Where do all the pencils go?

In just one two-week period this year, my son managed to lose 12 new carefully labelled HB pencils - that's more than one every school day.

Then there was the Pokemon cards that disappeared before little lunch the first day they went to school.

Shoes, socks, hats, bags, lunchboxes, drink bottles, ice bricks, homework books - you name it - no matter how well it is labelled a vortex sucks the items in. Sometimes the items are spat out again days, weeks or years later. Often they are gone for good.

So if the items find their way into another child's bag doesn't anyone at home notice? If not, where do they end up?

One mystery was solved this week. A school jumper turned up at a bus stop about 10 kilometres from home. A very nice man found it and phoned the mobile number on the iron-on label.
How sweet is that? His explanation "well, I'd appreciate it if someone found my kid's stuff that they let me know".

The jumper is now safely home - apparently having made the little trek to Alderley on a bus ferrying kids to interschool sports last week.