I was able to find a lot of supplies at thrift stores and I also pulled from the stuff we still have from last year. Again, this was a lot of work. I see why people just buy new stuff each year. It’s easier. It took several hours shop at resale places, find all of last years stuff and gather everything together. I could have just gone to the store, spent $50 and had supplies for the kids. No hassle.
My friend Mari, who is a school teacher, gave me the stuff I was missing. She had some leftovers and helped me out. I feel weird taking the supplies for free, so I told her I would do some graphic design work for her class.
Now the fun part… Friday night I get to meet the teachers and bring in all of the mostly used supplies. Markers in baggies, crayons in baggies, folders that look like they’ve been run over by a car 1000 times, liquid glue instead of sticks, vintage spiral notebooks and the list goes on. To not embarrass my kids, I’ll try to do this under the radar.
Here’s a cool thing. My church (prestontrail.org) collected backpacks with school supplies for a local elementary school that had kids in need. Our church sure rises to the occasion!! We collected more than we needed for the school, but we were able to help kids at other schools and through Christine, our awesome compassion person, matched up these gifts to kids that would have otherwise had no supplies. Yeah PTCC!
Any chance you found those crayons and markers in baggies at Goodwill in McKinney? You pushed me to go through all of our supplies and package up the millions of crayons and markers we had strewn about. A) I cleaned out the office and the pantry and the junk drawer and B) I kept hoping that someone would really be blessed by all of those supplies!
and PS: yeah, PTCC rocks with the backpacks – I know and love one of the ladies who helped make that happen and she’s simply awesome and I LOVE that she thinks of others so often!
Devil’s advocate speaking once again….
So someone who honestly cannot afford those items for their kids now must go without?
I understand the point you’re trying to make but when it comes to school supplies maybe you should just act within your means. They ask for glue sticks to make life considerable easier on the teachers whose job is hard enough as it is. Now in order to prove a point, they have to deal with glue ending up on tables and the floor and on clothing…etc.
Is purchasing for your kids education and place to prove a point or should we give them the best tools we can in order for them to succeed? Sorry you kind of crossed a line on this one in my opinion.
~ozz~
As always, I appreciate your views. As you posted on my Facebook page, most of the supplies are shared among the class. At some point the teacher might actually need liquid glue.
Just so you know my plan for this evening, I will speak with the boys teachers to let them know what I’m doing and why. I also plan to tell them to let me know if any of the things I’ve done will be a problem for them or for my kids. If there’s an issue, I will evaluate it and come up with a solution.
I’m not doing this to make the teacher’s lives difficult, and on top of that, I have consulted with many teachers throughout this process.
You make good points here. If the teacher says take your liquid glue and ________________ and bring in a stick, I will find a way to do that. :)