This is the list suggested for American students; the average American family will spend nearly $100 on school supplies this fall, according to data from the National Retail Federation. Translated into euros, that is 69 €.
In France, the cost is, on average 190.82€ ($276.25 USD) for the equivalent of 7th grade (M#1), and while the French government says that this is a drop of 7.67% from last year and the first in 24 years, the Confédération syndicale des familles, says there is an increase of 0.36%. I'm going with the Confédération on this one.
It is not the cost that is driving me crazy; it is the sheer amount of crap and the way it is expressed that is making me chèvre (goat - tis a strange language, go figure). We were mailed a list at the end of the month of June; it was an A4 (our equivalent of 8 1/2 x 11 paper, which is 8.27 x 11.69 inches), printed on both sides of the page (I would post a scan, but I lost the paper... OOOPS. So if you want to see the typed version, click here - thanks to the neighbors upstairs for letting me borrow it last night at 9 p.m.).
It is all in French, obviously, and even I, after about 17 odd years here learned new words and makes me very aware of the fact that I'm still a stranger in a strange land (great book, btw, if you haven't read it, you should).
When I was in school in the U.S., I remember using college-ruled paper but you wouldn't get yelled at if you had wide ruled paper instead. We had Pee-chee folders that we would personalize and Mead blue binders in high school (Trapper Keepers were the thing to have in Jr High). You had your number 2 pencil and the bic combo pen and who cared what else?
In France, forget it. You have two different size composition books with a a bizillion different numbers of pages, and you have to decide between classic binding and spirals (French teachers don't like spirals). You have thin and thick binders. You have simple and double paper, each can be in large size or small size, and each of those four can be with small squares or large squares (large squares are sometimes, but not always called Seyes. (Why? WTF do I know??) Sometimes you need perforated sheets, sometimes not, some have to be blue. You need music sheets. You need plain A4 paper. Tracing paper, Millimeter paper, A3 paper. Seriously!
And, they don't have lockers and their schedules change (here is M#1s schedule), so can you just imagine what fun we are having with the shared custody? I bought the school supplies and he has run 3 times between our houses making sure he has everything he needs, and that is just today.
Not to mention the fact that they asked that we buy workbooks, which I had specially ordered, just to find that they were given to the students today. Oh, and can you please cover all books by the end of the week in transparent plastic (what ever happened to recycling paper grocery bags??) please? Ok? Thanks.
OK, ranting makes me tired so I'm going to bed - well, that and I have to get up at 6:15 so he can be at school at 7:55... I love being a mom.
Oh, by the way, he looked at me as we were piling stuff in his back pack for tomorrow and said "You know, maybe I won't have kids after all. They are too much work." Amen to that.
In France, the cost is, on average 190.82€ ($276.25 USD) for the equivalent of 7th grade (M#1), and while the French government says that this is a drop of 7.67% from last year and the first in 24 years, the Confédération syndicale des familles, says there is an increase of 0.36%. I'm going with the Confédération on this one.
It is not the cost that is driving me crazy; it is the sheer amount of crap and the way it is expressed that is making me chèvre (goat - tis a strange language, go figure). We were mailed a list at the end of the month of June; it was an A4 (our equivalent of 8 1/2 x 11 paper, which is 8.27 x 11.69 inches), printed on both sides of the page (I would post a scan, but I lost the paper... OOOPS. So if you want to see the typed version, click here - thanks to the neighbors upstairs for letting me borrow it last night at 9 p.m.).
It is all in French, obviously, and even I, after about 17 odd years here learned new words and makes me very aware of the fact that I'm still a stranger in a strange land (great book, btw, if you haven't read it, you should).
When I was in school in the U.S., I remember using college-ruled paper but you wouldn't get yelled at if you had wide ruled paper instead. We had Pee-chee folders that we would personalize and Mead blue binders in high school (Trapper Keepers were the thing to have in Jr High). You had your number 2 pencil and the bic combo pen and who cared what else?
In France, forget it. You have two different size composition books with a a bizillion different numbers of pages, and you have to decide between classic binding and spirals (French teachers don't like spirals). You have thin and thick binders. You have simple and double paper, each can be in large size or small size, and each of those four can be with small squares or large squares (large squares are sometimes, but not always called Seyes. (Why? WTF do I know??) Sometimes you need perforated sheets, sometimes not, some have to be blue. You need music sheets. You need plain A4 paper. Tracing paper, Millimeter paper, A3 paper. Seriously!
And, they don't have lockers and their schedules change (here is M#1s schedule), so can you just imagine what fun we are having with the shared custody? I bought the school supplies and he has run 3 times between our houses making sure he has everything he needs, and that is just today.
Not to mention the fact that they asked that we buy workbooks, which I had specially ordered, just to find that they were given to the students today. Oh, and can you please cover all books by the end of the week in transparent plastic (what ever happened to recycling paper grocery bags??) please? Ok? Thanks.
OK, ranting makes me tired so I'm going to bed - well, that and I have to get up at 6:15 so he can be at school at 7:55... I love being a mom.
Oh, by the way, he looked at me as we were piling stuff in his back pack for tomorrow and said "You know, maybe I won't have kids after all. They are too much work." Amen to that.
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