Back To School Must-Have’s for High School Students

Back to school is here and in full-force!  Summer has come and gone.  The end of summer vacation puts an end to spur of the moment plans, sleeping in and relaxed schedules.  The end of summer also means it’s time to go shopping for all those back to school needs.  All through elementary and middle school you are prepped with a back to school supply list but when you get to the high school level you don’t need a list, you just get what you like or think you’ll need and nothing more.  I am going to take you on a little shopping journey to what my teenaged and college-aged kids use for their every day back to school needs. 

I have very picky kids when it comes to school supplies.  They like what they like and I can’t get away with buying the super cheapo things like I did when they were younger.  (The following links are affiliate links.  To learn more, visit my disclosure page here.)

Pens

The BIC Cristal 1.6mm Bold pens are smooth and come in a variety of colors.

For gel pens, the Pilot Acroball pen is as good as they get!

Highlighters

Our favorite all-time highlighter is the Sharpie highlighter.  We get a big and small size.  Both are clear view.

Pencils

Mechanical pencils are where it’s at!  My kids have been using mechanical pencils since 6th grade and they haven’t looked back.  As long as they have a comfort grip, all is good.  We like the Paper-Mate brand best.

Page Dividers With Pockets

In high school, my kids like to carry as little as possible because they just don’t have time to get to their lockers to swap things out so they end up carrying every.thing.with.them!  And I mean everything!  Their backpacks are so heavy!  So to help ease the load they carry one binder that has page dividers with pockets to eliminate the need for extra folders.  

Paper

One kid likes loose leaf paper the other prefers a spiral notebook.  We really love our Mead/Five Star products!  They will only use these and they like to color coordinate for each class.

We use these because they can be customized (you can slide a piece of paper in the cover to create your own cover)

Calculator

When they get to high school based on their math class, you will most likely need to make a hefty investment in a good quality calculator that does everything from basic math to graphing to statistics to complex equations.  The Texas Instrument TI-84 Plus CE is their newest addition to the calculating family and it’s a color graphing calculator that can be used for a number of classes including, Pre-Algebra, Geometry, Statistics, Pre-Calc, Calc, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and business and finance classes.  Not to mention it’s permitted on testing like the ACT/SAT and AP.

Summary

Bottom line when it comes to buying school supplies for your older kids, let them pick out what is best for them.  Each child has their own system for learning, getting organized and staying organized.  What works for my older daughter doesn’t work for my son and what works for my son doesn’t work for my youngest daughter.  All three of them like and prefer different things and systems.  When they find something that works for them, let them go with it.