My oldest daughter, Miss C, starts first grade in less than one month. Our school system passed a standard school attire dress code for the 2007-2008 academic year. While there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as a mom to a girly girl with a penchant for channeling her inner Punky Brewster or Cyndi Lauper, I was all “Praise the Lord and pass the khaki!” Getting dressed on school mornings is so easy now. Toss the girl a khaki jumper and a pink polo and she’s happy.
I thought I would give an overview of how Miss C’s kindergarten attire survived numerous washings, yogurt dribbles, and art classes.
Because I am cheap (nay, resourceful!) I bought several brands of polo shirts last year. Many were consignment from sales or eBay. Basically I budgeted no more than $10 per polo and some I got for a mere $5. I love the Ralph Lauren polo insignia as much as the next Southern girl, but I refuse to pay more than $10 for a kids’ polo that is going to get abused on the playground. This doesn’t mean I don’t look out for for the Polo pony at a consignment sale, though.
My candidates for Best Quality School Uniform Polo are GAP, JC Penney (IZOD brand), Target (Cherokee brand), and WalMart. I’m sure there are other great brands on the market, but these are the ones we tried.
Miss C had a cute white polo with a tiny blinged out flower from The Children’s Place, but it was made from very thin cotton material (and not from their designated school uniform line) and there was already a small hole in the front, near the buttons, in just month four of kindergarten!
My candidate for Best Quality Khaki School Wear have been found at The Children’s Wear Outlet. Miss C loves her jumpers. I may not be a fan of The Children’s Wear Outlet polo shirts, but her khaki jumper from their site, as well as a cute navy skort and jumper (seen below), have held up wash after wash. She also has a Children’s Place khaki jumper I bought consignment for less than $5 that is excellent quality.
Miss C last fall all dressed up for kindergarten in her pink GAP polo and navy jumper from Children’s Wear Outlet. (Dora shoes from Target; she wasn’t “too cool” yet for Dora.) And, why yes, that is a temporary tattoo on her arm!
My mother just bought Miss C a Wal-Mart Faded Glory brand khaki school jumper for $9.98 and I’m anxious to see how it holds up. It’s also been pre-treated with Scotchguard.
Earlier this month I snagged a cute Cherokee brand polo for Miss C at Target for a mere $4.88, but noticed they are not marked down online, so you may want to scour your local Target. I also picked up another Cherokee polo at Goodwill for less than $3. Thankfully most of Miss C’s clothes from last year still fit, so I’ve spent very little on her first grade wardrobe thus far….maybe $25, and that includes a pair of discounted Tinkerbell tennis shoes.
Solid pima cotton polos for girls from Sixth Alice at CWD Kids are on sale for $5.99 (marked down from $24). I haven’t tried these, but that’s a great deal.
Here are my picks for savvy online children’s school uniform resources:
Where do you find good deals on school uniforms?
My kid is only 1, but I just want to chime in that I think school uniforms in public school is a FANTASTIC idea. Win-Win-Win for the teachers, parents, and students (even though the students wouldn’t admit it).
[...] At Savvy Housewife I’m having a PeaceLoveMom CARE t-shirt giveaway. It’s not only the hippest t-shirt ever, but it also promotes and benefits a great philanthropic cause. I’ve also posted a great roundup of online shopping sources for school uniforms for those of y…. [...]
I also like Kohl’s for uniforms. I don’t buy anything but jumpers and gym uniforms from the uniform company
I am going to check out the ebay uniform section. I did not know they had that. I am in Los Angeles and in one day I received the shirts I bought from
http://www.jiffyshirts.com/
Their prices are great plus super fast svc. I am still waiting on what the gym uniform is so I can prepare my son.
I was discussing with his assistant yesterday (my son is on autism spectrum and nonverbal) I said he needs to find out what colors to avoid and asked him if the school district (LAUSD) told him he had to wear certain clothes. Nothing that he knows of, but if kids have to wear a uniform I would think there may be rules for aides on what not to wear, etc.
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Great job! I love how easily you convey your information and make it such a quick read!
[...] I wrote this article, Savvy School Uniform Shakedown, which I posted to give parents ideas on ways to save money when [...]
Thanks for such an important articles about shopping. This is a very needed info about shopping sites.
I personally despise the idea of children being forced to wear uniforms in public schools for a whole host of reasons, regardless, our school district has made it mandatory this year. I’ve been having so much trouble finding the sizes we need in local stores, and was trying to find something online. Thank you very much for your links, we were finally able to find the styles my daughter would like, and for reasonable prices, so that helps ease the discomfort of being forced to wear the same ugly thing in the same ugly colors day in and day out. So sad to me that we’re prove ourselves to be hypocrites teaching our children the value of diversity all the while we homogenise them.
Thank you, I really need to know this before buying it.
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