Project 4: School Items

a yearly major project, this one. last year we didn't worry too much about preparing school items. i mean how difficult would it be right, uniforms are available everywhere, shoes too, books just buy per the list, then a little stationeries here and there and you're sorted.

well, that's not necessarily the case. you need to actually know how many uniforms to buy and prepare. the main reason for that is once the school year begins, you can't for the love of God, find uniforms sold anywhere! i don't understand that concept actually. what if you need to replenish your uniform stock half-way through the year. yes you can still buy at specialized stores but what if you're inclined to certain brands or what if the size you want is not available (they probably run out of white & blue cloth). and if you get more than you need, spares just in case, what if the children grow too big for them.

then books. you're all prepared with the list, then lo and behold, they run out of stock. so you have to come back again. or you're all prepared, taking leave to buy books, and you see a long, long queue, for some reason everyone buys on the same day. and stationeries...gosh...its never enough! you should have 365 pencils per child, 365 erasers per child, 52 boxes of colour pencils, because there's stationery goblins lurking around in their bags.

so yes, a list is important, an agenda is a necessity, a back-up plan is very helpful.

we went out to get the uniforms first. very early, in fact on the first weekend of the school holidays, when many stores haven't even started selling. thank heavens for good ol' jusco. we bought 1 uniform per day for both SRA & SK. boys and white uniforms don't get along! good thing the school issued out a memo about boys being able to wear baju melayu on fridays so we got more of baju melayu and less of shirts and long pants. on the same weekend we bought school shoes. 2 each, in case the father forgets to wash.

once the uniforms are settled, we went out to get bags & stationeries. 2 bags, of course, for SRA and for SK. we bought 1 for amir, initially last year. but we realized that its better for him to prepare his books at night before going to sleep then having to rush in between the 2 sessions, which he would have to if he had only 1 bag. and no bags with wheels. its horrible! i thought it would ease the burden of the students, them wheels, but i didn't think of the stairs in school, which would require them to carry the bags anyway. and bags without wheels lasted longer than those with. the boys got the bags they wanted, avengers and spiderman. spiderman was easier to get compared to avengers (i actually bought them before the holidays began) but luckily parkson had the avengers stock out before we resort to other bags. stationery shopping was nice, though. i like buying pencils and pens and erasers and all those. took the boys on a quick trip to dincy down the road to get them.

books had to wait until the book store in school opened. i went on the first day the books were available. good thing the boys had their holiday programme on the same day. went quite early and the queue wasn't too long. but each person took a long time, maybe because the syllabus is new and the staff weren't too familiar with the books. plus quite a few books were not yet available. i got most of them but had to come back in a couple of weeks to complete the set. the boys had programme the whole week, so i had some time to wrap the books, label them and prepare their work books. after the second visit, all books are prepared. now i'm just waiting for school to open for the class teachers to provide the text books and some time to wrap them.

so now, 2 weeks & counting till school re-opens, we're pretty much settled with all the school items. we have a bit more to go - blue sampins for SK (since there's none to carry forward from last year), SRA books (since we have not received the list yet) and a trip to get the badges & name tags sewn (which i hope can be done this week). apart from that, we're pretty much set for the next school year.

uniforms - that's almost 20 sets!

bags - yes, a lot but akmal's not getting a new bag.

books - all wrapped.

shoes - 2 each and akmal's BBG.