Once they hit secondary schools, above grade 7 or 8, the lists stop being sent out. I would much rather that the lists continued instead of waiting until the first week of school and then trying to find school supplies that the secondary teachers demand. Sales are over by September. The question of mom and dad or the kids get to choose is not the entire question....the school dictates much of the choice in the lower grades. The elementary schools that I have dealt with told us what kind of folders - color, no "trapper" folders, no characters; the kind of crayons - washable, not washable, primary color only; the type of backpack - size, not wheeled, etc. As mine got older there was more leeway given by the school and my kids got 80% of the choice (then it was the cost determined by us parents). Wait until you have to have a graphing calculator and school has started -- then you don't get it on sale or it's hard to find. My youngest is a senior this year....YAY!! When they were younger...school supply shopping would run 60-90 dollars per kid, depending on if they needed a new backpack or if a big expense item was needed.

For the most part, I shopped alone for the school supplies and used the list. If I took the kids; then I took them at a non-peak time and handed them the list and I would be waiting for them out of the chaos of the school supply area.

I ordered all of my first grader's school supplies through a PTA program. Does anyone else have that option?

For all parents out there: If you have children (especially girls around middle school age) and want to save on the cost of buying decorated folders and notebooks, encourage them to decorate their own. Some of my best memories is getting my plain folders and taking them over to my best friends house to decorate. We looked at magazines and newspapers to cut out letters and pictures we liked and just taped or glued them on. Great activity to get the brain working before school starts!

I reuse many if the items from the last year. Most if the time at the end of the year they come home with markers, red pens, pencils, glue, scissors, ruler, etc. Then we just need to get a few items like folders, Kleenex, etc.

The Dollar Tree off of Cedar Ave on 153rd Street almost always has good quality spiral bound notebooks. I buy envelopes there as well. They have a good selection of school supplies.

Sorry, I meant to say that Dollar Tree store is in Apple Valley.

I just order through the PTO. Given the time and hassle of trying to find everything on the list - it just wasn't worth me trying to track it all down.