Keeping Up with Kindergarten

…or really, this post should be called how I am VERY MUCH NOT keeping up with kindergarten.

It’s December. My 5-year-old has been in kindergarten for all of four months (and really less since we lost 2 weeks to Hurricane Harvey). And I’m already wondering how the heck I’m going to keep up with school activities for one kid much less two when Charlotte gets there in a few years.

On Wednesday, I sent Emma to school with four — yes, FOUR — different things in her backpack in response to the various requests that have come home.

There was money in one envelope for the giving tree, so that her class can give books to a 4-year-old boy. This is great, and I’m happy they are doing it, and if this were the only request, it would be all well and good.

But then there was money in another envelope to pay for tickets for the school’s winter carnival, the big annual fundraiser they do in February and are already hard at work preparing for. Now I certainly could just pass on this, and get tickets later, or (gasp) not get tickets at all and just not even go…but ok, fine, I’ll take advantage of the “deal” they were running and get them now. We’ll certainly go to the carnival, because I want to support the school and I know it will be fun for the kids.

There was a stuffed animal to donate as a carnival prize, because they are doing some sort of competition between grade levels to see who can bring in the most donations for various carnival categories. Really? Ok, fine. I will send in a toy but you know what? It’s going to be a very lightly used one from our own house because ain’t nobody got time to go out and get a new stuffed animal in the next 2 days.

And there was money in yet another envelope for a photo with Santa. Why is the elementary school doing photos with Santa? I honestly have no idea and was going to ignore it entirely…until Emma said something about it.

And that’s the thing — they bring the kids in on all this too. For days in a row, every night, Emma would tell us about how she had to have a book for the giving tree, or that there were only 2 more days to bring in a stuffed animal, or whatever.

It’s just too much.

Nevertheless, after all that, I was feeling pretty good about myself on Wednesday night. I had it under control! Go me! And then I opened Emma’s backpack and found ANOTHER request for ANOTHER thing. Now the kindergarten classes are doing stockings at their holiday parties next week, and every kid is going to get a stocking, and so every kid has to bring in 23 trinkets to share with their friends, and Emma will come home with a stocking filled with 23 pencils, erasers, bouncy balls, and who knows what else that she will play with for 5 minutes and then forget about, and a week later I will throw it in the trash.

Why? I mean, seriously, whyyyy?

Will the kids love getting stockings? Of course they will!

Would they notice if they didn’t get stockings? Of course they wouldn’t!

I feel like elementary school is rapidly turning into a circus of extras and I would very much like to find a way off this merry-go-round.

p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blog writing challenge!