You know the ones that you MUST buy for your children ‘cause you love them and you want them to have an awesome year! Not required necessarily, but a little something special or extra ‘cause you now they will need it Maybe it is an item on the “school supply” list that really isn’t requested enough of (like glue sticks or report folders) and you ALWAYS run out and have to pay FULL Price (gasp) in the middle of the year.

Does anyone else over stock on school supplies for Christmas stocking stuffer? How about Operation Christmas Child? What about .25 or .50 flipflops on clearance? Those make great items for shoe boxes at Christmas time since lots of countries receiving them are in hot climates.

Our MUST HAVES:

Lots and lots of glue sticks for lapbooks and TOT SCHOOL                                                               Tons of notebooks– spiral or composition                                                                                                   BLANK journals/ Sketch pads– anything you can create comics on                                                  Colored pencils-crayons are NOT allowed in our cars. We prefer twistables!                                                                                                                                               Mechanical pencils– mostly for mom and dad for college                                                                   3-ring binders– never can have enough of these in 1”, 2” or 3”                                                  Index cards– blank or lined                                                                                                                   New socks and underwear-hopefully on sale and with a coupon or special deal!                 New shoes– my oldest has holes in his soles of both pairs he has been wearing all summer long. Now to scour clearance racks to find new ones!                                                                  Foam core board or Science Tri-fold board– just in case we need it for Homeschool Art Display or for stop motion videos or some other creative project. Those guys are way too expensive to buy after sales are over unless one sneaks into a clearance isle somewhere, lol.

What are your must have school supplies? I would love to hear what unusual things your family needs or thinks of?