6 Kinds of School Supplies You Should Always Have on Hand at Your House

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Staples. All opinions are my own. 

It's the time of year where you get to enjoy the smell of new crayons, the excitement of first day of school outfits, and the exhilaration of having all of your back to school shopping done. The problem is that this is the beginning of a long school year and it might be possible that your kids will lose something, break something, or use an entire bottle of something before the year–or the first week–is over. That is why us as parents need to be prepared. School supplies aren't just something useful that you buy at the beginning of the year, they are survival tools that you need on hand at all times. Here are my top choices for the gear you will need to make your parenting life easier.

1. Backup Lunchbox and Ice Packs
Sometimes I feel like my kid's school could probably open up their own store featuring gently used lunchboxes and kids jackets. Seriously though where do all of those things go? Do they have a large storage room behind the gymnasium just to house lunchboxes and sweatshirts that kids leave behind? You will need a backup lunchbox at some point in the school year. Of course with backup lunchboxes come backup ice packs. Just buy them now so that you have them in a cupboard ready to go when needed.

2. Ruler, Protractor, and Compass
Why are teachers always wanting our kids to measure things when they're at home? Isn't there enough stuff to measure in the classroom? How come there is always a ruler around when you don't need one and you can never find it when your child needs to measure the length of a banana for their homework? Trust me, during the school year it's best to just have all of these types of supplies handy at all times.

3. Binder Paper and Construction Paper
The problem with those special projects that your kids need to create is that they always need to be done by tomorrow morning. It's not that the teacher just gave out the assignment late. It's the fact that your kid conveniently had other vitally important stuff to think about until just now. At 8pm. The night before the big project is due. You can pretty much create anything with binder paper and construction paper. Ok, you might need a little tape and glue. Or paste. Remember paste from elementary school? Paste was amazing. This brings us to our next topic.

4. Glue Sticks and Kids' Scissors
You know why you need glue sticks. If you forgot, just see point three above. But honestly I'm still longing for paste sticks. We can put a man on the moon but we can't produce paste in stick form? Come on science! As far as scissors are concerned you probably don't want to set your third grader loose with a cutting tool made for adults that is basically two knives screwed together. It is much more convenient (and safe) to have kid-friendly scissors in storage for exactly when you need them.

5. Pencils and a Quality Electric Pencil Sharpener 
Every time I need to quickly find a pencil in my house, do you know what I grab out of the drawer? A pencil with a broken tip. Every. Single. Time. Do you know why? Because I have kids. This is why every parent needs a great electric pencil sharpener. Because no parent has the time in their day to spend with one of those tiny manual sharpeners. Plus grinding a wooden stick to a fine point can be extremely therapeutic. Trust me on this one.

6. Hand Sanitizer and Tissue Paper
This is strictly to bring to school when your kids' teacher needs to replenish the supply. Classrooms always seem to run out of these. But you're a parent...you know how gross your own kids can be. Now imagine thirty of those germ machines running around. You can't really blame the teachers for needing more of these two items every month or so.

As you can see, these school supplies are essential to a successful year. My family and I love to go to Staples for all of these things, whether it's during back to school time, or any other time of the year. We can get everything on our list at just this one store. As we all know when it comes to shopping, if you can get all of it done in one place, you're pretty much winning at parenting.