Half days on Friday??

Our school has been doing some weird things the last couple of years. First of all, every Friday the kids only have class for half the day. The other half they have the option to go home early (11:55) or they can go to F.A.M.E. I forget what the letters exactly stand for, but its "fun class" pretty much. When fame first came out I refused to sign my kids up. It was 20 dollars PER kid, for every SIX weeks. Well, we're a one income household and that was just too much to afford. And the choices for the lower grade classes that my boys were in were things like "arts and crafts" and "the great outdoors". So they were either going to make a craft, or play outside. Well, for 40 bucks every six weeks I can do that at HOME!!! I really felt like they were pushing community education type classes on us. The things that they try to get the community to come pay for, only they charge more. I felt like maybe they weren't getting enough numbers in that, so they were forcing it upon us parents. My heart broke for those parents who couldn't' afford the classes but weren't stay at home moms/dads like I am. Because I had the option to just bring my kids home. Some people were forced to pay the money, because their kids couldn't come home 3 hours early.

Then, last spring they started to offer some for free, so I figured we'd give it a whirl. The boys started out in something called Mad Science. They did different science experiments, and came home with some really awesome take home things that they could experiment with at home. So, I was sucked in. They have since started to offer more choices on the free side of things. There of course are those that you could still pay for. Its things like bowling, swimming, YMCA, etc. They're things my boys would LOVE to do, but again, we don't have the money to sign them up for them.

Once a month there are half days on Friday, with no fame. And today happens to be one of those days. It throws a monkey wrench into our plans for the whole day!! I have to drop them off just before 8:00 am, and I have to pick them back up at 11:55am. When you have two little kids at home, and a house to run, that just doesn't leave much time on those days to get anything DONE!!! Like right now, I've gotten the twins breakfast, they're dressed, the wash is going, I checked my email (and of course have worked on this blog post!) , I still have to shower, and get myself dressed, do more unpacking, get to shopping, etc. So now, I have to figure out how to split up the day. Do I feed the twins extra early so that they're done well before picking up their brothers? Or do I feed them when we get home, and have two boys who've already HAD lunch hoovering over the food? Do I shop now while I only have two kids to worry about? Or do I wait and risk going out with all four, and totally killing my patients level for the day???


Sigh. The decisions that one has to make!!!!