I’m Failing Pre-School

Remember how excited I Greenleigh was about her first day of pre-school?  How adorable she looked in her new outfit as she proudly donned her new backpack pack filled with the school supplies I so painstakingly made sure were the “right” ones?  It wasn’t so long ago, was it?

Well, we’re now almost 3 weeks into the school year and I can say without a doubt that I completely suck at this whole pre-school thing.

It all started on the first day of school when I happened to run into Greenleigh’s teacher as we were picking the girls up from daycare.  Greenleigh was rambling on and on about her day (which I genuinely wanted to hear all about, but couldn’t due to the chaos that existed in the pick up room) and jamming a folder into my hand.  The teacher, realizing I couldn’t understand much of what Greenleigh was saying, interjected that the folder was her “BEE Folder” and that it was Greenleigh’s responsibility to bring it every day.  BEE is actually short for Bring Everything Everyday.

My first thought was, “What?  I need to remember a folder on top of all the other stuff I struggle to remember everyday?  No, no, no – NO!”.  Let’s face it, some days I’m lucky to make it out the door at all.  But it didn’t end at just remembering the folder.  Suddenly, I was being asked to bring things and sign things and return things on time.  And homework?  Seriously? I thought I had a few more years before this stuff kicked in.  Apparently not.

In short, it took one week for us to forget the BEE folder at home.  Although I reminded Greenleigh to grab her backpack before leaving the house that day, I didn’t make sure that it made it into the car.  It was a day that I spent riddled with guilt over being a working mom who couldn’t just turn around to go and get the folder, without being embarrassingly late for work, only to pick up a totally unphased Greenleigh at the end of the day.

After redeeming myself by remembering show and tell later that same week, I again fell into the pits of forgetfulness when I didn’t sign her daily behavior chart…after all, failure to initial more than once can forfeit your right to collect from the class “Treasure Box” at the end of the week.  “It’s TREASURE BOX, Mom!“, she screeched at me from the backseat, as if I didn’t understand how important the Dollar Store toy was to her week.

And then came yesterday.  We pulled into the daycare parking lot, only for me to realize that I had yet to initial her behavior chart.  Sure, I had 3 full days to do it, but I didn’t.  It’s just that simple – I didn’t.  Trying to avoid another “treasure box incident”, I scrambled to find the chart in her folder, only for a piece of paper titled “All About Me” to come falling out.  As I picked it up off the ground, I saw the words, “Homework: Due September 3rd” scribbled at the bottom.  Which was fine until I figured out that September 3rd was yesterday.  Homework?  Over a holiday weekend?  Who does that?  I debated doing the assignment for her in the daycare parking lot (it was actually similar to Mad Libs where I could ask her questions and transcribe the answers) but then I realized that it required a picture of her to be pasted at the bottom and I didn’t have a picture or paste with me.  I couldn’t cover this one up; she had to go to school without the completed assignment.  Needless to say, we have some makeup work to do.  On the third week of school.

This pre-school thing is kicking my butt.  It’s really hard.  I’m so incredibly grateful that tomorrow is an observed Jewish Holiday for our school system…because Labor Day Monday wasn’t enough for me.