04 August 2011

Registration

I swear, weeks like this it would just be easier to homeschool everybody. Back-to-school stuff is just hell.

Ok, ok. The "supply list" is not so bad for high schoolers. I will probably be on the hook for calculators and that sort of thing in a bit when the teachers get 'round to telling the students what they need. But most of Patrick and G's school supplies are the result of my insistence they not throw away last year's notebooks. Just rip the used paper out and voila! a new, smaller notebook. Cheap is "green," ok?

Oh, and I made them clean out their entire closet while I was at it. I made some lame "we want things neat for back-to-school" excuse. Not sure if they bought that argument. Once I used the even more persuasive, "we want things neat for back-to-school and there will be no video games if you don't," somehow it got done in pretty good time.

But back to registration. Registration is the process in which parents have to stand in several different lines and pay lots of money. I marvel that children who are enrolled in a given school district should have to be re-registered each year. But if you don't, they'll tack fines on you and your kid will not get his diploma.

These schools DO NOT allow you to get things done in decent order. ONLY seniors can get their registration process done on one day. Wait in 10 different lines, pay "fees" (what a ripoff, after all the tax money they commandeered), take pictures, get lanyards and blah blah blah. Do the same thing the NEXT day for your junior. And at another time/place for your middle schooler. Yet another for the preschoolers.

And goody, on top of all that, after the first week of school? It's "back to school night" for each of the kids! Because you really had nothing else to do! And no, they can't get all this stuff done on one really long day. You must return to each school several times during the first few weeks classes are in session or you are a bad mom. On back-to-school nights, teachers tell you that they have 39 cents to spend all year on class supplies, so please grab a post-it apple from my wishing tree and buy me the stuff listed...

I wish I could just call the central office during this whole process and say, "Here's my credit card. Surprise me." Might as well. But no... the fee place wants checks, and you have to walk across the building and wait in another line to give the cafeteria people their checks. Nurse's station to update medical forms. Want to join the PTA? The "Diversity Club?" Buy a school T-shirt? Look into theatre? Bla? Bla? Wait on a separate line for each thing and ponder the fact that one needs a "Diversity Club." I don't get it. It's an oxymoron, right? Is there some deep symbolism I'm missing?

Patrick is taking pretty much all AP classes next year, except for some Honours Spanish Level 5 thing. Oh! And we just got a letter stating that he needs one more PE class to graduate. Does "Body Sculpting" sound like a dopey class to you? Guess if he has to take it, he'll take it. But the kid has the "body" of a six-foot tall stick bug. "Sculpt" too much more away, and he'll be skeletal.

The GOOD thing is, I think I'm done with the three older children. Yayyy... but... I still have to buy all kinds of stuff for Elf for middle school. Can you believe that TINY LITTLE ELF is going to be in middle school? Yes. And he has a locker. And he can open it himself. :)

School starts on August 17 here... how about where you live?

9 comments:

  1. That sounds like a nightmare!
    But I do remember having 1 at Pre-school,1 at Kindergarten, Two at Primary school, and two at High School at the SAME time.... so maybe I have already been through that particular nightmare!

    Cost go up and up... it is amazing what we have to pay for now!

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  2. We have a state law that says our kids may not go back to school until after the State Fair is over. Well, it actually says that school cannot start before Labor Day. So, September 6. I had thought about going back early, but I am in the middle of a painting project and I am going to actually take some time off and finish it before school starts!

    I am really not missing that. But, truthfully, I only enrolled my oldest once. Then, every year after that (on the first day of school), her book bag came home filled with crap and requests for cash. I have only ever in my entire life been to a parent-teacher night that was planned, organized and worthwhile. One of my foster children had a teacher that was OCD. All the kids had notebooks that were organized, well kept and THINNED AT SCHOOL when a topic was done. She taught the parents how they worked and what our part was (review, sign daily). I thought is was dumb until I realized it made my life a whole heck of a lot easier.

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  3. Has it always been such a hassle to register the kids? Or was it much simpler when you were a kid? It sure as heck was simpler when I was a kid. We registered when we started at a school and after that only had to turn up each new year. The only time we notified the school was when we moved away and wouldn't be there.
    The costs these days are astronomical!!

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  4. Schools started on Monday of this week around here. You bring up an interesting point: While I've been thinking about all the crazy fees and money you have to shell out for school, I haven't been considering all the time you have to put in either. So, yes, depending on the circumstance, homeschooling would be cheaper, easier and such [smile].

    May your children thrive this year in school!

    ~Luke

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  5. What a circus they make it there!

    School here for the public schooler crowd starts September 6th, but I'm not sure when we will begin. Waiting to get a date on Syd's surgery. :(

    Here your child is sent a supply list. You go to open house, meet the teacher, see the desk, the locker, etc...then pick up and info packet and it's done. The info packet is all about signing up for drama, chorus, etc...which you do online at home. Our taxes cover all expenses, too...no dragging the checkbook to school.

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  6. School starts on Monday the 8th. The only reason I know is because my kids are each taking a couple of online classes with the county this year. Usually, I am oblivious about the first day of school until I see a schoolbus drive by. When my kids were in public school I was appalled by how much it costs...it if public school paid by taxes isn't it? it is supposed to be free... Anyway, we will start back to our homeschool schedules soon after the kids get the hang of the online classes.

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  7. What the ...? It took us about 10 minutes to register Younger Daughter. You've got a crazy district.

    Oh, I've become one of those bad parents who doesn't show up for Back to School night. I find it to be a total waste of time. So sue me.

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  8. It's even more useless than that, FedUpMom. ENROLLMENT takes forever, but then you must REGISTER each year.

    Homeschooling is a lot less effort and I think if I averaged my time over the year, about the same amount of paperwork. NOT KIDDING.

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  9. What a nightmare. 18 months & the gilr is done. She's my last one & we are sticking with homeschooling. I can't tell you how much I hate all the school crap. If it actually achieved something I'd be ok with it, but it doesn't. It just wastes my time & I am sooo over it.

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Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

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