Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 15/01) - When buying school supplies, don't leave the house without one vital piece of information. Your school-issued list.

It tells you exactly what your kids need because the required equipment varies from grade to grade.

Everyone must have their own Kleenex, for example, but kindergarten age kids need two or three boxes while older kids can get away with one.

All students need markers, pencils, glue and notebooks.

Check your list for exact details. And don't let your kids convince you to buy pink, sparkly gel pens.

They may be all the rage these days, but most teachers prefer erasable pens in a sensible colour like blue or black.

According to Michelle Lee, purchasing manager at Creative Basics, the back-to-school rush hasn't quite started yet.

"It's just kind of starting up," she says.

Lee hasn't even bought school supplies for her own youngster yet.

But she expects to be picking up lots of crayons. And she says binders in nylon cases are extremely popular with older kids. Creative Basics has also started stocking dictionaries this year.

Barb Olson, mother of two, was spotted in Wal-Mart this week carrying her lists. Olson's children are in grades 1 and 4. She figures she'll spend about $100 in total.

"They both need scissors, paper, markers, pencil crayons, lots of erasers and glue," she said, adding: "The older grades need more books."

Her crate is half full and she's still shopping. She's got a soccer ball shaped pencil sharpener, which indicates that, although gel pens are forbidden, there's some leeway allowed for other stuff.

"I think he'll like that," she says. "They don't want anything sucky anymore."

Is she buying anything not on the list?

"At this point, no. Well, I may buy a new lunch bag for one of them."

"This is kind of neat for me to do this," Olson adds.

"They have coloured glue sticks, now. Where were they when I was a kid?"