In the name of the father, the son and the what is holy water?

Say it Rah-shay By Rachee Sep 11, 2011 No Comments

Or The first (1/2) week of school.

In which we learn about mass. and statues. and crossing one self.

The first days of school are generally met with excitement about so and so from last year having done such and such but for The Bee this year was a change: new school. She now attends a Catholic school which caused many nights of sleeplessness and short fuses all around.

Brief history:

When we started looking for a new school I tried to speak with The Dad about options. The Bee couldn’t return to the Friends School she enjoyed for the last seven years. Her low performing school year not to mention an increased tuition and she and I having to drive a minimal of 45 minutes each way made the decision to have her closer a no brainer. The Dad was consulted but since he exercised his infamous wait and see method so I dragged The Bee along and we started visiting schools. I called anyone I knew who worked in a school and harassed, um consulted the parents who came into the library with children similarly aged.

The original idea was to send her to the school near my library but it has since closed. It was also Catholic and was unfortunately tinged with the recent round of priest scandals. I felt relief as thoughts of being a bad mother raced through my head…who would willingly expose their kid to the lion’s den? However, after speaking with Effin Guy (a Catholic school kid K-12), the parents of children attending the closed school and interrogating Dill (who attended the school but had no negative things to report) I felt calmer.

The Bee and I talked about the new school…a lot. Yes, I am that mom who consults her kid about things but only felt it best since she is old enough to understand her effin’ up in school last year had consequences. The Bee was worried about the uniform, her idea of nuns (we had recently watched The Blues Brothers) and being the new kid. We planned to have a change of clothes for her at mom’s or my work, I explained that there was no more corporal punishment in Catholic school (although listening to Effin Guy, guilt runs rampant!) and that there would be scores of new kids in her class and the whole school.

Her worries were met with a warm, wonderful school environment. All of the new students to the school were invited to a new student orientation where they toured the school, played games and mingled.There was also a crash course about Catholicism and an introduction about Mass. The uniform thing…it works for me. The initial sticker shock of how much each piece costs is totally offset by the fact that there are epic rounds of closet lotto each morning. You wear what you wear, except gym days and then you still wear what you wear. (Bliss!) And The Bee has already made a friend so I can sigh with relief.

The school days have been the sort of new school year, get it together, no work yet days. They had to watch the installation of a new archbishop on Thursday which The Bee told me was something she didn’t understand and the next day she had Mass which she stated was LONG!

Positives: She sees her cousin in school and the bus ride home takes all of 10 minutes.
She said she likes school and has been practicing her handwriting, Hopefully this love fest will continue once the school year gets well under way.