School...

Well, the time has come to leave our cozy little comfortable pre-school at Little Church on the Prairie...at least for one kid. We have just started our research for schools for next year (kindergarten) for Kellen. And I have to say, at this point, my findings are farily disappointing.:( Granted, we have only been to 2 open houses at private schools, & I haven't called the public schools that I need to call, but most of the information out there is not fitting our boy. Some of these might sound like 'excuses' or 'lame reasons' to not choose a school, but I have acknowledged that, at least for now, these are our reality. And our kids are still young, so I am not going to make the time miserable by choosing something that just really doesn't fit us right now. For instance, all of the private schools so far that we have attended open houses for (Life Christian & Charles Wright) are full day K programs. And so is Heritage Christian. I really feel like Kellen will do better with another year in half day, for a variety of reasons that I won't go in to here. Cascade Christian has a half day program, but that's #2: most of the programs we have looked at start at 8:00 - 8:30 in the morning. (This is where the excuses & lame reasons really come in, but again, our reality...) Pretty much every day, my earliest riser is UP between 8-8:30, & my latest riser is up between 9-10. I have tried to change their patterns, & it is not pretty. They already go to bed between 7-8 most every night, so I can't really put them to bed earlier. The other night Kaarin went to bed at 7:00 p.m. & I had to wake her up at 8:30 a.m. Reality: 8:00 start time is too early for us. #3: All of the public school half day K programs through Clover Park SD start at 8:00. Some of them do offer p.m. programs, & I haven't called about this to be sure, but from what I have heard they don't offer the p.m. class until the a.m. class is over-full. Which means I may not have a choice for p.m. until mid-year (Idlewild elem. just added the 1/2 day p.m. K class Jan. 2 - before that, a.m. was the only option). #4: The public school classrooms are WAY too huge. Idlewild started at 18 kids at the beginning of the year & then grew to 29 by October. It wasn't until they hit 32 that they split the class. Way. too big. I won't do it.

So, there are some other "creative" options, such as one friend from Kellen's class this year is going to send her son to Life Christian K for just part day most days, & then will add some full days in as the year goes on. The biggest 2 problems with that for Kellen is that he doesn't like to leave before the rest of the class (he doesn't like to be different - ha) & they do art & choices time in the p.m. part of the day, so he would miss his 2 favorite things every day. There is a school in Tacoma that is designed to be part day school with home school supplementation (which I was REALLY excited about) but it starts at 8:00 a.m. :(

I have a feeling that whatever we decide for next year for K will be a 1-yr. plan & it will change when we move on to 1st grade. And I am perfectly o.k. with that.:) We just have to figure out next year's plan first!