Yesterday we went to Meijer to window shop for school supplies. With Sean being full-time in the fall at the junior high, Carissa entering junior high and Ashley going into kindergarten, I suspect I will have to put in more than a passing effort and a few dollars for new crayons into back-to-school shopping this year.
Trying to be the ultimate-organized mom, I checked out the supply lists on-line during the day.
I was not only overwhelmed but also genuinely afraid for my credit card.
The kindergartners need headphones? Are they serious?
And how many packets of loose leaf paper does Carissa need? My fingers cramped up in mock sympathy pain.
Of course, Sean being mainstreamed full-time poses its own unique set of problems.
Sean was in one classroom for the majority of time while in his day program. There was no need to worry about going to lockers or switching out books for the next set of classes.
Life was simple, basic.
Junior high will be neither.
It’s true that he did attend the junior high and was integrated first into two classes and then later on into four. However, all he needed was one binder and a couple of notebooks. He carried everything with him for the morning.
After he finished with his last class, Sean would then head to his locker, dump his stuff and proceed to the front office to check out and be picked up by transportation to go to his day school.
It took some walking-through and took some pre-planning and pre-teaching, but Sean got the routine down fairly quickly.
This year he’ll be going to his locker multiple times and have more folders, books and notebooks to deal with.
Thus, the trip to Meijer and my pre-emptive strike against disorganization came to be.
I was hoping to convince Sean to use, what I called in ancient times, the Trapper Keeper system. It’s a zip-up binder with room enough for a multitude of folders, calculators and other school essentials.
He would have one set up for his morning classes and then another one for his afternoon.
One stop shopping, grab and go.
I mentioned it to him while at the store and even showed him a few and how they would work.
“Genius” was crossing my mind.
However, Sean was not about to crown his mother with the title and shut down completely.
“I need one folder with two pockets – one for school papers and one for personal papers. That’s it.”
Oh, Sean… you’re going to need so much more….
Carissa loved the idea. She even picked out one pink and one purple. Hey, you have to be colour-coordinated…
But Sean…..
Well, he just simply wouldn’t listen to my reasoning. Some of it was from his budding teenager’s attitude of “you’re an adult and have no idea what you’re talking about.”
The other part was Sean being stuck in his own routine, his own thoughts, his own notions.
He sees the world as he sees it.
And he thinks he understands so much.
But we all know differently.
How much do I push? How much do I insist?
It’s about four or five weeks until we’re in full going-back-to-school panic mode. Maybe I’ll give it some more time. Maybe some more thought.
Maybe once he gets his schedule we can sit down and figure out exactly what he’ll need and when.
Then maybe I’ll get through to him that he needs more than one folder.
But, at this point, I’m not holding out much hope.
Maybe I should simply sit back and enjoy the waning days of no alarm clocks and no schedules.
OK, Sean. You win.
Forget the organizing and let’s all go for Slurpees instead.
Today is July 11th… 7-11…. and the special 7.11 oz delicacies are free.
And free… whether it’s a Slurpee or time… is always a good thing.
Enjoy your day!
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