This is my first time ever doing this! I enjoy reading them though, so here goes. This is going to be vaguely school related. We have had a lot of school challenges the past couple of weeks. Two of our kids will be going to different schools next year (one is aging out of elementary school and headed to middle school, the other is going to try out a charter school with our encouragement. The upshot could be avoiding the middle school scene completely since the charter school runs through 8th grade). There have been mixed feelings about this transition with both of the kids. Onward and upward though - no way around but through.
I've been feeling a little hesitant to discuss in depth with anyone our school choices. I know in the end we are responsible only to our children and ourselves and we need to make the best choices we can for us. That said, this seems to be an incredibly loaded issue in Anchorage; or maybe I just know people with very strong feelings on school choice. This is a great thing because I love people with convictions. It can make things a little uncomfy or awkward though when your choices and opinions diverge. I suppose so long as I'm confident in our choices that's just fine. The thing is, I would pay vast amounts for a crystal ball or somesuch where I could say "whoops, watch out for _______" or "we'd better really pay attention to _____" or "child X needs some extra concentration with (whatever subject". I guess I can't save everyone from themselves. As the kids get older I'm finding it hard to strike an academic balance between taskmistressing and encouraging responsibility for one's own work.
I spent a lot of time helping Perpetua with her homework tonight. She's perfectly capable of doing it, and not lazy. However, things ran up on the rocks if I lightened up on the guidance (step A, step B, step C, now let's write it down). I am going to research ways to encourage her to follow through on her own without me prompting the next step immediately.
I'm rolling around in my head whether or not to send Andrew to preschool next schoolyear. He doesn't need the socialization; though most people seem to have it as "the thing to do". I'm not able to devote the time to a co-op. I'm also not sure what our schedule will look like next year with kids at, potentially, 3 different schools, one of which requires someone to transport to and from (no bus service).
The charter school thing again. Judgement. Why did we make this choice? It's not that we dislike our current school. It's been a great place for our kids in general. For this specific child, I think he could benefit and might do even better in a different environment. I am interested to see how their curriculum aligns with what our kids have been exposed to so far. Maybe we will find that our Local Elementary is actually a better fit. I'm looking forward to learning with all of our kids. I haven't really initiated discussions about it with anyone I know locally - not only because most of the people I know in our school community are the girls' friends' parents - but also because there's the unspoken question of "why?" and it is a bit awkward. Not better, not worse, just different, and we're giving it a try.
I'm looking forward to making lists with the kids of different areas they'd like to learn more about this summer. I'm going to thrown in some religious instruction as well (hopefully). Things went awry with our CCD this year and Perpetua's FHC - we were sick for weeks on end (not all of us, but enough of us and her specifically often enough) that we were not able to have her participate with her class. So we need to review things with her and then make other arrangements.
Finishing up my learning theme: violin lessons. Again, due to illness (either family or her specifically) Perpetua missed several weeks of class. She is having to review things she had down a long time ago and has forgotten some stuff. She was disappointed - but we are working on getting that knowledge back down!
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