First Day of School 2010-11 (part deux)

So, my first day as a "Learning Coach" for the younger Offspring at a virtual academy has come and gone. And I'm on the verge of starting the countdown to my last one. Seriously, seriously had a lousy time. I'm pretty sure tomorrow--and several more tomorrows to come--will be better (and not just because they really couldn't get worse), which helps some.

No matter how much I prepped, the day was still full of--

"I'm supposed to have you do what now?"
"I'm supposed to print X? Where is X?"
"Why did I print 2 copies of that?" (fairly certain the parent company is owned by an ink cartridge manufacturer)
"Seriously...I spent 15 minutes preparing all these things to get you going on an activity that...teaches you to do something you've been doing for 4 years???"
...and so on

Now I've gone through a lot of that when I homeschooled in the past, but then it was my fault for not preparing correctly, reading the instructions, etc. and I could either shrug it off or laugh at myself. But now...as I'm not the responsible party, it's all their fault and if those dunderheads would just get things straight, everything would be fine and dandy.

Yes, A. I realize the double standard at work here and B. Shut up.

And don't get me started on the mandatory orientation session that interrupted my day, threatened to derail everything, and went on for 2.5 hours covering things that anyone who was conscious and semi-aware during registration/recruitment would know (which didn't stop several Learning Coaches from asking and reasking questions about them, and being so, so, so grateful for the answers). If you get my Facebook feed, you heard me whine about it already. And if you don't get that feed--well, now's a time to be thankful you didn't have to put up with that.

Still, the Princess and Arnold were über-excited about starting, and most of their enthusiasm didn't diminish throughout the day. Actually, they were very positive about the whole thing and are rarin' to go tomorrow. As long as that holds up, I can fake it on my end. Probably.

Naturally, the only time Arnold wasn't smiling/happy/excited today was when I broke out the camera (odd, as he's usually the world's biggest piece of cured meat cut from the thigh of a hog). Still, holding to tradition: here's the first day of school pic: