black ultra fine Sharpie!

Also, when they are required to have 4 packs of looseleaf and full packs of black, blue and red pens, etc. I keep most of this at home and he grabs it as he needs it.

IMO, they do need some stock at home for just that reason. Another set of pencils, some paper and glue - doesn't hurt to have. Buy them cheaply and set them aside. We have her use old crayons and such for home (why buy more?) and send the new ones to school.

Since supplies run out before the school year is over, we always get extra of just about everything during school supply sales.
Also - we try SO hard to get school work completed Friday or Sat so we avoid doing things last minute on Sun night.
"The quickest way to fun is to get the work done" - so weekend fun doesn't start till homework is finished - and then Sunday is so much more relaxing!

I always bought extra notebook paper at the beginning when it was on sale.... and I frequently just gave my kids an extra pack to put in their locker at school in case they needed it at school.

Plenty of extra pencils, too..... markers, pens, erasers/eraser caps, spiral notebooks..... an extra composition book, index cards (for flash cards, etc.)

Lots to think about and buy at the beginning of school, I know......

My kids are in college and high school now and I can't remember ever NOT having everything we needed at home, I mean, unless we ran out of something of course.
Maybe that's because art and office supplies have always been a part of our family life.

I have accumulated a good stock over the years, and still over buy at back-to-school time. (I have a senior and a freshman this year).

I keep multipacks of colored sharpie pens, sticky note pads, multiple packs of index cards, black pens, blue pens, mechanical pencils (and standard pencils), scientific calculator, glue sticks, graph paper, notebook paper, 3 prong folders, regular and half-sized poster board, glue gun and glue sticks and tape.
We've also accumulated various colors of duct tape, paint, modeling clay, yarn, play doh, pom pom balls, pipe cleaners and glitter.

In 7th grade, my daughter came home planning to make a model of a dog. We STILL had to go to Michael's and get foam balls to glue all the yarn to!
Oh... And be sure your computer printer has a back up stock of black AND colored ink! It's never a good time to run out of ink. :)

we are an artsy/craftsy family and even before having one in school i kept most of that stuff on hand. now that i got one in school i definitely make sure there are things on hand for when we need it.

When the school supplies go on clearance I keep extra notebooks, filler paper, folders, pens, pencils and erasers. Anything basically they will run out of during the year. And I have a couple backup backpacks too. My kids already have colored pencils at home so I don't keep extra and they have passed the crayon stage. My son has a pencil case that has 2 sections in it and he keeps regular pencils and pens on one side and his colored pencils on the other. He keeps it in his backpack so he has them for both school and home.

We don't have much at home that's not regular stuff for crafts or paper and pencils. I figure if a kiddo brings home homework that requires school supplies they should have done it at school in their break time or when they got finished with something else. Our kids do this and hardly ever bring home anything. Our schools don't assign busy work to bring home. They only bring home unfinished work from school.

If my kiddo suddenly stated they had an assignment that was due and didn't have the supplies they need then they will have their own consequences at school.

If they needed colored pencils and only had crayons then that would be done in crayon. We always have those at home so kids can color if they want to.

I usually only have on hand what was overbought already, but it seems like the kids are always running out of post it notes and note cards.

Hmm. great question.

I've never really deliberately made a point to have these things. Starting before preschool, we always had crayons, scissors and pencils.

As he is getting older I see where the needs might change too. I'm glad you asked this question.

This year we had a lot of duplicates because my grandma kept buying him supplies lol. So I will have to take a look at our stock and set up a special tool box like someone mentioned. Great ideas!

note cards, notebook paper, mechanical pencils, pens, colored pencils, erasers, folders, notebooks, 3 ring binders... when they are cheap - like a quarter or so - then i buy as many as allowed, up to 21, so hopefully i never have to buy at full price

Poster board!
Pencils, by the gross it seems--both kinds.
Those brass fasteners for reports.
Pocket folders.
College lined loose leaf paper
Extra calculator
Index cards
Glue sticks & spray mount
Sharpies of every color
Colored pencils
Pens
Graph paper
Binder tabs

I keep a stock of all the basics. I buy them when they go on sale.