The School Saga

When we bought our home we knew that we weren't in a great school district.  The elementary we are assigned to has a rating of 2 on Great Schools.  Plus it's a 20 min drive or 45 min bus ride.  YIKES!  The worst part is there are awesome elementary schools just down the street but we're not in that school district.  Soooo starting this past spring we've been working other options.  We looked into EVERYTHING:

• HOME SCHOOL: would buy us a year to figure stuff out, but I really want Scarlett to have the social learning that comes with going to school, plus I don't want to be in charge of her schooling on top of everything else I have going on
• PRIVATE SCHOOL: a fine option if we had an extra $10k/year/kid (we don't)
• MONTESSORI SCHOOL: also expensive and I don't know if it's the best fit for our family
• CHARTER SCHOOLS: we applied to every charter school close by, we didn't get into a single school, terrible luck, we were #65+ on the waitlists too  :-(
• JUST STAY IN THE "BAD" DISTRICT: we drove by the school, both Jake and I instantly got a feeling that that wasn't the right place for our family (even before we noticed the liquor store around the corner and the broken playground equipment)
• GET INTO "GOOD" DISTRICT: we applied to a lottery to get into the good district, we got in (yay!) but they assigned us a school that is 35 min away (no!), that's insane to drive 2+ hours every day without weather/traffic
• MOVE: we started working with some realtors back in May, we started looking at houses and shopped for mortgages, we spent sooo many hours looking at homes that are exactly like our current home but only a half mile away in the "good" boundaries, we walked through homes, and started fixing things to put our home on the market

I told Jake that I could handle the stress of a csection/newborn OR the stress of moving but not both.  It was insane.  Every single conversation we had revolved in some way around this topic.  It was soooo stressful.  We felt so much peace about buying this home 4 years ago, but as we prayed about these different options we didn't feel peace about any of them!

We petitioned the "good" district and got them to move Scarlett to a school that's only 17 min away (based on her nut allergies).  We decided that I would just drive her for this school year rather than move.  

The morning of her first day of Kindergarten.  I love that her backpack is as big as she is (she picked it out cause it was violet with rainbows and stars).

Everyone wanted to come watch her take pictures (more about Grandparent visits soon).

Look at that nervous "smile" haha!  Poor girl was so anxious!  Parents were invited to the first 20 min of class.  The teacher read a book called The Kissing Hand then we both traced our hands and I left her with a kiss on her paper.

She came home in tears that day cause the teacher told her not to run in the hallway and she thought she was in trouble.  This poor girl just loves to follow the rules.

Well that evening we got a phone call from the charter school down the road from us - they had an open spot and they were wondering if we wanted it.  WHAT?!?!?!  YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I drove to Old Navy and bought the last school uniforms they had in her size.  We were #103 on the wait list when I called a month earlier.  So it's a real blessing that we got in!  

The next morning I walked her into the building so I could meet her teacher and fill out paperwork.  Her teacher is super cute!  We found out that she is one of the main instructors at Scarlett's ballet studio!  So we've seen her at ballet a few times and I've been able to talk to her about Scarlett.  Which is awesome!!!  I even took her a bag of school supplies to ballet so I didn't have to unload my girls at the school! 

I am so excited that she got into this school!!!  The building is brand new.  The teachers are awesome.  The curriculum has a new value they study every month for their "moral focus" and they pride themselves on allowing the students to learn at their own pace.  They said that the twirls will get priority spots since they are siblings - even before employee's children.  Plus the uniforms are just so cute!  But the best part about this new school???  It's close enough that 4 days a week Jake can drop her off in the morning!!!!!  It's less than 5 min away and you only have to go through one stop sign.  Ironically that one intersection is under construction right now haha!  Even with the pickup line after school and all the construction, it's still faster than driving to the other school she went to.

A few days into school and Scarlett came home with a fever.  I asked her why she didn't tell her teacher she was sick: "Cause I didn't want to come home."

Scarlett loves her lunch box.  She would ask me in the mornings "Can I peek at my lunch?"  She is a great eater and if she can't finish her food at school she'll finish it in the car on the way home.  I've been making her a lot of wowbutter and jelly sandwiches that I cut with these adorable sandwich cutters.

I noticed the first few days that she wouldn't eat her little lunch dessert til after she was in the car on the way home.  I asked her "why didn't you eat your Oreos at school?"  "Cause I didn't finish my lunch."  Oh sweet.  This girl is so obedient!  In fact, she's been so worried about changing her behavior color from green to yellow (how the teacher tracks citizenship) that she has been quiet and shy in class.  Some days she'll come home and burst into tears because she wrote her letters too big and she was worried that her color would go to yellow.  I told her that her color would only go yellow for things that would make her go to time out.  Still she was struggling, so I spoke to her teacher about it (at ballet) and she said she would try to help her at school.  Since then it's been better and she seems to be a lot more bubbly after school.

Every other week or so they have a "Dress Down Day."

The first few days she couldn'r remember her teacher's name (Roy) but she could remember the first day teacher's paraprofessional's name (Sadanowitz) haha!

I told Scarlett we would buy her an umbrella for her backpack.  She told me "ok, but I don't want a spring loaded umbrella."  haha!  How does she know what that is and why does she have such a strong opinion about it???  And the girls just love these raincoats that we got from LL!

Can you tell what this is?

"A bear who is pooping and peeing, next to a toilet, with a pipe taking the toilet water out to the place under the street."

For "Talk Like A Pirate Day" they told the kids to dress like a pirate.  Scarlett's wanted braids with beads in her hair all summer so I told her we could wake up a little early and put some in her hair for pirate day.

This was her pirate picture: pirate with a red bandanna, with an eye patch, with a beard around his mouth, with orange shoulders, next to a pirate ship with a place for the pirate to be "up high and lookout", and I love that it says "ARGH!"  haha!  Oh it also has a blueberry, orange, and rainbow heart.  

School pictures!  We got her picture back.  It's perfect!  Her smile/grimace perfectly captures the nerves, stress, and anxiety that she's been feeling the past few weeks.  Poor girl!  I showed her this picture and she said "it kinda looks creepy cause of that smile."  The school does pictures again in the spring, we'll see how she's feeling about school then based on her smile.

I have really enjoyed doing Scarlett's hair in the morning.  I'll browse Pinterest to find ideas.  I don't know how long this enthusiasm will last, but for now I'm having fun.  Scarlett will even request things like "rainbow hair"  "a star"  "twisty puppy ears"  "use all of these hair bands" and even sometimes "just a plain ponytail."  haha!  (sometimes the twirls join in on the fun!)

One dress down day Scarlett wanted a star braid to match her shirt.  It was 6:45am, but we got it done.  At pick up that afternoon one of the school administrators walked Scarlett to my car so she could tell me how much she loved her hair.  Scarlett's teacher even told me how she just loves all her hairstyles!  Scarlett loves her "Rapunzel" hair and she's a great sport about sitting still and letting me fix it.

We're all adjusting to having Scarlett gone all day.  I'm still trying to figure out how to plan my day around her schedule now.  And the twirls seem like they are acting older now.  We're grateful that it came together.  (I wish it could have happened in March, but better late then never!)  Only 5 more years before Skye starts Kindergarten and I begin working on my bow staff skillz!  ;-)