This will be out of order but I feel like I need to write some things down while they are running through my mind. I never thought I'd be that parent who stressed over school choices and teachers, but apparently I am. BIG time.
Let me back up. We are buying a home! Yay! More on that later. But our soon to be home is more in-town than where we are now. So we decided to take the girls out of Eduprize--a charter school we LOVE, and move them to a school closer to our new home. We chose school A (don't want this info getting anywhere), public school. I toured the school over the summer, met the principal, and felt great about it. Fast forward to meet the teacher night. I went in and was immediately on guard for a few reasons. This will sound so so awful and prejudice, but the caliber of students and parents I saw there was just a little off. My girls were the minority by a long shot. The teachers were friendly and nice to my girls, but didn't seem to have much prepared in terms of what we should expect or take home info. Looking back, I think I was spoiled at Eduprize. There, parents are expected to volunteer 80 hours each calendar year. I LOVED that. Parents were there in the classroom every day, and kids always had an extra adult there to help with small groups, etc. Anyway, I voiced some of my concerns that night to Clint, who wasn't too concerned. First day of school rolls around, and again I was kind of turned off by the lack of order. I get it--it's the first day of school. Kids are going crazy, parents are going crazy, teachers are going crazy. But at least put a sign up for where to go or something! We were all sweaty and frazzled from trying to find their teachers after 20 minutes of looking. It seemed chaotic. I let it go. Two weeks of school went by, and I hardly saw any work coming home and their homework was laughable. Spelling words were words like "I, a, am, was, is", etc. Basic sight words for my first and second grader. Again, I voiced my concerns to Clint and worried day and night. I talked to parents of kids going to Eduprize to see what their homework looked like and was blown away by the difference. I chalked it up to the classes doing review work, and let it go. Then I showed up last week at the school to help in both classrooms. While both teachers were great, I felt like they spent 75% of instructional time trying to discipline kids and get them to listen. The kids in general were just not quite as behaved as what I expected to see. During the few weeks they were in school, I did a TON of research on the schools in our area, talked to as many parents as I could about their experiences at each school, etc. I'm not kidding when I say I have stressed and cried and prayed about this so hard for the past few weeks. I'm getting ulcers! I can't sleep from worrying that I'll put them in the wrong school or pull them out of a school that is actually fantastic. What if I switch them from school "A", when it really is a great school and I just need to give it more time? What if I pull them out and enroll them at a new school and have a bad experience there? It's too hard! There are WAY too many choices out here. And no matter what school it is, people either love it or hate it. And I get that. I get that every school has good and bad about it. I just am trying to make the best decision for my girls and don't want to mess up. After lots and lots and lots of stressing about it, I've decided to withdrawal them from school "A", and enroll them at Queen Creek ALA, another charter school. I'm so nervous. I'm sure they will do great but I feel really horrible for doing this to them. The girls bawled when I told them. They both love their teachers and are starting to make friends. I know they are resilient and will be just fine, but I hate putting them through it. Charlotte especially. She is my unbelievably high anxiety child and stresses like I do. She has night terrors and wakes up scared to go to sleep. I hate giving her something else to worry about. ALA starts tomorrow, but because I registered them late they will have to start either Tuesday or Wednesday. They'll wear uniforms, which will give me a few days to round everything up. And buy school supplies again, which blows. I so hope I'm making the right choice for them. Being a mom is hard! I've decided that once we get comfortable at ALA, if things don't go great, we will finish the year and go back to Eduprize next year because we know it and love it. It's not too far a drive, but my hope for putting them at ALA is that they will make friends in our new neighborhood and ward. Not the end of the world if we end up back at Eduprize though, because we seriously love it. Did I already say that? haha.
