What are the must-have Back-to-School items your child actually need? This is a question every parent is facing right now. Fortunately, the answer to it is quite simple. Here are the Top 5 Things that you might not know that are absolutely essential for your child to be prepared for the upcoming academic year.
Primary School
If you’re a young parent and this is the first year your child is going to school, then be prepared – things will get lost. It’s inevitable, but in order to avoid this little disaster for as much as possible buy here sticky labels. You will need to place them on everything: notebooks, PE kit, uniform.
The second item on our list is lunchbox. Unless your school is providing your child with hot food, it’s crucial to have a lunchbox. Since from Year 1 till Year 3, your child will be spending lots of time outdoors, it will be good to carry some snack and a water bottle to stay hydrated and full of energy.
Another essential item that most of the parents usually forget to buy is notebook. Your school may not have told you, but usually curriculum expects you to do 60% of studying at home. So, get a notebook and be prepared to revise for those spelling tests every week.
Don’t forget to get some extra reading books and maths workbooks! Your school will be teaching your child how to read, write and do maths, but it’s your job to daily revise the content at home and do something extra to develop your child’s mental intelligence.
Secondary School
There are some things that your child must have that are very similar to primary, such as sticky labels (you still don’t want any stuff to get lost!). But other than that, it’s essential for your child to have colouring pens. There will be tons and tons of school projects that will require to unleash your child’s creativity through bright colours and vivid imagery. Also, don’t forget that colours help your child to remember things better!
Moving down our list, it’s ought to be said that folders and subject dividers are the most essential things for your child to have to keep up with the schoolwork. This is no longer Primary – there will be more subjects, more content to learn and stay organized and know which homework is due for which subject.
The last but not least item in our Secondary list is printer. Surprised? Since the growth of technology is rapidly increasing, your child will be required to type up lots of essays, reports or even research notes. Most of the schools in Dubai are not taking the responsibility to print out your child’s homework, so unless you have lots of free time and an available printer at work, buy a printer to use at home.
High School
Even though your teenager seems to be responsible enough to get their own school stuff, you should remind of the essentials in case he or she might forget. The first item on this list is obviously folders and subject dividers. If in Secondary there is lots of content and lots of deadlines, then in High School there is even more. If your child isn’t staying organized, he or she might not be able to keep up with the heavy schoolwork.
Another very important item is highlighters. In the last years of school, your child will receive so many textbooks and so much material to learn for the end of the year exams that it’s absolutely crucial for them to colour code the important bits for their revision. Yes, things are getting intense. Something that thousands of high schoolers found incredibly useful is having flashcards. Despite the innovative technology, don’t underestimate the skill of writing down your notes. According to countless psychological studies into memory, your child learns better if he or she semantically process the information – in simple words, learn things by writing them out in their own words.
On a lighter note, let’s not forget the most obvious item on our list – maths kit. You will be surprised how many times one might lose a compass or a protractor and believe me, teachers will be emailing and pestering you for the lack of equipment.
Overall, let’s just avoid angry emails from teachers and make sure that our children have the most modern must-haves Back-to-School items.
*By Lucy Multairova, Junior Writer
