School

William's first day of school

Today I am feeling grateful for the school William is going to.  I really really agonized over the decision of whether to send him to school or to homeschool him this year, and then again where I should send him.  Long story short, we decided to send him to a Montessori Charter school that is conveniently pretty close to where we live. I was a little apprehensive about it, but after observing the kindergarten class at the end of last year I felt a lot of peace about sending him there and have been more and more pleased with the decision as he has gotten further into the school year. 

I try to volunteer in his classroom once a week, and this morning I went in and was reminded how glad I was to have him in the school.  I know that it isn't a perfect school or anything, and having a public montessori school isn't ideal, but I have been so pleased that his class is organized, and calm and that he obviously understands what he is supposed to be working on.  I love that his teacher really teaches them to be self sufficient in their work and that they can all work at things according to the level they are at instead of having to catch everyone up to the same level before they go on. It's fun to have William show me the things he is working on and see how excited he is to show me what he can do.

A few days ago I was talking to a friend who's son is in the class William would have been in at the regular school and she was telling me how disorganized and chaotic the whole class is and how frustrated she has been so far. I had also heard this same sort of thing from parents who had their kids in this class last year.  So this morning when I walked into William's bright, sunlit (his school has huge windows that let in a ton of natural light), interestingly and aesthetically set up classroom with children who were well behaved and understood their regular routine it just made me really happy! I'm glad to know that he is starting his school experience this way.

I am also grateful that because William has to go to school in the morning I have to get up early and get the day started quickly.  Although generally I always was a morning person, the combination of having kids who keep me up at night and having a night-owl husband has really gotten me out of the habit of utilizing my morning hours. This is something that I constantly regret, but haven't been able to get myself to change.  Now I'm glad I don't have a choice.

I don't know what kind of schooling we will do with our kids in the future.  We will more than likely do different things at different times, but I am grateful that our first school experience has been so positive thus far.