October 6, 2011

Science Mania

This year, my kids' elementary school started offering after school enrichment courses on a variety of subjects that used to be integrated into the regular curriculum. It's unfortunate and sad that state budget cuts have pared back extracurriculars. to the point of near extinction, but it is what it is, at least for now.

Enter Science Mania.

The class description read like something that I definitely would have tried hard to avoid in my youth; I don't remember what it said exactly, but the document was filled with intimidating words like "comet" and "asteroid" and "dry ice" and "gravity."

"I am committed to the idea of having at least one of you grow up to be a mad scientist," I told my kids when I explained where they would be going every Thursday afternoon for an hour after school.

Today was the first day of the program.

Ten minutes after school ended, I got a friendly phone call from a woman who identified herself as Atomic Amanda. "I have one Camber with me," she told me. "But the other two didn't show up."

{insert 50 red flags}

"What do you mean...the other two Cambers?"

It took some work, but eventually we figured out that somehow the list that got sent to all the teachers showed my daughter enrolled three times in the class, and my boys not at all.

"We'll go look for your boys," Atomic Amanda assured me. "And if we can't find them, we'll take it from there."

A few minutes later, AA called me back with the good news that they had located my boys, and the bad news that they had already sent them home on the bus.

This was particularly bad news because I wasn't at home at the time, or anywhere close. Specifically, I was 30 miles away at a doctor's appointment.

There were some stressful moments, but thank goodness for cell phones. Seriously. After several failed attempts, I finally got a hold of a neighbor. She found my sons in our backyard and watched them until I got home. One was urinating in the bushes at the moment of discovery. The other was throwing acorns at my bedroom window.

"Sorry about the mix up!" Atomic Amanda said when I picked up my daughter.

The woman shoved a handful of do-it-yourself weather vane kits into my hands. "Take them," she urged. "Please."

"Hush money," my husband interpreted when he got home and saw all the crafts spread out on the kitchen table.

10 comments

Mom of 12 said...

Bribes work for me!
Sandy
www.twelvemakesadozen.blogspot.com

Boulderscribe said...

Why would you have three children named Camber? Not very reassuring that AA is in charge.

Charlie Pulsipher said...

I just think it's funny that she called herself Atomic Amanda on the phone. I mean, if I was Charcoal Charlie to teach a bunch of kids about fire safety, I'd still call myself just normal regular Charlie when I called their parents. What kind of nut uses the persona all the time?

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The Mommy said...

Atomic Amanda surely isn't a mad scientist! I am glad everything worked out. How did we ever live without cell phones???

Another Piece Of Chocolate said...

Ditto Charlie's reply! Very funny :- )

Nikki said...

ahahaha....Charcoal Charlie.....ahahahaha

But I get it on dumb schools. When my daughter was a 1st grader she decided it would be okay to "walk home with a friend" and the school decided it didn't matter. When I went to go pick her up she wasn't there and the school had no clue who she had left with or where she had gone. About 20 minutes later (!?!?!) I get a phone call from a random daycare stating that my daughter had arrived there with "her friend". Said daycare was across town and 2 little 1st grade girls had walked there by themselves! Thank goodness my daughter remembered her phone number or I am sure she would have been lost forever - seriously!

Renee said...

Wow! Never a dull moment!!

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Kristin said...

How could a school think that there were 3 children with exactly the same name??? If the list went out to everyone, how did ANYone not notice?

Tammy said...

Wow, are you sure you want one of them to grow up to be like Atomic Amanda?

Anonymous said...

As a homework club helper years ago, I was called Lunar Luna. I mean, my name is Kathy, how did this even come about?