I get so stressed out by the start of school!
My first step in being completely overwhelmed by the start of school is the ridiculously long list of school supplies that comes home with each child. Well, ok, the littler kids aren't much of an issue - scissors, glue sticks, colored pencils. But the older 2 are in middle school so the list is quite extensive, including graphing calculators and memory sticks! So $400 at Staples later I end up with a big piles of items in my home, and now have to figure out what goes with what kid and assemble it and get it into backpacks. To maximize the stress involved, I leave this to almost the last minute.
While going through the lists, I notice that Jocelyn's note says they will spend the first day of school discussing the All About Me posters they have been working on all summer. ACK! What All About Me posters?!?! I search the house for the stack of end-of-the-year letters that we got in June, only to find that either my husband threw them away or my house ate them (impossible to tell which). So we take a break from organizing back packs to make a poster.
Then Timothy learns the hard way that opening his 3 ring binder is not done via brute force but rather by pushing a button. Ack! I didn't get a back-up! What to do what to do what to do what to do ok here's the plan - give Morgan's to Timothy so he has one that's not broken, give broken one to Morgan who probably won't use a binder anyway since it's annoying, email Morgan's special ed teacher than it's broken and if he needs another I'll get one this weekend, put extra notebooks in Morgan's backpack. Ok, that's a plan. Take deep breaths.
Jesse needs an extra set of clothes in a freezer bag with his name on it and a stuffed animal for the first day and a picture for the second day. Jocelyn needs two snacks and a water bottle. Morgan needs extra clothes and a snack and a water bottle. Morgan has chewed the tops on most of the water bottles. I can't send Jocelyn to school with a chewed water bottle top! The one without the chewed top says "Eli Terry Elementary". Jocelyn goes to Philip R Smith. Well that's just a faux pas. I think my mother gave me a bag of water bottles from her day care and I threw them in a closet somewhere. Which closet was it? Why do we have to have so many closets in this house? No wait, without them would be much worse. Just breathe.
Jocelyn will be buying lunch in the cafeteria for the first time. They don't exchange cash any more, they have a PIN that they have to remember and it draws down an account that I can make deposits to. Jocelyn is not good at remembering things. I make her repeat the number back to me 50 times in a 24 hour period.
Jocelyn's name tag that came in the mail has the wrong bus stop on it and we have to call the bus company and change it and then fix the name tag.
Morgan will be picked up at 7:16 at the house and Timothy at 7:30 down the street and I leave the house each morning at 7 and all of us have to shower. Well, maybe I won't need to shower here if I have to be committed before the first day of school!
And so it's 10pm on Tuesday, the eve of the first day of school and only Morgan is actually asleep. Timothy is a nervous wreck, which I completely understand because you simply could not pay me enough to be in the 8th grade again. His clothes are laid out on the floor in the shape of a person. I happily note that he included clean underwear in the ensemble. Jocelyn and Jesse are too excited to sleep. Wait - clothes! We forgot to pick out clothes for them! How can we possibly decide on the fly in the morning?!
Wednesday morning ends up going fairly smoothly. I worked from home so I could braid Jocelyn's hair and take pictures at the bus stop and then meet her bus in the afternoon. She stepped off the bus and yelled - "first grade is AWESOME!" On the walk home I heard about the most important part of the day - lunch. The cafeteria is awesome, the food is awesome, and chocolate milk is awesome. Her teacher is awesome, her friends are awesome, and recess is awesome. I asked about the poster and she said, "Oh, I just gave that to my teacher, only me and Jamie did them."
Timothy's bus was late to drop him off but he got home just the same. The "popular kids" already don't like him but he found friends to sit with at lunch, including a new kid from Virginia Beach.
Morgan's note says he did fine and went to all his classes and also to the gym.
Jesse goes only in the mornings and it's the same school and teacher as last year, so his transition was easiest. He reported that only 2 kids cried - one loudly and one softly - and 1 kid tried to run away but the teacher caught him. Also he had crackers and juice for snack and didn't fall in any puddles. (He had asked why he needed extra clothes for school and I couldn't really think of any good reason to tell him because if I said it was in case he had an accident, he would argue that he hasn't had an accident ever that he can remember, so I told him it was in case he fell in a puddle, at which point he suggested that he bring 2 sets of extra clothes in case he fell in 2 puddles).
Then it was time for my homework - take the 8 thousand forms out of each backpack, being careful to not forget which form goes with which kid, fill out my name and phone numbers over and over, tell what each teacher should know about my child, decline the additional insurance, agree they will follow the bus rules, agree they can use the internet at school and have pictures published on the school web site, etc etc etc. It took me an hour! And even after all that I was missing a form where I would agree to review Morgan's planner each night, which is fairly silly since I don't really think I will, but still, one must complete all the forms! So I had to write a note back to the teacher to please send another.
So we made it through. Josh ended up with his first 2 hours of kid-free time in 13 years, but he hasn't quite figured out what to do with that yet. Though yesterday he went to Target and bought a carpet shampooer and came home and washed the living room carpet, so that was nice.
Oh, and yesterday, we got the first fund raiser. Anyone want to order cookies??
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