Report cards came!

[conuly]

And I baked for the bake sale!

About the report cards: The nieces got a full set of "3s" and "4s" on their report cards. For those unfamiliar with the new system NYC uses "4" means above grade level, "3" means at grade level, "2" means approaching grade level (or, as we used to say, "Needs Improvement") and 1 is really failing, but they don't say that, they say you're "below grade level" and "at risk of retention".

Despite the fact that they break every subject down in little bits, it's still not exactly clear what Ana's doing in class, except for "ELA" (aka: reading and writing). In that she's getting straight 4s across the board, where 4 = reading level "N" or higher. They said that explicitly on the report card. For reference, "Rapunzel's Revenge" is pretty near exactly an "N" reading level... or at least, it's a 3.2, and the comparison chart says they're just about the same thing.

However, Ana's teacher said she needs to "work on adding more description to her writing". I was actually happy to see this, because I could then stick it in her face and go "SEE? SEE? THIS IS WHAT I KEEP TELLING YOU! NOW IT IS IN BLACK AND WHITE!" and do a little "told you so" dance. (I lie. I didn't actually dance. But I did LOL.)

For the bake sale I made blondies, mint chocolate chip brownies (which weren't nearly as good as I'd hoped), chocolate chip cookies, and, of course, cupcakes in ice cream cones with rainbow frosting. Honestly, every time I make those it occurs to me that it's well more trouble than it's worth. My arms nearly fall off trekking them to the school! Top-heavy suicidal cupcakes. Ugh. They're easily $10 each in blood, sweat, and tears, but there's no chance they sell like that.

And when you think about it, bake sales are a weird thing, aren't they? I mean, I spend $6 or $10 or so baking (and another $7 buying juice boxes to sell) or purchasing baked goods, and then they're sold for 25¢ or 50¢ apiece, and the school makes another $100 or more off of what we donate. But if the people selling items just gave the money to the school outright, and the people buying items just gave the money to the school outright, a lot of time and effort would be saved and there'd be less sugar highs at parent teacher night and more money!

It's like Halloween, another thing that, when you think about it, doesn't make much sense at all.

Comments

[pne]

And when you think about it, bake sales are a weird thing, aren't they? I mean, I spend $6 or $10 or so baking (and another $7 buying juice boxes to sell) or purchasing baked goods, and then they're sold for 25¢ or 50¢ apiece, and the school makes another $100 or more off of what we donate. But if the people selling items just gave the money to the school outright, and the people buying items just gave the money to the school outright, a lot of time and effort would be saved and there'd be less sugar highs at parent teacher night and more money!

That's assuming that parents would donate the same amount to the school without receiving any sugary goods in return, an assumption I'd like to see some justification for.

[conuly]

That's assuming that parents would donate the same amount to the school without receiving any sugary goods in return, an assumption I'd like to see some justification for.

They could try it out, anyway. I certainly know of people who have successfully gotten their school to opt out of the "your, uh, 'kid' sells things to neighbors" (really, the parent harasses people at work) fundraisers by just asking how much money they want per student and paying upfront.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Yeah! As a kid, Halloween was the only way to GET candy (besides being good and getting one of my parents to buy some for me. TOO MUCH WORK!), so it "made sense." Now that I have kids, I am buying bags of candy, and my kids are bringing home bags of candy, so it's really just an elaborate candy swap.

Kira's school did a rummage sale instead of a bake sale. They asked for donations of clothes, toys, and that sort of thing, then at the rummage sale, families resold donated items to other people and everything went to the school. Maybe that would make more sense than a bake sale. You could suggest it to the school. ;P

[leora.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have kids, so Halloween is my chance to be nice to kids, and it doesn't cost very much, and I don't have to deal with any sugar highs that may result.

[conuly]

They've done used book sales in the past... in conjunction with a bake sale. Admittedly, combining it does make a certain sort of sense. I think it'd make sense to have a "sell your old uniform to other people" sale at the end of every year, but right now they're collecting them to donate to... I think to kids on free lunch, I'm not altogether clear on how that works.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

At work we've been doing a charity appeal for a local children's hospice, aiming to raise £40,000.

It feels like half of that has been raised by the staff buying baked goods and bacon sandwiches off each other. And a sweepstake over which day someone would give birth ("I can't make cakes or scones, but I can give birth for charity"). We should have just each put in a £40 donation at the start of it and called it done.

[pne.livejournal.com]

And a sweepstake over which day someone would give birth ("I can't make cakes or scones, but I can give birth for charity").

That's a cute idea.

[conuly]

Well, you know, if you're already pregnant you might as well run a pool.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Yup. And since she had just passed into officially full term, the timing worked well. Meant that a month's worth of days took her neatly from "tomorrow" (as of when she decided to do it) to "when they stop waiting and give me the needle".

When I wandered to her desk to enter I had been going to pick the 15th of March because the Ides of March would be a fun birthday. But on the way over I realised that duh, Pi Day would be a faaar more fun birthday.

Got into work on Tuesday morning, having dreamt persistently the night before that she had had her baby and that I had thus possibly won, to find an email announcing the birth of her baby girl... *holds breath* at 6 that morning. Nuuuuu!

[conuly]

So, so close.