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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