"The Cheese Touch"

Day One of Second Grade and I think the Big Camper started a game of cheese touch (and I don't mean the board game. Mamacamp is very familiar with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The Big Camper devoured the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series this summer and saw both of the recent movies and the Little Camper (4.5) loved looking at the cartoons even though he's not reading yet. The first movie Diary of a Wimp Kid does a great job of dramatizing the fear the middle school kids have of being touched by someone who touched someone who touched someone (you get the idea) who touched a moldy piece of cheese left on the playground. 

Sitting around the campfire...

"So...tell me all about school!" the Camp Director asks. "Did you like Mrs. H?"

"Uh-huh, she was really nice," answered the Big Camper slowly stirring his gluten-free penne with shredded chicken marinara sauce. "How much of this do I have to eat before I can have dessert?"

"Honey, aren't you hungry? Did you eat all of your lunch?"

"Yes," he answers. "Except for my Baby Bell cheese...it was moldy..."

"What!?" The Camper Director looks at Camp Daddy for confirmation.

"That's what he said," Camp Daddy replies.

"But, I thought...they're completely sealed...how is that possible?" The Camp Director looks back at the Big Camper, "So your cheese was all moldy?"

"No, just part of it was black," he replies.

"So you had moldy cheese in your lunchbox?" and with a tinkle in her eye the Camp Directory whispers, "Did you get the cheese touch?"

The Big Camper sits up taller in his seat and says, "Yeah, and then it went all the way around the room and Brian took it home!"

"Brian took the moldy cheese home?"

"No, I threw that away. He took the cheese touch home." The Big Camper proudly announces.

And this could explain why he and his friend J were separated in the lunchroom today...

Day 1 Progress Report
- All three campers up by 6:00am (not!)
- All three campers ate breakfast at the table --Check!
- Obligatory first day of school family 'walk to school' --Check!
- Camp Director wearing clothes that match -- Check!
- Arrived at school on time -- Check!


Testimonials
Camp Director: "Thank goodness Camp Daddy had the day off and helped get the campers ready this morning. Next time remember water for 2 mi walk in 90+ heatwave"
Camp Daddy: "I need to mow the grass so I didn't bother with a shower this morning"
Big Camper: "I should have ridden my bike"
Little Camper: "I need to strap in!!!" (to the sit and stand stroller that's barely going 2.5mi/hr"
Baby Camper: "oooog...." (translation: "I'm outside!"

MEET THE TEACHER

It's always a little nerve racking waiting to find out who your child's teacher will be for the new school year. Will s/he be a good fit for your child or a bad one? Sometimes the best teacher and your child's personality can still clash. If you recognize this at the start of the school year, what should you do? Should you change teachers until you find the right one or wait it out knowing that your child needs to learn how to deal with different personality types.

For now, mamacamp thinks that allowing their campers to learn how to deal with difficult people is a lesson best learned early in life. (Otherwise we wouldn't need those "How to Deal with Difficult People" mandatory lectures at work.) We are learning as we go with the Big Camper and hopefully by the time we get to the Baby Camper we'll have more tips to share! Try these tips if your child is having a problem with their teacher.


The Big Camper was very excited to meet his teacher Mrs. H. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it is a great match! All of his school supplies fit in his new Gymboree Dinosaur backpack and were put away in his desk. (We'll take a photo of it soon...it's gone from their website already!) I had to smile when his desk mate's mom said, "Ugh...I didn't get everything that he needed...Office Depot didn't have it neither did Office Max or..."

I just smiled thought of the previous post and said, "Try HEB." :)

I Spent Over $250 on 2nd Grade School Supplies

No seriously, I spent over $250 when I was looking for .25 Crayola Crayons!

(Last year we spent less than $20)

It all started when I received a helpful email from my neighbor and elementary school mom on the latest deals for this year’s school supplies. First, she sent a list of deals from our locally grocery store HEB and then followed it up with even better deals from Office Depot. Score!

I’m off to Office Depot with Camp Daddy in tow determined to check this off our summer to-do list. Reading iPhone message “Office Depot”…looking up at sign above the door “Office Depot”, we walk through the door. I know it’s weird to check the sign on the door before going in but do you know how many times I’ve driven to Office Depot, wandered the aisles looking for a sales flyer item then realized that the coupons in hand were for Office Max not Depot? I’ve even gone as far as to argue over the price of an item at the register before sheepishly realizing my mistake. Why can’t those stores just merge already?

We wander around the store looking for (from friends list) the…

• .24 ct Crayola crayons for $0.25 a box (limit 5)
• Folders with brads and pockets 10 for $1 (limit 10, must buy 10 for the price)
• Rulers for $0.25
• Filler Paper Wide Rule 150 ct for $0.25
• Sharpies (5pk) and Expo dry erase markers (4pk) are 2 for $5
• Plastic pocket folders with brads are $0.49 ea.

The only deal we found was .01 cent pencil sharpeners. WT? I rechecked my friend’s email. This woman knows her stuff and is rarely wrong, what happened? Where's that post "I got something so incredibly cheap", retail therapy high?

“Do you folks need any help?“ the sales person asks.

“We’re not finding the deals on school supplies we expected so we’re going to try somewhere else.“ I said a little annoyed but with a genuine smile.

“Let me see what our flyer has on sale.“ the very kind sales guy says. He lists the current weekly deals and pointed out that I was probably thinking of LAST week’s deals and next week other items would go on sale so I could pick up ALL the school supplies at a great price.

"Hmmm...I see." I said.

If you come EVERY week you can get all of your schools supplies at great prices...? Argh! Camp Mama doesn't have the time to come in every week to save $5 per trip. The extra gas alone defeats the savings.

We opted to skip the $4.99-24 count Crayola Colored Pencils that were on sales last week for .25 and wait to buy them at HEB for .40. On principle we head towards the register to buy what was on sale knowing that we could wait to pick up the other school supplies during the weekly grocery shopping trip. (Which I did the next day...$15 for all the supplies plus extra to donate to the school.)

Then BAM! We get snared by the reason that Office Depot only has a handful of items on sale at a time...to get you in the store! As we're walking to the register with our .01 pencil sharpeners (limit 3 pk), six folders, one composition book and a $2 metal ruler (not on sale but it was indestructible), the electronics department like a magnet starts to pull us into the aisle...

"Ooh look at the pretty Tablets...Cameras...Printers", I say completely distracted.

"We should look at printers since your printer broke," Camp Daddy says pulling me into the aisle. To be fair we really did need a printer because after a month of emailng our neighbor asking to print stuff for us, they had stopped returning our messages.

"Oh, and there's that HDMI cable I need to hook up the monitor to my computer...", I add.

Needless to say, $229.46 later, we walked out of the store with a new WIRELESS printer, HDMI cable, a mobile notebook table/cart AND some school supplies. Yes, our big mission to save four dollars and fifty cents really paid off!

Office Depot: 1

Camp Mama: 0

(But at least we got three pencil sharpeners for .01, right?)

NEXT STOP: Meet the Teacher Night