On Days I Feel Like My Mother

Today I arranged a brightly colored elementary school classroom, including a plastic food and a library. After I got home from school, I made myself a cup of decaf black tea and cooked waffles for dinner. I used some whole wheat flour and hoped that the others wouldn't notice. I looked for some sort of fruit and put applesauce on the table. During dinner, I kept hopping up to check on the waffle iron and add more batter; when I put the leftovers the fridge, I hoped that people would actually eat them so they would not go to waste.

It was a good day.

I have spent the past two days working with Ana and our Marianist coworker (hereafter "Mari") setting up the room for after school care. We lost our license, and, looking at what we had and how it was arranged, I can understand why. What I can't understand is how we flew under the radar so long, to have had the license to start with.

As it is, we repainted a new after care classroom, Ana and Mari straightened out some paper work, and then we went shopping! State regulations require 40 toys per 10 children. They list 8 categories of toys and 4 of each 40 need to fill each category. We have a K-8 and of course toys should be age appropriate. If we are licensed, we can have up to 120 children; we were told to prep for 114. In case you are wondering, that adds up to 456 toys. Approximately 45 of each category.

So we went on an epic quest for toys. We filled a shopping cart at Walmart (it broke our hearts), searched for a Michael's that apparently does not exist -- as well as a Big Lots and Dollar Tree that just aren't. We bought out the kid's book section at a Goodwill -- Mari and I shopped until Ana told us that we couldn't buy any more. Then we went back to school, where the Vice Principal told us we'd barely made a dent. So we went off again, to Target and in pursuit of a new Michael's, a K-B Toys, and a Toys-R-Us. By the end of the night, Ana and I had found the Target, bought two shopping carts worth of toys, and spent nearly $1000 on toys.

Today, the inspector from the state looked at our spoils and said, "That's a good start."


An interesting note on race: our school is entirely African-American. When we toured it last week, one of the teachers mentioned that they wanted books for their library with African-American protagonists. Something I don't think about much. But when we were at Goodwill, there just weren't any. And when we were at Target, we literally picked up every toy from the shelves that had a figure with dark skin. I think we picked up three. Beach Barbie wasn't wearing much clothing, but we bought her some new clothes so she can be modest and set a good example for the girls.