OOOOH Flash drives are the BEST thing for kids to have! Both of my girls have used them since elementary school and still use some of the research from middle school in college. Get them in the habit of saving all their work and research and especially papers. You never know when something can be a foundation for another project in the future. My younger daughter used part of a paper she wrote in 8th grade for a college essay. Without the flash drive that work would have been lost.
I don’t doubt that they will be useful. I think I was just annoyed at the long list of things their teachers want them to have. Two 1 1/2” binders, one five subject notebook, and an accordian portfolio. All I ever needed was a folder for each subject, notebook paper, and pencils/pens.
There was one year when we moved just after school had started. We had already bought school supplies for the school the children would be attending. Then we were given new lists. For one month, our oldest daughter was harassed by her new teacher about the NEED to have a GREEN folder for such and such a subject. Apparently, there had been a run on GREEN folders because we looked and looked at KMarts, WalMarts, drug stores, etc., and we could never find what the teacher wanted. We eventually had our daughter removed from that class. This teacher delighted in being anal.