I am staggered by the enormity of the financial investment required to put children into Chilean schools. It is all new to me and all I can say is ... WOW. How do people do it??
My mom actually asked me that question this morning, and the only answer I can come up with from my recent observations is: credit. All the stores offering school supplies and uniforms also offer "payment plans" and the first question asked when I present my debit card is "How many payments?" They are usually surprised when I reply with only one, and in one store the woman was actually apologetic when she saw that my card was international and she had to break the news to me that I wasn't allowed multiple payments, anyway!
Maybe that was because my daughters' textbooks for 1st and 2nd grades cost me nearly four hundred dollars (gasp!!!) I feel like I'm back in college! (Only, at least then most of my textbooks were hardbacks I could re-sell. These are just spiral bound soft-covers!) Like I said, how do people do it?? Because then comes the two-page, single spaced list of required school supplies for each grade. Cha-ching! Another hundred dollars, please. And let's not forget the special school shoes at thirty bucks a pair ... cha-ching! Oh, and did we mention the uniform? Nothing generic, all monogrammed ... eeek!!
Needless to say, all hopes of Owen being able to attend pre-school this semester have flown out the window. His sisters are wearing his pre-school tuition to school! Oh well, lucky for us we love having the little guy around. :)
Please do pray for the girls and this new experience of attending Chilean school. We are confident this will be a positive experience in the long run, but we know there will be some growing pains along the way. Tonight I was thrilled when Eva expressed excitement about going to school for the first time. (It almost made the crazy spending all worth it, ha!) We love our girls and look forward to how God is going to shape their characters and mold their hearts. We are very proud of the precious daughters He has given us!
My mom actually asked me that question this morning, and the only answer I can come up with from my recent observations is: credit. All the stores offering school supplies and uniforms also offer "payment plans" and the first question asked when I present my debit card is "How many payments?" They are usually surprised when I reply with only one, and in one store the woman was actually apologetic when she saw that my card was international and she had to break the news to me that I wasn't allowed multiple payments, anyway!
Maybe that was because my daughters' textbooks for 1st and 2nd grades cost me nearly four hundred dollars (gasp!!!) I feel like I'm back in college! (Only, at least then most of my textbooks were hardbacks I could re-sell. These are just spiral bound soft-covers!) Like I said, how do people do it?? Because then comes the two-page, single spaced list of required school supplies for each grade. Cha-ching! Another hundred dollars, please. And let's not forget the special school shoes at thirty bucks a pair ... cha-ching! Oh, and did we mention the uniform? Nothing generic, all monogrammed ... eeek!!
Needless to say, all hopes of Owen being able to attend pre-school this semester have flown out the window. His sisters are wearing his pre-school tuition to school! Oh well, lucky for us we love having the little guy around. :)
Please do pray for the girls and this new experience of attending Chilean school. We are confident this will be a positive experience in the long run, but we know there will be some growing pains along the way. Tonight I was thrilled when Eva expressed excitement about going to school for the first time. (It almost made the crazy spending all worth it, ha!) We love our girls and look forward to how God is going to shape their characters and mold their hearts. We are very proud of the precious daughters He has given us!
1 comment:
I don't know if this is only a United States thing but http://www.half.ebay.com sells books. It is the bookstore part of ebay.
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