Hey daydreamers! A long time ago at the start of the school year (haha remember when there wasn’t a global pandemic) I did a What’s in my Backpack post for back to school. I thought it would be fun to show what my backpack looks like at the end of the year versus the beginning so you guys could see what worked, what didn’t, and all the things about my backpack that have changed!

School just got out for me on May 8th, and I’m so excited about summer! I have a ton of fun, summer-y posts lined up for the next couple weeks to celebrate school ending and I’m super pumped about them. Oh, and we also upgraded to the WordPress Premium plan, which means a brand-new theme and no more ads! Make sure to head on over to the site if you aren’t there to check out the new changes! And if you haven’t yet, check out my first what’s in my backpack post before you read this one.

Okay, without further introduction, let’s start digging through my backpack!  😂

The first thing you’ll notice is that I got a new backpack! 😂 Well, more like switched over to an old one. I’ve had this backpack from Vera Bradley for a long time, so I switched to it halfway through the year and it was so much easier!

There’s actually a really funny story behind the reason I switched backpacks. The one from the beginning of the year is from Academy, and it’s HUGE! So huge, in fact, that one time I walked into study hall with it on. I tried to take it off, but after I had taken off one strap, I started tilting to the side and falling over, and I tried to swing it off but then I ended UPSIDE DOWN doing a backbend over a chair and I couldn’t get up because it was so heavy! 😂 My friends and I were laughing like crazy, but then one of them helped me up and I took off the backpack. Then, as I walked around the table, I tripped and fell AGAIN. 😂 It was not one of my most graceful moments (AND IT DEFINITELY DID NOT HAPPEN AGAIN YUP UH HUH DEFINITELY)

This one’s smaller, so all of my heavy books and binders weren’t breaking my back as much since they’re all closer to my back, and in the other one the straps were too big so it sagged a lot and also all the books collected at the bottom. So yeah, I think that justified a new one. 😂

In the very front pocket, I found a ton of notecards from a research paper we did this year, and I have literally no idea why it was still in there. 🤔

In the second pocket, I have not one, but two pencil cases for some reason! I haven’t been using these at all since school went online, so they’ve been kinda sitting in my backpack.

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At the beginning of the year, I had everything in my old pencil case in neat little bundles tied together with elastics, and it worked for a few weeks and all the elastics broke. Make sure you use rubber bands and not clear hair elastics, because it will break! For some reason, I have only two colored pencils, a bunch of caps but no pens that match, not one but THREE pencil sharpeners, a lot of miscellaneous pens, one thousand bajillion erasers, and one thousand quadrillion pencils. Seriously, who needs 7 erasers and 10 pencils?? Like how did that get in there??? 😂 #meeverytimeicleanoutsomething

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My other pencil case is from Vera Bradley, and contains a beat-up box of crayons, an equally battle-scarred box of colored pencils, several gel pens, a gigantic glue stick, a random roll of washi tape, and EVEN MORE ERASERS. We’re up to 10 erasers now. I have a problem. 😂

Now that we’re done with pencil cases, let’s move on to the main area. (Where all of the heavy, heavy, heavy books live…did I mention they’re super heavy?

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Next, I have my ginormous math binder! I really like the color of it still, and I still like the cover I made at the beginning of the year. This binder held up pretty well, actually, I could probably use it again! The one problem is the pockets couldn’t hold anything. The main reason my math binder is so heavy is our teacher wouldn’t let us clean out our binders until the end of school (“because math is cumulative”) so I had like 20+ weeks of schoolwork in there.

Also, my pretty beat-up math book. We switched between Vol. 1 and 2 a lot, so this isn’t the same book from the original post, but my Vol. 1 textbook is not in the best condition ever.

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Next, we have my English binder! This one didn’t hold up quite as well as the other binders. It’s still separated into different tabs. Thankfully, we were able to clean out this one after the first semester, so it’s way less heavy!

Oh, and I kind of had to hold the pocket together with duct tape…😂 I swear I’m not that rough with my supplies, these things just somehow happen! 😂😂😂

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I also have my English and Vocabulary books, which we got spiral-bound at the post office place and it’s so much easier to write in them without the spine! These held up pretty well minus a few creases, which is fine.

Then, science! For some reason in the middle of the year I switched the cover, but I really like both. And there’s also a dog sticker that I was going to give to a friend, but thanks to COVID-19 I never got to, so that’s awesome. 🙄

I actually did a really good job of keeping my science binder organized (all my notes were in order and I made sure everything was behind the right tab), but when online school started everything wasn’t hole-punched, so I just kinda stuck it in this folder and it got a little messy.

Then my science textbook! Not much to say here, but for some reason I actually really like reading for science. I find it pretty interesting!

Then I have my history folder for homeschool history…don’t judge the corny stickers, I was messing around during one of my history classes and covered the folder in Justice stickers. 😂

The folder got a little messy since I never cleaned it out after each class like you’re supposed to do, so there’s a lot of notes shoved in the left pocket and a thingy where I made up my own alphabet in the other one.

And, of course, there’s always a bunch of trash and lost things that can be found in the deepest depths of my backpack (😂), and I managed to excavate a Dirty Whiteboard-Eraser™, Two Rare Pieces of Trash™, a Ponytail-Holder™, and a really cute keychain that I lost.

things to do differently next year

(aka, what worked and what didn’t)

• clean out my pencil case every few weeks (to make sure I don’t end up with half of the world’s supply of erasers)
• use rubber bands instead of clear elastics to organize pencil bags, and maybe get a bigger pencil bag so I don’t need two
• go through folders and binders at the end of every week
• be careful about I put things in my backpack so they don’t get folded or creased
• get more durable binders

Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did making it. It was cool to see how much my school supplies changed over the school year (and also my photography skills, sorry about the horrendous photos in the original post!).

Also, thanks to everyone who has entered the giveaway so far! There’s still a little bit of time left. The giveaway will officially close on this Tuesday, and the winner will be announced the following day (Wednesday)! If you haven’t entered yet, make sure you do right here!

Once again, are any of these assumptions right – or wrong – about you? Your opinion on cold pizza and jello? How many siblings do you have? Do you like cats or dogs (and are you allergic to any of them)? What kind of books and music do you like?

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