School Supplies

Ariella, as many of you know, is VERY excited about going into first grade. She has been begging me every day to go buy "beit sefer" shirts as well as her new tik and school supplies. So today I took the first step: I translated the daunting School Supply List. Gone are the days of four 2-pocket folders, a binder, and a three pencils. First, my 6 year old needs schoolbooks. Lots of them. Including a mishna. I'm still not old enough for a mishna. Then, there are lots of VERY SPECIFIC rules for the supplies.

For example:
10 machberot (notebooks.) Each must be 16 pages with 10 lines on each page. The binding is very flimsy, so make sure to check each machberet separately and make sure that the 10 rows stand out from the rest of the rows. (And no, I have no idea what the hell that means.)

10 transparent coverings for the machberot. (Not colored) Pay attention: Cover the machberot but do not put stickers on them!!!!! (I'm going to burn all stickers in the vicinity, just to be on the safe side.)

Then there's something about a package of clear "nyloniot - ניילוניות" that my trusty www.morfix.co.il was unable to translate for me. I think it means stockings. And she needs 100 of them. Maybe they're going to rob banks. (Although if they are, the banks will probably charge a fee for that.)

A backpack made out of corrugated plastic (Ouch!). It must be 50 x 35 cm. I imagine one of the schoolmarms will be there on the first day, with a measuring stick, making sure everyone's tik meets the requirements.

Soft pencils - B2, B4, B6, B8. In a rare gesture of benevolence, "it's ok to only get 3 out of the 4." Phew! I am feeling great waves of relief now!

I am thinking that for the right amount of shekels - since stores here don't yet accept poofahs - I can just hand someone at the store this bloody list and say to them, "Please make everything on this list appear in the basket. Thank you. And for your troubles, keep a pair of stockings for yourself."