Pre-School is Hard

Okay, so I know I should get BSM's bag ready the night before, but I didn't feeeeel like it. At least I remembered to talk to Husbinator about getting a steady supply of 10-agurot coins (smallest denomination of the currency here, worth 3 cents) for BSM to bring for tzedakah. I've known since parent orientation that I'm supposed to send this in, but I kept forgetting.

Husbinator found a little zipper coin purse that says "tzedakah" on it, I found our collection of coins, and Husbinator reminded me to write BSM's name on the coin purse, so that was done. And oy, was BSM excited when I told him about it this morning: he dropped everything to go examine the coin purse and coin and tell me exactly how he would give it to his Ganenet (Hebrew for pre-school teacher).

Great, so we finally got on top of the tzedakah thing (after a week), and I also wrote him a mitzva-note last night (because this is also something that the children should be sent with every day or every other day, and it's apparently a Big Deal and Very Exciting for the child when the Ganenet reads the note and tells the whole class what a Good Thing the child did). So coin and note are done. Great.

It's doubly great that I took care of the note last night, because BSM woke me up this morning by sitting outside my bedroom door, whining that I should write him a mitzvah note. I considered pointing out the irony of waking up his mother to get a note that he's a Good Little Boy, but (a) I wasn't coherent enough for that conversation and (b) it was 20 minutes after I should have already woken up. So I just hustled into my morning preparations and told him that the note was already in his bag.

I'm reasonably certain that I put all of BSM's clothing on him this morning (make that totally certain: he would have told me if I forgot his tzitzit or his socks or whatever). Since I was lazy last night, I also had to assemble his 10-o'clock-meal (another Israeli thing: it consists of a sandwich and a fruit, and making it usually takes about 5 minutes, so putting it off isn't such a big deal, right?) and realized that not only are we out of gvina levana (I think I mentioned this Israeli yogurt/sour cream/cheese spread thing; it's a good sandwich filler), but I also finished the natural peanut butter on Friday and haven't mixed the new one, yet. Urg. Just a little more hassle, but still doable. And BSM fills up his water bottle while I make the sandwich, so that saves me a minute.

So we have coin, note, food, water. BSM remembered to take his weekend portfolio bag, which gets returned on Sundays, and I remembered to find the folder with the reading sheet and mark that BSM read it twice, very well. (For the record, this reading sheet is a table with 36 cells, each with the letter aleph, bet, or vet. Reading it involves naming each letter.) I also remembered to take out his artwork from the previous week. So coin, note, food, water, portfolio with signed homework and without artwork. Done? Done.

We go to school, BSM nearly explodes with pride as he gives the Ganenet the coin and note, and all is well.

Until I'm driving to work and realize that I forgot to check off the last item on the "Good Stuff to Do" chart that the Ganenet sent home last Sunday and asked us to return today... Le sigh. It'll just have to wait for tomorrow, and if the Ganenet went over the other boys' charts today, I can be sure that BSM will remind me, too. Sigh.

Pre-school is hard.