Yesterday officially started the Back To School season at the Houseful Of Nicholes!
The Cellist is starting 8th grade (and btw, he requested to start playing his cello again – SCORE!)
Ladybug will be in PK-5, Lil Miss and Sir Twizzler will be in PK-3 and I’ll have my nephew (don’t have a spy name for him yet) will bein PK-4 (probably more so along with the Ladybug)
So. What does back to school look like in our houseful? Thanks to my good friends at Staples who provided some neat things for my houseful this year, it means it’s a little bit easier. It means plenty of trips to stores like Staples to help keep us together for the school year. With their #Stapleshasit campaign, I can rest assured knowing that what I need, and what the kids like (okay, what I like too) will be available to me for a reasonable price.
Organization, organization, and more organization. Just so we’re clear though, organization over this way doesn’t necessarily mean that my house is spotless. It just means that I may be working in organized chaos. No judgment.
One of the things that MUST be organized in our house are our massive amounts of writing tools, so why not go back in retro style with Lego themed pencil boxes? #stapleshasit
I am also loving the flexible calculators (that I happen to use for orders, and those pesky fractions that I sometimes have to figure out)
It’s all in the supplies. And THOSE supplies are lighting up with TONS of neon color! It reminds me a lot of the early 80’s. I keep getting images of frizzy hair and what not.
With the cellist, since he carries a tablet, we want to make sure that it’s protected. Given that he’s in 8th grade, he wants to make sure that it’s not something juvenile. Enter the Jansport tablet protector. It looks like a mini backpack, and keeps his technology safe
While it’s easy to outfit his tablet, it hasn’t been that easy to outfit his actual backpack. No worries though, because there are plenty of styles and colors available to you. With names such as Jansport, Puma and Reebok, you’re sure to find a great style and support for those books and papers.
One of the things that really caught my attention this year is their Reward A Classroom program. If you’ve been a parent or a teacher, for any length of time, you’ll know that teachers spend a whopping amount of their own cash on supplies for their classrooms. On average it’s about $356 out of pocket each year that they teach.
To help educators throughout the school year, Staples is introducing the Reward-A-Classroom program. In addition to the five percent in Staples Rewards® all members earn, parents can now earn extra Rewards for a teacher of their choice when they link their Rewards account. Here’s what teachers get when parents participate in Reward-A-Classroom and shop:
- Five percent back in Rewards on every Copy & Print purchase
- Two percent back in Rewards on everything else
Additionally, for their own purchases educators can earn five percent back in Rewards on everything, including technology and services, plus an additional five percent back in Rewards on teaching and art supplies through the Teacher Rewards program. All Rewards members receive free shipping on Staples.com orders, with next day delivery to 98 percent of the U.S.
Now that we’ve told you how great Staples is, how about I give you a $25 gift card to check it out yourself? Deal? Enter here to win one for yourself before that school supply shopping gets too hectic!
Click to enter and remember the blog post comment is MANDATORY. If you don’t comment, no matter what else you do, you won’t be able to win. I really, really, really want you to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Two 8 ct boxed of Crayola Crayons, regular size, not large.
Really? 8 crayons? Just 8? My kid will be shaking from withdrawal if he only has 8 crayons. It’s kindergarten! Isn’t half of what they’re doing drawing & coloring??
And where am I even supposed to find these?? Every 8-ct box I find has the large crayons (’cause the only kids who are satisfied with 8 crayons are the ones just barely learning to hold a crayon). Am I special ordering these crayons? ‘Cause that’s not happening,
I sent him with 24 ct boxes. And I’m considering buying a couple of the 150 ct telescoping towers of crayons for the class.
I don’t know because we homeschool… so I guess I don’t know how on earth we go through so many glue sticks and pencils in a year! We use about 100 regular pencils up and some mechanical pencils between our 3 kids still in homeschool.
Maybe this sounds funny but for me is hard to find construction paper!
I am fortunate to have a simple school supply list , Thank you for the chance to win!
This year we had NO supply list, that freaked me out!
Why do we have to supply three pens? The school knows kids will need more than that.
My daughter is in preschool, so a lot of items that her teachers ask for are recyclable things (toilet paper rolls, etc.).
I know it sounds crazy but why is it necessary for them to have (24) all their pencils sharpened when they go to school. Don’t they have pencil sharpeners at school?
Great blog post! Love, love, love those calculators! Madison will go for any thing pink!
I’m the student. Does that count? LOL The weirdest and best supply is that we can buy any textbook we want as long as it covers the class subject matter.
I have four children and cannot count the number of times I have made a school supply run to Staples. The always seem to have what we need.
I’ve shared this with my friends. Thanks so much for the giveaway. You always have the hookup.
School started 7/22 for my son, so I have to think back. I think the item we had most issues with was finding the “wide ruled” composition notebook.
My kids are required to have map colors and colored markers. I would think one of the two would be sufficient.
I would love to home school Reid and a few other children. My oldest started Home School in the 10th grade and completed his GED within 2years so he entered into college a year early…if I had known of a Home School Program when he was younger I would have placed him there much sooner..You are doing a great job Mrs. Houseful!
The twistable colored pencils, this one totally got me!
Well… Seeing as though I am starting homeschool with the 4yo – there is no real “list” however she has requested alphabet and number charts so she can “do her calculations”
We just started pre-school at home, so no list for us. Next year will be a different story since my daughter will be in kindergarten 🙂
Not sure I get the need for crayons anymore
The lack of supply list worries me… what does it mean? What are they going to pounce on me at the last minute??????
While not necessarily weird, one of the most difficult things to find were jumbo pencils!
Regular AND mechanical pencils. Do the mechanical ones hold some mystical writing skills that the traditional ones don’t? I am STILL trying to figure it out….