I always thought I would be a typical parent when it came to the education of my children.

I always thought I would be a typical room mom when it came to volunteering at my kid’s school.

I could not have been more wrong or surprised.

My children have wildly different temperaments and learning styles and they ended up needing different things in their education. With the exception of private school and private tutoring, we have done everything there is to do as far as education goes; I have sent kids to preschool, chosen not to send another to preschool, sent our kids to public school, charter schools, have homeschooled and participated in online education.

I have also done very different things as far as volunteering for my kid’s schools. So much of it has just depended on where I and my family were at at the time. I’ve been everything from ‘super amazing volunteer parent’ to moderately volunteering, and yes…I have been the parent that does absolutely nothing.

I started James in traditional public school in Kindergarten and I volunteered in his classroom. When I moved him to the brand new charter school next door to our home, I also tried to volunteer in his classroom. Volunteering in the classroom with James was a frustrating experience that didn’t work very well. He LOVED having me in there. Too, much, actually. He would go into full on ‘show off’ mode and it became a huge distraction for him, the class, and the teacher.

BUT…then I was asked to head up the developing Parent Organization and serve as president.

If you’ve never helped to build a Parent Organization from the ground up, let me be the one to tell you, it is a daunting task and it takes a huge amount of time and hours and energy. Fortunately, it was based on a strong school program in existence and the person I took over had done a great job with it. At the start of my term, Matthew passed away and well…I had an outlet for all that grief I had built up. And I worked, and worked, and worked and then worked some more. It was nice to have an outlet, I had SO many great, amazing experiences, but it also took its toll. Not only are the hours demanding but being super involved in a Parent Organization can be…emotionally involved and draining. Those of you who are super involved in a Parent Organization know what I am talking about, here.

Aside from helping out in orchestra, I didn’t volunteer in Christopher’s classroom. He would have taken to it much better than James, but I was already serving full throttle as PO President and then after 3-years of serving, I was beyond burned out. After so many years and gazillion hours of serving as PO President, when I was done I had to take a major step back for several years from EVERYTHING volunteering. Not just for my own sanity, (dude, PO’s can also put you through the embut for the sake of the person stepping into the role. I was so identified with the position that transitioning it proved to be a bit tough.  But like everything else, things move on and at last check it has ticked on beautifully.  While Christopher doesn’t attend the charter school for middle school, he is participating as a homeschooler in their orchestra program and I am grateful to have that opportunity.

When we registered James for high school, I DID seriously consider joining their parent organization but after talking with my husband about it and taking a realistic look at our schedules, I opted not to. Everyone is still trying to get acclimated to the very different educational modes we have going on in our house right now, so I’m focusing on that and the kids schoolwork vs. volunteer time outside of that.

And, while I do feel guilt about it, I am also fine with it because right now, it is what works best for us all.

But I will say that I miss actively volunteering at a school and know that I will do it again. I have another round of elementary school years in front of me, after all.

As for Aaron and his schooling, so much still remains to be seen.

Perhaps he will be at the mainstream public school and I will be the typical room parent volunteer I always thought I would be, who knows?

And that is kind of the beauty of it, no?

;)

I wrote this in conjunction with VolunteerSpot’s “I support my school my way” program. I chose to participate for a couple of reasons. One, I would have given my two front teeth for Christmas to have something like VolunteerSpot when I was PO president. It tracks all the hours you spend volunteering. Tracking volunteer hours was a large part of our funding and it was an utter headache. Having a place to track all of the hours that the parents at the school volunteered would have saved us a lot of time and sanity, so I thought I would share for those of you who might be in the same boat.

And two, if there was ever a supporter of supporting education and volunteering in the way you need to do it for your family and your kid, I am it. :)

I SUPPORT MY SCHOOL.. MY WAY! And I’m joining VolunteerSpot’s sponsored Back To School campaign to help raise visibility for parent involvement in schools.

Save time {and sanity} and get more parents involved at school with VolunteerSpot.com!

VolunteerSpot’s FREE online signup sheets make it easy to organize parents and signup to help for just about anything: classroom helpers, snack schedules, carnivals, library volunteers, parent-teacher conferences and more….  No more ‘Reply-All’ email chains or clipboard sign up sheets! Please share with your room mom, teachers and parent leaders…

Plus there’s a huge Sweepstakes on VolunteerSpot’s Facebook page!
Win $500 worth of school supplies for YOUR School! Enter here

So, dudes.

I made a purse.

Like, I sewed it and use it every day and everything.

For reals.

(Yes, that cracking sound you hear IS hell freezing over.)

It’s mustard yellow and grey, two of the hot colors for Autumn that I am most excited about, and I am DANG proud of myself for sewing it. AND it is seriously one of the cutest purses I have ever owned. But before I show you the photos, I’d like to talk about another bag.

THIS one, to be precise.

It’s from a company called School Bags for Kids.

Butterlump LOVES it.

The first night after it arrived I looked into his room before heading to my own bed and discovered that he had gotten up in the night, put the backpack into bed with him and then had fallen asleep on it.

(I love that kid.)

(I know this shocks all of you.)

( ;) )

While I do have a couple things coming up, I really don’t do reviews very often.

It’s even rarer when I am the one to ASK to do them.

But, then I met Miles,  a very friendly rep from schoolbagsforkids.com at BlogHer. (Hi, very friendly schoolbagsforkids.com rep named Miles! How are ya?) As we started talking he told me about how the company he worked for. Even though their line is a bit young for my older boys and Aaron has 3 more years before Kindergarten, I knew I HAD to write about their backpacks because I love the story of how the company started AND I went absolutely nuts at the huge humanitarian aspect of their company to help underprivileged children.

(We’ll get to that in a bit, but think along the lines of Tom’s Shoes.)

SO…

They sent me one in the mail to check out and it is even cuter than the photos online.

I LOVE these backpacks.

I love everything from the ULTRA sturdy construction, the budget friendly cost (under $60–EXCELLENT quality for the price) the square design and chest straps that help keep the weight evenly distributed on small bodies, to the detail of the embroidered bees on the bags and the honeycomb pulls on the zippers.

But honestly, what I love THE MOST about this backpack is the humanitarian effort behind these backpacks.

For every bag that is purchased, School Bags for Kids distributes a yellow bag full of school supplies to a child in need.

Currently they are working with 3 different schools–one in Belize, one in Thailand, and one in India.

The backpacks they send to these school kids are yellow.

I thought that was to keep with the “Bee” mascot and big yellow boxes they use, but as I did some research on their company for this post, I found out that they use the color deliberately.

“Most of the children we donate backpacks to walk miles on dangerous roads to go to school. Yellow is the international color for caution that signals motorist to slow down and signal as they drive.”

Seriously…I LOVE THIS COMPANY.

I hope you check out their site, buy a backpack or four,  like them on Facebook, spread the word on social media…whatever you can do to help support this amazing company.

AND NOW ON TO THAT TIME THAT LORALEE ACTUALLY MADE A PURSE.

IS IT NOT CUTE?

“Oh, boy. Look at the car ahead of us, Jonathan. That is my nightmare scenario for our boys when they are teenagers.”

“Hate to break it to you, honey, but they already ARE teenagers.”

“I keep forgetting this. Also? I need a drink.”

“Which car are you talking about? The convertible?”

“Yes. The convertible with the cute teenage girl driving and the three boys all drooling over her. I had a convertible with teenage boys as passengers. I KNOW WHAT CAN HAPPEN, DUDE.”

“OH. I thought you were concerned because it’s a female driver and everybody knows that women can’t drive.”

blink. blink. blinkity-blink.

“You DO want to get laid again in this lifetime…right?”