In retrospect, I may have over-reacted. I'm admitting that here because I will never actually say it to them.

Tomorrow starts another half-year of homeschooling in this house. sigh. Part of me is really looking forward to having the teacher role again. I love coming up with all the fun activities, playing, and getting dirty with my kids. Less excited about giving up my afternoons alone.

Last Wednesday I got a call from my aunt at 12:45 pm. The school had called her looking for me cause my child had a fever over 101. Here are a few points I'd like to make about that.
    ~ School starts at 12:30. The bus comes at 12:05. They were not sick when they left. I am NOT a parent that sends sick kids to school. Sick kids do not leave this house. Period.
    ~ Both my husband and myself were home that day. Nobody called our house or either one of our cell phones, or even my in-laws who live in this city. Instead they call my aunt and my mother, who live in the next county over.
So, I'm fairly pissy before I even get there.

Now, the original message was that my youngest has a fever. When I get there however they inform me that I'll be taking my son home as well. No, nothing is wrong with him, but ya know, why have any kids in the classroom if you don't have to? Ugh.

While I was there I went to the office to ask why I didn't get a call. The office bitch jumps down my throat about how irresponsible it is of me to leave my kids there with no way for anyone to get ahold of me. She had called me repeatedly.. or at least as repeatedly as you can call someone within 15 minutes of school starting. What if there had been an emergency? Here again, I am NOT a parent that engages in this behavior. I demanded that she show me which number I gave her. She pulls out our file and what do I see? My house phone, cell phone, and my hubby's cell phone all written on the card- complete, legible, and labeled, just as I knew they would be. Grr.

I am getting very, very pissed off at this point, but I have a sick kid that needs my attention so I take my kids home. Once home I whip out the thermometers, four of them to be exact, and do you know what? Neither of my kids has a damn fever!! This is the second time, frickin second time!, that my children have been sent home with a mysterious, disappearing fever this year. I called the office for a few reasons- to ask if the kids had been given Tylenol or something that would help the fever (of course they hadn't been, I knew that) AND to report that once again those damn people sent my kids home for no apparent reason. While on the phone with the office bitch she puts me on hold and I overhear this- the office bitch saying to someone, "This bitch is pissed!" and then the questioning of the teacher. According to the teacher what had happened is my youngest didn't like what was being served for lunch and she wanted to lay on the bean bag chair instead. I know my youngest pretty well and I am certain that it didn't go that nicely, she probably was throwing a fit and stomping her feet and just generally acting like someone who just turned 3. I'm guessing that the teacher didn't want to handle her tantrum and sent her home instead. 

When the office bitch, which is what I called her out loud since she felt free to call me a bitch, got back on the phone I offered to bring my kids and all 4 of my thermometers to the school and test them against the one in the classroom, which had since been cleared so I could see no reading on it whatsoever from my child. The ob, office bitch get it?, told me that it would be unfair to take away from the rest of the kids and spend time on that. Then she said that they had decided at the school that my kids wouldn't be allowed back in school on Thursday either, I'd have to keep them home til Monday cause there is no school on Fridays. WTF!!? That is when I told her, "I'm all done talking to an illiterate office bitch. I want a superintendent or a director on this phone immediately." Come to find out my children's school apparently doesn't have anyone in either of those roles. How is that ok? Don't the teachers need someone to direct them, tell them what the new state guidelines are..someone to do whatever the hell directors and superintendents do??

Had that been the only problem I might have just bit my lip and let it slide, but there is more to the story than that. My son has come home from school twice this year with nasty rashes/welts and I have taken him to the med center. The most recent time was Monday, two days before all this happened. The very first time I had to bring him, in October, he was diagnosed with hives and given anti-histamines, and we went home. No big deal, and I didn't address it with anyone. Shit happens, right? The second time, on Monday, when I brought him he was diagnosed with bug bites. I was told to go home and search our beds looking for bug casings and to check the dog for fleas. I was kinda hoping for chicken pox to be honest. Bugs make me sick, but I went home and did as I was asked, complete with magnifying glass, and there are no bugs here. Not anywhere. He didn't have them when he left for school that day, but was covered in them when he returned. 

SOOO.. this school causes my children to break out in hives, is having some sort of bug infestation, and my children fall mysteriously ill and the only thing that fixes them is walking into my home?? I am not ok with that. I find that unacceptable and thus, starting tomorrow, I now homeschool. Ahh, life, what a joker. 

Disillusioned Goals

When I was a kid we lived down the road from a family who sent their kids to an academy. I remember watching them come home in their fancy uniforms and shoes, carrying their laptops and cellos, and I would sit there and stare longingly. I wanted to be an "academy kid" more than anything I had ever wanted in my entire life. I remember begging my mom, to no avail, although she did let me go there for one day to check it out and see what I thought. I loved it, as I expected, but when I told her that it still didn't change her mind. My yearning to be an academy kid lasted until I graduated from a regular plain old boring public high school and I have never forgotten my insane desire to be one of them. I don't know if it was because I wanted to stand out, maybe it was a status thing, or an attention thing, I'm not sure what I found so irresistible about it, but I needed it, I dreamed about it... it was a sickness.

As I got older and became a mom I sort of pushed that aside, after all there are bigger fish to fry than a stupid childhood fantasy, right? My children attended, or are attending as the case may be, a regular public preschool with no uniforms or fancy classes. Their mainstream education has been a blessing to us and I have watched them grow and change in ways over the years that have literally taken my breath away at some points. We have been lucky to get some amazing teachers who I can't say enough wonderful things about. Especially Miss Valeri, I'd move her in if I could and I'm more excited than words can say to have the baby in her class next fall. She did miraculous things with my son and my youngest is desperately in need of some Miss Val treatment.

However, when my oldest graduated preschool and we started looking into kindergarten I was hit in the face with memories of  my "academy kid" dream. We started her in a public kindergarten program because we assumed we could never afford a private school and then we ended up taking her out halfway through the year due to some issues with her teacher, who was physically aggressive and verbally inappropriate. This is in no way connected to the school, just some unresolved personal issues, perhaps she has daddy issues, who knows. Anyway, I homeschooled my daughter for the last half of the year, I even had her testing at 1st and 2nd grade levels at the age of 4. Homeschooling, even for half a year, was great and I enjoyed every minute of it- the planning, the collecting activities and lessons, and especially the carrying out of said lessons. As much as I loved it, I knew I could never do that for the rest of my life or with all three kids, so we were back to looking at schools again for the fall.

I finally managed to do some research and found an academy to send her to. She was accepted and will be starting kindergarten there this year. Now let me tell you what's so damn special about an academy now that I know first hand. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Finding and buying uniforms is becoming a pain in my ass, there are no buses so I have to drive her both ways every day,  and their website is always down- which wouldn't be a big deal except I can't even know when school starts if I don't go to the website. It turns out that an academy is just as crappy as my school was, just with funny shoes.

Tonight we're having an "Academy Family Event." Yup, we are going to go play on the playground in the rain and eat popsicles. I am thrilled about this, just effin thrilled. It's not that I don't think this is a great idea. The premise is that the kids will be able to meet their classmates and have some time to play and perhaps forge some new friendships. This is a wonderful idea. I just think it could have been postponed since it's been raining for almost 48 hours. Then again, perhaps it was postponed and I just can't go to the website and find that out, this is also plausible. Either way, I am preparing to drag myself and my children to a playground in the rain where we will eat frozen things. Yay.

The moral to the story is one we've all heard a thousand times. The grass is always greener on the other side... be happy with what you've got... or... be careful what you wish for. These all apply to me, but you should find the one that fits your day and then twist this story to be relevant to you.