The Annual School Supply Scavenger Hunt

I don’t know why I keep thinking that the search for school supplies will get easier every year.  It just doesn’t.  This year, I have three lists, with varying degrees of complicity. 

The Little One’s list is pretty easy.  Things like markers, crayons (which are actually colored pencils), glue sticks, pillow and blanket for nap time, and a box for her nuk when it’s not nap time. 

The Middle Kid’s list had the potential to be difficult, but it has only been two years since I bought all of the same stuff for the big kid.  The more strange the item on the list, the more likely I was to remember it.  Like three little boxes, or a deck of playing cards, or a pair of dice. 

The 3^rd Grader’s list was the toughest.  This year, I learned what “highlighter” and “protractor” are in French.  “Equerre” and “surligneur” respectively.  I'm more than a little bit scared for the homework he's going to need help with.

One problem with all of the lists is that they can be very specific.  For example, they all need pads of paper, and colored paper.  But they all need a different size, and sometimes the teachers specify which weight.  They each need several presentation folders.  (These are plastic folders, with clear plastic pages to insert artwork, etc.)  But each kid needs folders with different numbers of pages, and I’m convinced that sometimes they teachers specify folders with page counts that don’t exist.  Like one kid needed a folder with 50 pages.  But in all the stores I went to, I could only find 40 pages or 60 pages.  Recently, (I think maybe last year) I let go of my type-A need to be exact, which was liberating. This year, if I needed a folder that required 50 pages and I couldn’t find it, I just bought the 60 page one.  It made things much easier.

Another problem is that words don’t translate exactly.  (Something about “French-French” and “Belgian-French”).  So while they are sometimes helpful, my online translator tools and pocket dictionary don’t always cut it. 

I have developed a strategy, though.  And it seems to work year after year, especially in the smaller, specialty paper stores.  I head to the school supply aisle.  I get as much as I can by myself.  Then, I wait until an unsuspecting employee ventures within a two-asile vicinity.  I pick the most obscure things on the list, explain I don’t speak French very well and have them show me what they are.  This year, I started with the protractor and highlighter.  My employee was very patient and helpful this year, and she walked me through about five or six other things.  There were even a few things that she couldn’t figure out, which oddly made me feel a lot better.  After she went on her way, I sorted myself out and realized I only had a few things left.  Next I asked an unsuspecting mom, that took care of another one or two and the rest I’ll figure out later. 

So while the lists don’t get any easier, I suppose my comfort level -- and therefore attitude -- has improved.  Mostly, I’ve just learned to let go of having to do the whole thing perfectly, which has helped the stress level immensely.