Rant:Parent Homework

I have 3 children, 2 of them are in school.  I think I have done more homework then both of them combined this year.  What is the deal with that?

I finally lost my homework marbles this weekend when my 4 year old came home with the Mystery Bag from preschool.  Of course the minute we walked in the door he was off to fill it and I in turn promptly forgot about it.....until backpack packing time.  You know, that frantic time between 9:00 and 9:30 PM on Sunday night when you run around frantically trying to make sure everyone is set to go on Monday morning.  Notebooks are signed, library books are accounted for, snacks are packed, clean clothes laid out, that kind of thing.

I decided I should at least see what kind of crap stuff Middle Child had thrown into the Mystery Bag.  Upon opening the bag I discovered a set of directions FOR.THE.PARENTS.  It stated how much fun this project would be to do with your child, blah, blah, blah.  It also went on to say that they did not want your child to bring in toys and it would be much better if the items that were in the bag could somehow relate to the theme/letter/number/color of the week.  HOLY HELL.  It gets better.

Not only can it not be toys and has to relate to what they are learning about, you also need to help your child come up with clues to describe the items to the class.  I guess they don't want Middle Child running into the classroom, blurting out what the items are after they I spent so much time (read: 5 minutes) figuring out what to put in the bag.

So in my mad dash to fill the mystery bag and return it to school on Monday morning like a good attentive mother would do.  I quickly stuff a colored on football that was sitting on the counter waiting to be washed off for the letter F and I cut some adorable Valentine hearts out of pink post-its.  BOOY-AH two for one.  Pink is color and Valentine is the theme this week.

Damn I almost looked like I had my act together as I dropped Middle Child off 5 minutes late, wearing snowpants that are 2 sizes too small and his boots on the wrong feet.  Good thing the teachers couldn't see Baby Child still in his jammies eating his breakfast in the car......they would never accept his application for next year.

Got to run, have to finish a globe made out of a non-round object and cut out all the words I can find that start with the letter Q for alphabet book.