FINALLY Enrolled

Today we started out early again to go to the "diagnostic center" to attempt to enroll Thomas ONCE AGAIN for the VPK at the location at which I had no clue how to get to but was following my Yahoo map diligently and found it finding that I had passed this place tons of times while on my way fishing with Tom a bunch of times . Anyway, we get there, and first we're too early, and wait a half an hour, and the heat is starting to heat up and Thomas is starting to get antsy in the truck even though the a/c is on ,and 8:30 rolls around and I figure ok, someone has GOT to be there by now! So I knock and someone is finally there-we go in , and the lady who was standing behind us at the roundup opens the door! Small world! So I explain my case and adventure so far, and she explains a very interesting and crucial and dissappointing little tidbit to me that I'm just about fed up now with this whole process and the state- no one at the round up -the school board that is - ever mentioned the fact that on the provider list- in it states the amount of hours during the day that the child attends at school etc..-what it actually MEANT was what the state was actually PAYING for! Meaning say I sent him to a public school, he would stay for 6 hours, but the state would PAY for 3 and WE would have to pay for the other 3! Can somebody please tell me how that's FREE voluntary pre kindergarten to me please? She said she'd be happy to enroll us still if we wanted to pay the extra money for the 6 hours, but had no idea how much per week it was going to cost.-It could be 50, it could be 80.. I'm on a budget! I can't just go throwin money around! -Yeah I want a good education for my son,but still I want to be able to afford his future education as well-So as dissapointing as it was the public school deal went out the window.They said to try the place across the street from them, and I was going to until I stepped inside- Oh Boy! The place was a converted trailer with kids taking care of kids sitting on the floor with the director in the back pukin her brains out and her assistant making hoagies for lunch-toddlers dont eat hoagies! LOL there were 20 some odd kids in the rundown play yard in the back and I'm hoping they were supervised!.. Not the place I wanted to send my son- I know they were trying to do their best,and I just WANT the best for my son Know what I mean? So I moved on and checked my list, and saw nearby was a "LaPetite Academy" and know they've been around for like 30 years and have a great reputation when it comes to child education so I gave them a call and was like "please have an open spot , please have an open spot" and they did! Hallelujia! so I zipped right down there, filled out the papers,gave them what was necessary,took the tour, Thomas didn't want to leave which was good sign he liked the place,And am finally D- O - N- E! He's FINALLY enrolled in a VPK program!! Now I just gotta wait for August 8th - his first day of pre k! Sorry so long again- I really gotta get a leash for my mouth!
__________________He's four and a half- -he'll be 5 in February- so next August he'll start Kindergarten- There was an Elementery school here that I wanted to send him to that was sponsoring- get him used to the whole feel of the public school surroundings- but I ran into a snag where since the state was supposed to be funding this whole thing, it turned out they were going to pay for three hours and five days a week,and then have me pay for three hours extra five days week since it turned out to be six hours a day class and not three like it said in the program where he would go -which was fine} but they didnt know how much the extra 15 hrs a week would cost-and Im on a budget so I had to back out of that and go else where-where its free . Its cute he's really looking forward to going- its 3 hrs a day 5 days a week and they have a section just for the pre k kids -pretty large too which is good - theyre not crammed in-theyll be focused on and a teacher just for the pre k is going to be teaching them so they {day care people ] wont lose focus on the different groups or or there will be no distractions
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VPK Enrollment Brainpain

Well, I am now on day three of my VPK {voluntary prekindergarten} journey, and it has not been as easy signing or enrolling Thomas as I thought it was going to be! It started out prequalifying him online with the state,then they get back to by congradulating you stating you have been pre qualified and are now in the system and should be recieving forms to fill out to bring to what's called VPK roundup - cool -stage 1 complete. Then the forms come,and the dates for the "roundup" come and we went to that-pretty much a joke-go to this floor and up to that one and back down to this one,basically do a check list and finally to the important one-the schoolboard to get our all important Certificate of Eligibility from the state and and VPK provider listing stating the sposoring schools and daycares and centers we can choose from to send Thomas to of our choice. Then the fun begins.Bright and early Monday morning , I leave the house w Thomas in tow, To a sponsoring Elementary school nearby-like 5 min away,to get first shot at enrolling T before anybody else does since there are only a limited number of slots to fill with these things for all of them-{18 max 5 min} I get there, and theyre like " do you have the pink card from the school board?" I'm like Nooo... the lady says " well they should have given you a pink registration card from the third floor when you met with the school board" I said " i met with some ladies who I believe might have been from the school board, but everyone had a sticker that said "volunteer" on their shirt- i had no way of telling who they worked with"I showed her the massive amount 1 inch thick file I have of paperwork I had brought with me you name it- I got it with me just in case its needed-if not,then its not- at least I'm covered including the all important-Certificate of Eligibility saying they said I just needed to show this and it would be fine" I also showed her the sponsor list- she was like "can I see that?'we're on that list?I was thinking do you even have a clue as to what I'm here for? So she said well I don't know what to tell you .. you can go to this officethe place where we went saturday to do the vpk roundup} and see what they say.. this is our first year doing this , so we don't really know what we're doing,.. why don't you come back wednesday morning when we get everything all straightend out with the school board.. I was like "o.k. I'll do that and left to go to the other office where i went to the roundup to make sure there was no "mystrerious pink card I was supposed to have gotten- which there was none-The woman was just totally out of her mind and was just referring to normal routine to normal registration of when a regular student enrolls for schoollike 1st grade etc.. -she said the certificate of eligibility would be just fine. Glad I double checked befor I just freaked out as to now what do I do KWIM? Then Tuesday rolls around and I'm off agin I figured I had a break since I was told to go back wednesday so I took Thomas to see Robots the movie today- he loved it - we were early so went to Mcee D's for lunch and trapsed around the mall a bit - was 1.00 for the both of us- when was the last time you spent .50 for a movie? I was shocked and delighted! the lady was like "1.00" I was like HOW MUCH? I said you got a deal !so I splurged on goodies -it being Thomas' first time in a movie theatre..he had a ball!. anyway, I get home and theres a message on my machine from the school I wanted to bring him to saying the slots had been filled! she tells me to come back wednesday morning and the slots are filled? I was PISSED! then listened to the name of the school again and it actually WASN"T the school -I wanted but the school board calling me about another school. the one I wanted was still open but now I have to travel tomorrow across town to a neighbor hood i barely know how to get to {thank goodness for yahoo maps} and register him there bright and early so the spots aren't taken because they don't do registering at the school near me because its summertime - the only reason they were open now is because they are doing a summer enrichment program. In the meantime I've been running all over town basically driving here,pickup these papers, drive there,get this copied, drive here pick up this form, drive there drop off that form, drive here sign this , drive there, enroll him there,UGH! can't I just drop him off sign him up and be done with it already? Sorry so long, but cmon! why all the hoops and paperwork?
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