[icebraining]

Requiring them to purchase school supplies seems counterproductive, unless they really value them. If my brothers were given a choice, they'd buy the shoddiest possible equipment to save money for fun stuff, and if you were to force them to buy better things, you haven't really gave them the purchasing decision, just faked it.

[daeken]

That seems like a great way to learn that you get what you pay for. Letting kids make mistakes (especially relatively minor ones like that) is always good.

[gizmo686]

The problem is that kids often under-value their education. As such, they would allocate less of their money to school supplies then they should. They may not realize this mistake until they realize the value of education, by which point it may be to late.

[jaxn]

They receive a list from the school and buy what is on the list.

In general, we do have to tell them what to buy sometimes.

[jaxn]

Do you think an expensive pencil performs better than a cheap pencil? What about folders, glue, notebooks, graph paper, etc?

When we get into electronics, the school list specifies which graphing calculator to buy. Will my kids find a used one on ebay? Probably. Will a used one perform worse?

It is an interesting concern, but we haven't had a situation where their frugality has gotten in the way of their education. One of my kids likes fancy mechanical pencils, another one uses wooden pencils until they are nubs. It's their choice :)

[icebraining]

Pencils, folders, and such, not that much (though the cheapest paper is usually to thin to withstand the treatment), but I've seen math compasses literally fall apart after a month or two of use, dented rulers, pens which would spill to clothes, etc.

It's not that you need to buy expensive stuff, but the cheapest of the cheapest is usually only good for occasional use, not daily school work.

[jaxn]

Fair enough.

We haven't run into those issues. They tend to order their supplies off Amazon, but I don't know much about what they choose or why.