Choosing a school for Brianna is one of those topics that overwhelms me so much that I have to immediately stop thinking about it as soon as the thought surfaces.
It's one of those tricky balances, where I have to figure out what's BEST for her, what's BEST for the fam, what makes the most sense.... and then a lot of it is pure GAMBLE, because I don't have a crystal ball to see what a year in a certain educational setting will do for her.
The way I see it (and this is without doing as much research as I should), I have 4 choices:
-Homeschool. Honestly, I believe homeschooling moms are the most unselfish mothers out there. They sacrifice so much, and work so hard, and their motive is simply
doing what is best for their child regardless of what mountains they have to move to make it happen. Am I this unselfish? Probably not. It's too intimidating. Unless I have a strong impression that this is what Brianna needs, I'm putting her in a formal educational setting outside the home. Half day. Full day is too much at such a young age.
Children need to be with their parents. I believe that.
-Public School. It's free! It's walking distance from home! Our friends are there! It's easy! And it worked fine for
me (I hate that argument. Like people saying, "I never wear my seatbelt, and I'm fine," or "I formula fed all my babies, and they're fine" or "I eat junk food, and look how sexy I still am!")
Just because you survive something doesn't mean you wouldn't have been so much better off with a different choice. To be fair, I haven't toured the public school yet, or met the K teacher. I need to do that. But regardless of how great the teacher is, their hands are often tied by the whole "core curriculum" one-size-fits-all requirements.
-
Charter School. Still free, usually. Requires uniforms - yay! Smaller classes. More individualized. But a far drive for me. Everyday. Back and forth in the car. Loading up two toddlers and an infant sounds SO fun to do over and over every day. Blech. Proximity, in general, is a huge factor in my decision. I hate wasting time and money in transition. But I love the idea of doing
something different than public school, simply because it weeds out certain types I don't want my child around (AHHH! I know, so non-PC, so judgmental/racist/bigot/elitist, whatever ya wanna call it). I can't shelter my children from all the bad eggs out there, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try.
-Private School. There's one less than a mile from us. It's a Montessori. We took a tour - very impressive. Small class size, 9/1 ratio, outstanding curriculum (including Spanish, taught by a native speaker). Brianna would actually be a tad behind most of the other kids in the kindergarten class, because the other kids did preschool there and are already reading sentences. Whereas Brianna is in the "decoding" stage and just reads/writes smaller words. But I believe she'll catch up quickly, especially in that environment. Would that happen in a Title 1 public school, where she'll be in a class with 20-something other kids, many of them still learning letters and sounds? I know reading isn't EVERYTHING, there are dozens of other important subjects. But I believe reading trumps them. The biggest downside: this CO$TS. But not as much as I thought. $250/mo. for half days, 5 days/wk. That's about what we've been paying for Brianna to go to her current preschool (which is honestly the best on the planet - I can't imagine anything more impressive), plus Karate class (Little Ninjas).
Brian's opinion? Of course Mr. meat-and-potatoes is all about just doing public school. He's the one saying, "well that's what WE did." As if our aspiration in life is for our kids to do nothing better than their parents. He doesn't like the idea of paying for school when it could be free. I let him know that theory doesn't work... "why do we pay for having cars when it's free to ride your bike? Why do we pay for good food when it's cheaper to eat ramen noodles?" Do we prefer to use that money instead for nice vacations and pretty furniture and restaurant visits? What could be
more important than our childrens' education? Brian definitely agrees that there's no excuse for not sacrificing to do what's best for our little ones. For him, it's more
sacrificing his disdain for anything that appears to be ostentatious. We have to let go of that and not care what others think. I'm also selling him on the fact that we don't have to do make choices now for her ENTIRE educational career. We can take it one year at a time. Maybe private Kindergarten, then a different choice next year.
I feel very fortunate that I have so many options. Most people don't. Especially now that I'm bringing in a little more from my job (UtahRunning.com), we can afford do what is best for our kids.
I'm not saying my mind is made up. At all.
I don't know what we'll do yet. But it's helpful for me to write my evolving thoughts down, thus this long rambling potentially offensive blog post :)
A cap and gown (and the traditional grad music) might have been a little much for a preschool graduation. But it was cute and she seemed to really enjoy it.
I didn't ask for an explanation... 
