The school that Madison is going to next year collects Box Tops.  If you don’t know what Box Tops is, let me explain.  There are a ton of items that you can buy that have the image to the left on the box.  You collect these for your local schools, and they get 10 cents for every one you turn in.  Now, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but when if you can get a bunch of people together, it adds up quickly.  Now, the school’s goal is to earn $750 from Box Tops.  Last year, they made $536, and I would love for them to meet their goal for this year (even though Madison is not even enrolled yet.  I understand that any extra money to the school with benefit her).  Now, there are several ways we can do this for our local schools.

First, you need to log into the Box Tops site and create an account.  You enter your state and your school or if you don’t know that, just enter your zip code.  I personally entered the school and state.  From there, you are able to see how your local school is going.  Now, how do you increase that number?  Well, you can collect box tops with that logo on it.  They also have a Marketplace.  Now, until recently, I did not know about the Marketplace.  This works so awesome too!  There is a list of stores that will give a percentage of whatever you buy from them back to the school.  There are stores like Avon, Gap, Kohls, Best Buy, Leap Frog, Target, and Walmart (this is just a couple of them — the whole listing is on the site).  All you have to do is log into the Box Tops Site, click on marketplace, then click on the store you want to shop it.  That’s it.  Once you checkout, the percentage you purchased will then be applied to your school.  If you are Christmas shopping online anyway, why not help out your local school (and if you don’t want to help any of them out, I’ll tell you the school we are sending our money too, and you can use them).

Did you know that Box Tops has donated more than $250 million to schools nationwide since 1996?  Would you like to help raise that number?  Then start collecting Box Tops and use their Marketplace to do your online shopping!  To help you get started, I am giving away a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble (thank you Barnes & Noble for your support of such a great program!).  What do you have to do?

Each one of these things will give you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know why you want this $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble!
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc.

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

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This contest will end November 26th at 8:00 pm CST and is for US residents. Good Luck!

Ever have one of those days?  I did today. Instead of my normal Tuesday routine, I got stuck doing other things I didn’t really feel like doing.  If you read my last update from when we went to the doctor’s office, Madison needs to get a hearing test done. I finally got around to calling the school district today, and what a mess.  Instead of being able just to schedule her for hearing test, they are making her go through an entire preschool screening again. Unfortunately, this means I had to prove residency once again. This is no easy task. To prove residency in my district, you have to bring in your tax bill, two utility bills, an original birth certificate, and your drivers license. Unfortunately, that isn’t always so easy to find. I spent the entire time while Madison was a preschool looking for these items.  My other problem was that the school closed at 4 PM.This normally wouldn’t be an issue except Madison had preschool until 3:30 PM. It takes me around 15 minutes to get from my house to her preschool. In theory, I should have made a back In plenty of time. However, I got stuck by two trains. I then turned on the wrong street to go to the school and got a bit turned around. What a mess!  Luckily, I got there with five minutes to spare. I literally ran into the building with the kids. Thank goodness the woman was nice, because it actually took me till five after four for me to finish all the paperwork. Seriously, there was so much paperwork it was like signing mortgage papers.  Now, I have to sit and wait for school to call me back and schedule a screening for preschool. I seriously don’t understand why they just can’t do the hearing screening like I asked. I think the lady said that testing would start November 7, so at least we don’t have to wait that long. It’s just frustrating because Madison won’t qualify for free preschool, so this is just a waste of my time.

You know, I seriously hate being negative on here.  I really do.  However, some thing just tick me off to no end, so you all have to hear about them. 

If you are a regular reader here, you know about my struggle with the public school and that we are considering sending her to private school.  Click here to read all about it.

Now, my taxes pay their salaries and getting someone to talk to me is like pulling teeth.  Then they don’t really answer what I ask either.  However, my favorite has to be the Chicago Tribune article I read this week that the schools districts are telling parents to ignore the state test scores since they were graded differently this year.  However, at the state level, they are saying the grading is comparable to years past.  So who is right?  Who needs to recheck their job descriptions and find out that they have no right to tell the parents anything?

Seriously, where is the accountability?  I hear over and over that public schools are better since they are accountable.  Really?  They won’t talk to parents, they lie about test scores, etc. Where is the accountability?

Here is what I have learned from the private school.  They are very transparent.  They don’t baby any parents.  The principal even said at the open house that if 90% of the parents can do it right, they all should be able to and that they don’t put up with that crap.  Every time I have called and talked to them, they have answered every single one of my questions.  They told me the class size this year for every single grade (K-8).  The people answering the phone were extremely knowledgeable.  There has only been one question they didn’t know the answer to and she gave me the number of the person who would (and that person did!).  I can come in anytime and tour the school, and their test scores are an open book that can also be looked at any time I want.  Granted, I have to pay to get this type of service but don’t I pay the public schools too?

We decided to join a new church here.  We haven’t 100% decided to send Madison to private school yet (we have a school referendum on Nov. 4th.  If that passes, it solves all of my issues with the public school.  However, after watching the debates of Friday night, that may not hold true either.  If McSame, I mean McCain, wins he proposed a spending freeze.  In theory, that sounds great.  However, the schools don’t have enough money for No Child Left Behind as is.  If they keep the amount frozen, that means even less money going towards the kids.)  The church we joined is a part of hte private school we are looking at.  It is a very cool looking church, and we have been there before.  Bill’s friend got married there and his daughter will be baptized there this weekend.  We also started working on her tuition.  They have a program called VOICE.  That has you buy gift certificates from them for stores like Speedway, Kohls, Jiffy Lube, Walgreens, etc. to name a few.  A percentage of the purchase amount goes towards the school.  Madison has to raise $150 with that.  With the certificates I bought on Sunday, we are up $17.  Woohoo!  The cool thing is that everything we earn over the $150 gets taken off her tuition.  If we don’t end up sending her there, I just figure that money will go towards another family who can use it.  I just think that is super cool that we can start earning towards this now already! So, if anyone needs gift certificates come Christmas time, let me know!

I’ll be honest, this school decision makes me sick.  I get a stomach ache every time I have to think about it.   I would rather have to use a colon cleanser than have to make this decision. Public schools are suppose to be good. I shouldn’t have to worry about the class sizes or if subjects like music and art are being taught.  I just always assumed that my kids would be able to have the same education I have.

**okay, whine over.  I think** 

This video angers me. If you know somebody with autism, it will anger you too!

I cannot believe that he equates loudmouth kids to those who have autism. My cousin is a special education teacher too. They don’t give the answers to anybody. Obviously, he has never dealt with children with disabilities before be it a learning disorder or autism. Heaven forbid, they need an extra hand. I guess if you’re not normal according to what the textbooks say, society should just throw you away or you’re destined for only getting an education online so no one has to deal with you.

I understand that the prevalence of these disorders are going up. Could it be that we have better intervention techniques now so that we can catch these kids early and get them the help they need?

Let me know your thoughts on this!