Soccer player Louisa (8)
It’s that time of year again! Local stores are advertising 10 cent notebooks, 59 cent pencil boxes, and extra low prices on school supplies. It’s time to take my homeschooled children school shopping and buy them everything they want.
That might sound a bit unnecessary, and extravagant. After all, we already have pencils at home. But, there is nothing like a new pencil box chock full of new supplies—crayons, gluestick, pens, pencils, scissors, pencil sharpener, and more—to give children something fun to look forward to as far as school goes. My kids spent some time choosing the color of their pencil box (apparently a big, important decision), and what to put in it from the store’s extra good sales. When we checkout, perhaps I’ve spent $5 per child, but I consider that an enormous bargain for the amount of enthusiasm it generates! A small price, actually.
One mother had a young daughter than pleaded to go to public school. Homeschool had been happy for her the preceding year, but this little girl could not think of much else as summer ended, and the disappointed mother felt she might have to enroll her daughter. After some wise counsel from an older homeschooling friend, the mother engaged her daughter in a conversation in an effort to find out why she didn’t like homeschooling. As it turned out, the daughter wanted a school lunch-box like her neighbor friends had. This was important to her, and in her young mind, it seemed the a school lunch-box was a privilege of public schooled children. Relieved, the mother took her daughter shopping and let her pick out her favorite lunch-box. She also let her daughter choose little juices, little raisin boxes, and other lunch-box foods. They planned to go on a picnic for lunch on the first day of homeschool. That small investment was all it took to make a very content daughter that was happy to homeschool.
Is it time to go school shopping with your kids?
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