With fall and the new school year fast approaching, most parents are wondering about the new school year with some uncertainty. Most school districts are planning to re-open schools for the 2020-2021 school year. Are your kids prepared for post-COVID safety? How should you approach back-to-school shopping to keep yourself (while shopping) and your child (while learning) safe? This is Mom’s Guide to Back-to-School Shopping During COVID.
We’re here to answer just those questions. To the first, it’s our favorite answer: online shopping. Modern web technology in e-commerce has made it possible to order your back-to-school supplies (and everything else) online for contact-free delivery to your door. For moms who shop Walmart every school year, we bring you a handy COVID-conscious back-to-school shopping list with the essentials to keep your child safe from germ spread at school.
Cool Face Masks – The New School Clothes
Face masks are a must for post-COVID school safety. If all children and staff wear face masks most of the time, the risk of virus spread is much lower. Of course, getting kids to wear masks can be a challenge. Your best bet is to choose fun, playful, or cute masks that your kids love and will enjoy showing off to friends. Then get a stack of them and keep a stack of clean ones with back-up sin the backpacks so masks are available at all times.
For the fashion-conscious child, pick a selection of color-matching masks.
Folders and Notebooks – The Wipedown
No doubt your child will need a stack of notebooks and folders. Multiple children stacks that pile higher. Some things, like sturdy folders, can be reused but we all need fresh notebooks for a new school year.
Here’s the trick: Kids normally dig through a huge stack of assorted colors and ordering online tends to result in random color selection. You have two options. You can order a specific color-mix set, a solid-color set, or brace your kids for the random-color challenge. Give whoever missed their color an extra prize.
Heavy-Duty Tablet Cover and Screen Protector
Schools are trying to transition to digital learning, either for remote school or interactive classroom activities. If your child has a tablet, as many do today, reinforce that sucker. Kids and tablets are kind of like kittens and fine china. You want padding. A heavy-duty silicone tablet cover will make sure those corners bounce when dropped and the screen protector means even the worst hits won’t result in cut fingers.
Not to mention, these protections make it easier and safer to industrially wipe down the tablet every day.
Zip-Up Binder with Handle and Pockets
With post-COVID safety considerations, favor school containers that seal up. Zip-up binders are great for a number of reasons. Not only do they provide face-mask protection for your kid’s papers, they also keep those papers from falling out. Zip binders have extra pockets and a handle for easy no-backpack carrying to boot.
Virus-Proof Pencil Box
Likewise, favor a pencil box or zipping pencil bag instead of an open container. Help your child keep COVID particles (among other things) out of their school art supplies. Encourage them to pick out a cute pencil box from Walmart’s creatively wide selection.
Pocket Tissue Holder = Cool Portable Wipe Dispenser
Last but not least – our personal innovation – the pocket tissue holder. Pocket tissue packs are common travel gear and there are small pockets or belt-clip holders meant to hold them. With one of these, or a similarly altered binder/backpack pocket, your child can have a handy wet-wipe dispenser everywhere at school. Wipe down desks, cafeteria tables, door handles, and their hands to stay safe at school in an easy and cool way.
Pick out a nifty tissue holder and shove a pack of wipes inside. Don’t forget the plastic liner so the wipes stay damp inside the holder.
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Shopping for back-to-school supplies is a whole new adventure this year. Whether your kids are learning at home or preparing to go back to the classroom, you can find everything you need online.
