I'll use any excuse...even the National Boards

I love school supplies. 

One of my fondest memories of late August/early September is looking at the supply list teachers provided, knowing I was about to embark on a grand trip of organization.  I'm sure my mom would share a different vision of a wide-eyed girl gazing at supplies, taking her time in handpicking the perfect eraser tops for her pencils, notebook, reams of paper, and pencil pouch while her mother stood screaming at her siblings patiently, waiting for the eager girl to pick out the very notebook that was sure to bring academic success

School supplies always symbolized the start of something new and undiscovered..  Projects yet to be designed.  Pages and pages of paper to be filled with adolescent thoughts (i.e. notes to friends).  Pencils that begged to be sharpened.  And the organization of it all brought a thrill of euphoria that is best described as

Pure Nerdiness.

Sadly, I don't have much excuse to use school supplies as a PE teacher.  But I do love to create a list of supplies that I think I will need just to experience the excitement of their arrival before school starts.  Secretly, there is a small part of me that believes I went into teaching solely for the use of school supplies.  

My inner nerd lives on.

So, yesterday after my first National Boards meeting, I faced the task of organizing this ENORMOUS stack of paperwork (yes, that is close to 300 pages of INSTRUCTION for this program!) into some semblance of order.

I hit Staples after my meeting and found these lovelies just waiting for me.  

5 notebooks, packets of dividers, pocket pouches (for collecting evidence of work, dontcha know), and paper.  I could have browsed that store for hours.  But I had a run to fit in and a man waiting at home for date night so I grabbed my purchases and was out the door.

This morning, my bestest helper and I put ourselves to work, organizing "Mommy's school".

We laid it all out in front of us.  We stacked papers into piles.  We hole punched pages and pages of paper.

We opened and closed notebooks (and never pinched a finger!) and placed dividers just right.

And when all was said and done, we experienced the utopia of organization!  I don't know if Alexander will inherit this school supply nerdiness from his mom.  I'd like to hope he will have some sort of self organizational system because of what I see with students who don't.  Without organizational skills, so many students struggle within the school system.  

Even he doesn't, I know at least one nerd person will be excited to see the school supply list every fall.

National Boards. 

Let the games begin.