Back to School Countdown!

Photo Caption: Backpack with assorted school supplies including #2 pencils, folders, crayons, and notebooks sitting on a table

It’s back to school time! This is one of my favorite times of year. I love shopping for school supplies, new clothes, and starting up new routines. We’ve had a pretty good summer though and I’ve been dragging my feet just a little this time as I’m not quite ready to send my kids back yet—not ready to trade in our pool time for homework time yet either. Never the less, it’s almost hear and it’s time to get into gear. So, with that, I’m dusting off some blind parent hacks I used to help us have a successful school year. I thought I’d share some of the most helpful ones with you this week as we count down our last week before school starts. Good luck with the new school year and please share any great ideas you have with the rest of us.

Purchasing school Supplies:

There’s nothing more frustrating for me than having to track down customer service to help me locate glossy pocket folders and marble ruled composition notebooks because they generally don’t know what or where these things are, so I spend more time trying to explain it than shopping. . I personally don’t mind browsing through school supplies; and my daughter loves to pick things out, so we haven’t really used customer service in a while for this, but here are a few tips that can make this job a little easier for you.

Target has set up a way for you to access your child’s class supply list on their website. You can then have all the items shipped right to you from the list. You log into their website and select your school, grade, and teacher and Bam! You’re done! Not only does this save you having to use customer service, but you don’t have to take a bus, hire a driver, or pay for an Uber. If you’re a Walmart fan, it may also be worth checking if they offer the same system as Target. I haven’t checked that one out.

Amazon also has a wide selection of school supplies and you can have them shipped right to your door as well. The difference is that I don’t believe you can look up your child’s list, so you’ll need to find this on your school’s website or in your child’s new school year packet. Keep in mind though that you may have to buy a package of folders or pencils rather than just one or two in a specific color because of the warehouse nature of Amazon. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you also don’t have to pay shipping, thus saving you time and money again. Awesome!

One last strategy is to get the extended family involved. That’s what we did this year. My husband’s father likes being involved in this kind of thing and volunteered to do this for us this year. So, we emailed him our daughter’s list and he picked up all the items for us and shipped them to us which was really helpful and saved me some time. I still browsed the isles in the store later, just because I’m a nerd and like this stuff, but at least some of the pressure to “find the right thing” was off.

Happy Shopping however you do it!