Tuesday, August 10, 2010

First Day of School

The Catholic Schools started yesterday.

I send my kids to Catholic School. (Dave Ramsey & I don't see eye to eye on this one. Yes, it keeps us broke. But I am counting on Catholic School to help me raise men & not Baby Daddies.)

Luke started Kindergarten & Joe is in 4th grade.

Lots of fussing, crying and yelling. From me, not from them. Why?

1. Greg didn't want to come. I said "you aren't coming for the first day?" He said "I'll look at pictures. I don't need to be there." I said "So, I get to carry these 7 bags of school supplies by myself?" He said: "oh".

2. The camera's batteries were drained. For some reason, this made me yell at Greg. He never uses the camera, but I felt better by yelling at him. So Greg had to find the replacements somewhere. . .don't know where he found them, but apparently me screeching like a banshee is a great incentive to find batteries.

Please tell me I don't need to explain why having a camera on the first day of school is ESSENTIAL. Because it is.

3. Yesterday was the most HUMID day of the year so far. I live in South Texas and humid is a way of life for us. Yesterday was BEYOND humid. I wore a silk Jones of New York dress that stuck to me like saran wrap. My makeup melted off and my hair looked like Sissy Spacek's in Carrie -- just after the pig blood.

4. School is over at noon on the first & second days and there is NO aftercare. Ostensibly, this is so everyone can EASE into school.

Hey Catholic School Administrators! We are all working parents. That is how we PAY tuition. Having to take 2 half-days off so you can ease into school isn't EASY for anyone but you.

Nevertheless. . .

1. Joe likes school naturally. I suspect he will end up with several doctoral degrees because he enjoys it so much. As long as he can pay cash for them, I don't care how many degrees he gets. Yesterday was a great day for him. Back in his element.

2. Luke isn't a school guy. He's smart, but he's street smart. I am counting on him to make all the money and to look after his older brother. Yesterday, Luke had a great time -- Whew! He was perfectly happy to come to school today, which I credit to his lovely teacher Mrs. Garza. (Holla Emily!)

3. Finally, yesterday marks the day where we stop double-paying school tuition and daycare. We pay school tuition for 11 months. They are in school for 9 months. That means 2 months, we pay school tuition AND full time daycare. Summer is broke time for us. (In the summer I drive real slow past the place where they sell plasma. I haven't done it yet, but I haven't ruled it out either.)

4. The two 1/2 days are allowing me to catch up on laundry.

St. Don Bosco (patron saint of Catholic Schools) Pray for us!

4 comments:

  1. Ack! I am dying for the day my daughter gets to public school so I can stop paying for all this daycare!

    I can't deny, though, that there are some troubling trends in public school life.

    What specifically made you decide on private?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alexa --

    A couple of things.

    1. It's our tribe.
    2. #1 son didn't get into the "gifted & talented" despite the fact that he was reading at a 4th grade level in Kinder. We didn't tutor him to take the test, so he missed it by 2 points. Really, really, REALLY pissed me off.

    So I showed them. I'll pay tuition for 3 kids for the next 20 years.

    3. He loves it there. He better, for what we pay!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hahaha! I love it! Excellent reasoning.

    Yeah, I have REAL issues with the gifted and talented program. I was in it, my sister wasn't. Why? Who knows? The "test" I took involved drawing pictures, from what I remember.

    For now I'm sticking with public school because I'm a teacher and that's MY tribe(plus I have no money), but sheesh, there are lots of troublesome things going on right now.

    Thanks for answering! Funny post, btw.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Mary! You are my best buddy Lex's cyber best buddy, and she said you're brilliant...and (as usual), she's dead on! I'm feeling your blog. We (as a familial tribe) were booted out of Catholicism for crazy offenses that were suitably chastised for(we HATE suitable chastisement). When I was 20, I took a job as a Catholic school teacher at Immaculate Conception School for Girls in NJ. It was a strange, crazy, wonderful, sad year. I learned to genuflect and the Catholic version of the "Our Father" (which really means I was left saying, "For thine is the Kingdom and the power..." after everyone else was silently done. Whoops!), and I got a nice set of homemade rosary beads which I was instructed to pray with on inservice days. But the girls were wonderful, and I know through our Facebook connections, they are mostly very successful, good kids who still have strong bonds. Catholic school rocks!

    Love your blog!

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE to read comments. Seriously. I check them every day. Insecure? Maybe.