How often do you buy schools supplies?

[welly01]

We bought all new school supplies for DS who is in Pre-K. Last week he had his pencil box out coloring when I picked him up. He had the saddest assortment of broken crayons and a few random colors of markers. It's barely 2 months into the school year!!! I'd really like to buy him new markers and crayons but I feel like they'll be lost in a week. Do you check on your kid's school supplies throughout the year? Do you end up buying new stuff throughout the year?

[covergirl82]

If it were my kid, I would buy another box of crayons. My kids' school asks for school supply donations at the beginning of the school year (which is supposed to last the whole year, I guess) to be shared among all students, but I always buy a few extra boxes (while they are on sale in August) of crayons and markers for at home. Sometimes stores have sales on school supplies midway through the school year, so you might have an opportunity to buy a few on sale then for the second half of the school year.

[k3am]

DD is also in PreK. We bought supplies at the beginning of the year, but I haven't thought about it since then. I just assume they'll tell me when more are needed. It may be a poor assumption. (I also assume that she's never going to use brown or black or green until pink and purple and yellow are gone though...)

[justcheckingin73]

I have never checked on their supplies. If the teacher makes a request, I send stuff in or if my kids mention that they need new crayons or pencils, I’ll get some. More often than not, I will get them a new homework folder because they seem to fall apart after being brought home everyday but everything else I don’t even have on my radar. 

[186momx]

Just in August/September. I buy stuff for home since she has a supply fee for school. Last year I sent in extra tissues and hand sanitizer in January as the classroom was out. DD also had a monster cold then so was using them like crazy.
Unless the teacher requests new supplies I wouldn't send in new stuff. The only time I remember my mom buying us new stuff during the year was in middle/high school when we needed different stuff for different classes or our binders died.

[2chatter]

Supplies stay in the classroom and we have a caddy at home. So I really buy annually, until someone leaves all the markets uncapped at home or the teacher emails to request replacements for the classroom.

The classroom supplies are organized per child and so far I have been lucky that mine don't break all of their crayons, scissors, glue - there is definitely a range!

[mellym]

Hmmm...I never checked on DD1's at 4K and the teacher never requested more. The DC provided all of the supplies until then.

[waverly]

Annually. For public school, I signed up for the boxes that also raise money for the PTO, and it is a ton of supplies, so I can't imagine a world in which they run out.

In pre-k, I am going to go on the assumption that the teacher will tell me, and I don't check her supplies except for extra clothing/ jacket.

[sunbutter]

In PreK and K, we brought supplies that were pooled at the beginning of the year.
In older grades, the supplies seemed to last throughout the year.

[kbw]

Ds’s school does those as community items so we don’t check on them. I assume if the teacher needs something she will send a note looking for those items.