Money, Love, and Change

If you’ve been following some of my previous posts, you know that a recent source of stress in our lives has been finding a program for the kid for the next school year.  It seems like some good karma has come our way, and we found something that is a great fit.

My kid is only 2, so we’re trying to find something that doesn’t last all day, but gives him the chance to interact with other kids.  We always go to the free story time at our local library (as well as visit the library at least once a week), so I was hoping for something for 2 other days.

We found a program at a local farm that is two mornings a week.  The kids get to bake, hang out with the animals, and play.  It’s also a parent-child program, so I get to moo with the cows too, which I haven’t done since I was a small child.  How cool is that?

To top it all off, it’s affordable, and our money will be supporting an organic self-sustaining farm.

It’s still going to stretch our budget, though.  I need to get serious about finding a good source of work-at-home income.   But for tonight, I’m just going to be thankful that we found something!

If you’ve got young kids, what do you think of a program like this?  I know that it’s not traditional, but our son loves to be outside and running around; I think it’s a great fit for us.

We are regular visitors to our local library.  A month or so ago, I was a little surprised to see Dolly Parton’s smiling face on a brochure at the children’s desk.  After a moment of wondering how Dolly manages to look exactly the same as she did 25 years ago, curiosity got the best of me and I picked up the brochure.

Dolly, bless her soul, has started a program called the Imagination Library.  This program partners with local communities to provide free books (1 per month) for any child under the age of 5 who signs up.  Here is an excerpt from her website:

Here’s how it works:

A community must make the program accessible to all preschool children in their area. The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters the information into the database.

From there The Dollywood Foundation takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home.

The books are already selected based on the age of the child – each kid receives 1 free book per month until the age of 5.  To see if your community participates, you can check out the affiliates link here.

We filled out the form on our brochure (our community does not allow online registration), and received a confirmation letter.  We are still waiting for our first book, but I wanted to share this information now so that others can sign up.  Happy reading!

There are a lot of short classes on a variety of topics available for free at Hewlett- Packard’s Learning Center. Topics include Windows Vista, Microsoft Office programs, networking, and general business skills. The classes usually run for 6 weeks, and there are forums to keep things interactive.

I have taken one course so far; I didn’t participate in the forums, but I found the information to be useful. I just signed up for a course on Flash animation (it starts on 8 May if you are interested). Just thought I would share in case you are looking to update some of your computer skills!

The ignorance of people never ceases to amaze me.

I do need to divulge a little personal information to put this story in its proper context.  I have dark hair and eyes, but am not sure of my ethnic heritage because I do not know my father.  My mom is Caucasian, but I don’t really look like her.  If I had to guess, I would suspect that I may be Native American as well, but your guess is as good as mine.

So here’s my story:

There is a mother in our parent-child program who is somewhat annoying.  Up to this point, it hasn’t really been a big deal.  In general, she tends to be very judgmental towards others and likes to gossip.  She’s not someone I have a lot in common with, and I’m not there to make best friends.  I’ve always been polite to her, but in general I tend to keep my distance.

At the end of class last week, another parent was asking me about the summer program.  This woman interjects, and asks about my other child – she wanted to know why was I not enrolling my 2-year-old when my other son was going to be participating.

I politely informed her that I only have one kid, and perhaps she has me mixed up with someone else.  She asks the teacher who she has me mixed up with.  It’s a small school, so the teacher responded with the lady’s name right away.

This mother responds, “Oh yeah, the Mexican!”

The teacher says, “Um, actually, she’s Japanese.”

Hold on folks, it gets better…

The mother then looks at me and says, “I don’t know, all you brown people look the same to me.”

At this point the other mom’s jaws need to be picked up off the floor.  One lady actually gasped, which I thought was a nice effect.

I replied, “I’m not even going to respond to that statement.  Have a great weekend everyone!”  I took my son, and walked out the door (we were on our way out anyways).

Maybe it is just me, but I really don’t think this woman is going to change.  Therefore, I felt it would be a waste of my time to open a can of whoop-#$% on her.  Also, there were other children in the room.
I’m not sure what happened after I left, and am interested to see if anything is said this week.

So here’s my question – in my shoes, would you have done anything differently?