Hellobee

Last time I wrote on this subject… I was surrounded by school packets and somewhat dazed and confused about the whole thing. We were looking at a Montessori School, a Charter School, a Reggio Emilia school, and a Collaborative school. I was overwhelmed and unsure where to start. So I basically just made appointments to tour the two closest schools… and then was going to take it from there. I knew that the two other schools had open houses shortly after my tours were set up, so we’d get to see all four schools and meet some of the staff within a two week timeframe. This was the beginning of January. And then… our world turned upside down. Mr. Paintbrush ended up in the hospital for a week, my Mini Michelangelo and I ended up with the stomach bug, and we had snowstorm after snowstorm after snowstorm. We ended up having to cancel the tours and we missed an Open House. All of a sudden, it was the beginning of February and registration deadlines were looming. And I, quite simply, was freaking out. I had a week to make one of the most important decisions of my son’s life! Or so it felt.

Then one of my friends said something brilliant to me. They said, “Whatever you decide doesn’t have to be forever. It just has to be for a year.” And just like that… the pressure was off. Of course, we hope that the place we love as our Kindergarten choice is also the place we love for elementary, middle, and junior high. But at the end of the day… nothing is written in stone. Suddenly, this became manageable.

So we chose to look at the schools in the order that we liked their philosophies. We’d done plenty of online research not only into the particular schools that we were looking at, but also into the general philosophies behind them. (An aside… how did people do this stuff before the internet?!) This meant that Montessori was first up. This had been one of the schools we had arranged to tour, and then had to cancel when Mr. Paintbrush was in the hospital. My Mini Michelangelo is a very independent thinker, who is also scary smart. But, he’s definitely a kiddo who learns by doing. And he needs to learn it when HE wants to learn it. (I had to learn that lesson myself many times before I got it!) He’s a perfect match for the Montessori method. We were just worried about how he would function in such a small, independent setting. He’s a kiddo who, uhhh, pushes the limits. You know, like Thomas Edison. Or at least that’s what I tell myself on the trying days.

The decision was almost made on the phone when I called to reschedule… and the first thing I was asked was “How is your husband feeling?!” I had not brought it up; they had remembered. Aside from a great school, we were also looking for a community. That one question made me feel like I may have found it. It’s nice that my son was already more than a name… and they hadn’t met him yet.

The Montessori school was great — they got us in for a make-up tour immediately. When we went for the tour, I was a little a lot nervous. Mostly because my child was over the top excited. And antagonistic about the whole concept of Kindergarten. Not necessarily the best combination for making a good impression. But, at least it was honest. As we toured the school, he had more questions than I did. Which I took as a good sign. An even better sign was when the woman giving us the tour got down on his level to answer the questions, as well as ask some of her own in order to help him answer the questions himself. Again, the decision was almost made. At the end of the tour, I was told a spot was being held for my Mini Michelangelo while we did our due diligence of touring other schools. It was in no way meant to pressure me… and I was kind of blown away by that. While, yes, they are courting us as much as we are courting them… there was no reason for them to do that for us.

I’d love to say that on the tour, I fell head-over-heels in love with the school.* In many ways, I did fall for it. The staff was clearly amazing. Seeing the method in action was wonderful. The small class size, the exceptional student body, and the classrooms were incredible. But, there were still some downsides for me. Silly downsides, but downsides none-the-less. (To be fair, I also had some very silly upsides.) But in the end… it was still the frontrunner. A very strong front runner.

After the tour, my Lil’ Guy didn’t want to talk about it. At all. I think he’s pretty much in denial that he has to go to school. But I felt that his dawdling when it was time to leave spoke volumes.

So I let it be. The following week we went to the other school on our list. It was more of a traditional learning environment with emphasis on small class size and an appreciation for cultural arts. (That made this graphic designer Mama’s heart sing!) We were going in to pick up the applications and the financial aid forms; the open house and tour was the following weekend. We had to navigate from the guest entrance to the office. As we did, my Lil’ was very quiet, taking it all in. We hadn’t been there long when my Mini Michelangelo looked up to me and stage-whispered, “Mama, I like the other school better.”

And that, my friends, was when the decision was made.

* It should be noted that I am not a “love at first sight” gal. Never have been. So it was a little unfair for me to think that it would happen with a school. It’s a process for me. And in the past month since we made our decision, I’ve fallen even more for the school. I guess that by taking away all the emotion devoted to making the decision, I’ve allowed for more emotion regarding the actual school.