School Supplies to Keep at Home

Shopping for school supplies can be simpler than shopping for back-to-school clothes, since most teachers send home lists of classroom necessities. But when your child sits down to do her homework, she'll need these essentials on hand.

Basic Supplies:
The items on this list will take care of most math assignments, book reports, and other written work.

  a box of No. 2 pencils
  pencil sharpener
  2 or 3 ballpoint pens with black or blue ink
  3–4 large erasers
  a bottle of white-out
  white paper
  lined paper
  safety scissors
  transparent tape
  stapler
  staples
  paper clips
  ruler
  calculator (with trig functions for middle-schoolers)
  3 1/2 x 5-inch index cards (for oral presentations and homemade flash cards)

Arts & Crafts Supplies
You might think your 12 year old has outgrown crayons and markers, but older children still do science projects, skits, group research projects, and book reports that require visual presentations. Don't get caught with an empty supply shelf the night before a project's due!

  washable markers
  colored pencils
  crayons
  glue sticks
  construction paper
  2 or 3 large pieces of posterboard
  rubber bands
  yarn
  a collection of old magazines and newspapers for collages