A Bouquet of Sharpened Pencils

"Don't you just love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."  ~ You've Got Mail

Last weekend of summer before school. I feel dread coming upon me. I'm trying to get mentally ready. My youngest son's homework is the bane of the school year. What should only take 1 hour can take up to 3 hours. Some days we start at 4 pm and by 7pm it's still not done. Plus, we've been told by psychologists to give him plenty of breaks in between. Ehh. You can imagine our stress level during the week when dinners have to made, organic and healthy lunches fixed, the daily required reading, other activities, and we got to get to bed at a decent hour.

Technically because of my son's vision problems he is supposed to have his homework reduced by 25%. We do have a valid medical reason for this accommodation. But last year his teacher sent homework on Fridays giving us the weekend to do his homework and eliminating the need for the reduction. This year if it's really bad I'm going to push the accommodation for less homework to be enforced. However, I am torn between forcing him to do all his homework and allowing 25% less. I'm not sure if "Less is More" in this case. If he doesn't do all the lessons will it hurt later on down the road when the lessons get more difficult? It's hard being a parent. There's always a fine line of pushing your kids too hard and babying them. What's the right decision? IDK. I'm praying for guidance and hoping that we have a great teacher again this year who is understanding and patient.

A funny side note: last year when my son's teacher asked him why he wasn't doing his work in class he told her it's because of my ADD and autism. I had to explain to him that DOES NOT excuse him from paying attention and doing his work in class even though I was laughing inside. I guess he overheard me talking to the optometrist about him doing less schoolwork and figured he could get away with this because I never told him he would have less homework.

While on the subject of school, I've been looking for the best bargains on school supplies. Target and Walmart have been disappointing in their sale prices this year. For many years I had a good stock of school supplies, but this past year there have been many requests from organizations for donations of school supplies. I gave most of my stock away. I think many non-profit organizations are having hard times due to the recession.

If you're willing to go shopping on a weekly basis, this is the time of year is when the office supply stores have the best deals. They usually have stuff for pennies. At Office Deport I bought 5 glue bottles and 5 rulers for 1 penny each. 5 is the max they allow. I also got 3-pack erasers for .50 and pack of pencils for .25. You just can't beat those deals. If you don't have kids, buy the penny items and donate them. Last year Starbucks had a basket to donate supplies. Or you can just drop them off at your local elementary school. I'm sure they would appreciate it.

Here's a review on the Ipoint pencil sharpener. This pencil sharpener runs about $12. I actually got it on clearance last year for $2.48, but I just opened the package while sorting thru the supply closet. This is a good buy. It sharpens pencils so sharp they feel like a needle at the tip.

Pencils sharpend with iPoint.

I also found some spiritually uplifting folders and notebooks at Walmart. I was surprised to see them. They are about $1 more expensive than the "regular" notebooks. I bought one anyway to show Walmart people do buy christian products.  Last week I saw these same items in my church bookstore.