Back-to-School Snafus

It's that glorious time of year - back-to-school! A time of new beginnings, new classes, new clothes, new school supplies, new possibilities - Happy New Year! This is a milestone year for all my kiddos. Navy Son is in his first year at the Naval Academy; Daughter is starting high school; Little Son is starting junior high. Big times ahead for all!

Navy Son had to endure Plebe Summer - another "boot camp" experience for him (which he has been thru before since he was enlisted for four years before he applied to the Academy). He injured his knee and spent some time in the hospital, but he's OK now. His classes started this week, and we know he'll do great.

Last week Daughter attended Fish Camp - kind-of an orientation for incoming freshman. She got her homeroom assignment and learned her way around the school, learned some policies and procedures, etc. Afterwards was a mixer for all the freshman, and she had a great time.

Last night Little Son attended his own orientation - altho it was severely lacking in the orienting department. He was able to pick up his textbooks and the school supplies and P.E. uniform I pre-ordered last spring. Along with all the other incoming 6th graders. And 7th graders. And 8th graders. Yeah, some genius scheduled supply pick-up for all the grades at the same time. It was chaos to say the least. After a short presentation by the obviously-frazzled principal, the 6th graders were released to their homerooms to get further information and their schedules. Little Son's homeroom teacher was not there - seems she was injured while riding The Bullet - the roller coaster at the Kemah Boardwalk - and has broken ribs!! We were assured she would be back Monday. But the lady that was there did not have their schedules. She did, however, have their school ID's - and the picture on Little Son's is his 3RD GRADE PICTURE! He has no front teeth in the photo!! He is beyond embarrassed about that. After another long presentation of nonsense, I tracked down a counselor and got Little Son's schedule for him. He was able to find all his classrooms, and even has two teachers that Daughter had. Other than the baby picture on his school ID, all is good for him.

Sidenote: He is SUCH my child! When we got home he took a highlighter and highlighted all his classrooms on the map of the school, numbering them in order. He also came up with a sentence to remember the order of his classes. Love that kid.

This morning was schedule pick-up for Daughter. We were there as soon as they opened the doors at 8:00 a.m., and there was already a line (there are over 900 incoming freshmen). When we finally got up to the table we were told she had to have a school ID to get her schedule. No, she did not get her school ID at Fish Camp. No, they did not have hers in the stack there. So we had to go over to another area and have her picture taken and school ID made (at least it's a current picture!). Then back to the schedule pick-up table. They found her schedule and handed it to us - and it's all wrong! Five out of her seven classes were completely WRONG. Instead of being put in the AP classes she was supposed to be in, they put her in regular classes. Instead of Theatre Arts she was put in Art. Instead of Sign Language she was put in Spanish. Instead of dance class she was put in Girls' Team Sports. She was in distress. So off we marched to the counselor's office, where we are told to fill out change-of-schedule forms and leave them in the box, which I did (it took several forms since nearly all her classes were wrong!). This afternoon I was not feeling good about this at all, so I called and spoke with the counselor, explaining our situation. Seems when we moved this summer and transferred her records over to this high school, her course selection card didn't get in with the rest of her file. So they just put her in whatever, and expected a call from me today. Not sure why no one called ME to say, "We don't have Daughter's course selection card...." ANYWAY, she assured me it would be fixed by Monday. As in first-day-of-school Monday. She is to report to her homeroom (which is different than the one she was assigned at Fish Camp, BTW) and they will give her her new schedule then. Oh - and one of the classes she signed up for is full - Sign Language. So she's taking French instead. She's OK with that. Thank goodness.

SO, we're off to a wacky start this year. Hopefully things will all get better from here!