3 down, 1 to go....well for now

Today was the first day of Kindergarten!!  Here they start Kindy a couple weeks after regular school starts.  So my 3rd oldest had his first official day.  He's so excited and loves it!  Plus it helps that he already has 3 friends in the class.

So that means now I only have one child at home for part of the day..... whatever will I do with myself? oh yea, BLOG!  I'm actually really excited to get some projects done, not to mention have uninterrupted time to get things done around the house with less chance of them being undone right behind me.

I'm curious, what do some schools require the kids to bring in other areas?  My kids each had to bring a binder, 25 page protectors, backpack of course, Elmer's glue, hand sanitizer, then 2 of them had to bring pencil cases, wipes, glue sticks, and the other one had to have a special art book.  They asked me to sign up to bring snacks in 2 of the classes, and just assigned me a day to bring them in the other (for the first month of school they do snacks)

I didn't think it was too bad.....  for all 3 kids I spent under $100 (the backpacks were the biggest expense).  Even with hard times these items aren't too much to ask of parents in my opinion.  My kids could have used last years back packs and that would have saved me close to $60.   And I think if parents really can not afford the supplies the teacher will provide them out of the limited budget she has for her class.  I've heard of other areas where teachers have sent home HUGE lists so what have you experienced?