The Kindergarten hunt, part three: goat rodeo*

Wednesday night I applied online for the local charter school. It’s K-12 and emphasizes leadership, self-governance and community awareness, but there isn’t a ton of detail available on the website. All I know is that it feels a little Sudbury-ish, and that I’ve overheard parents talking about not giving up their places on the waitlist even after their kids are enrolled elsewhere. The online application form was open, so I went for it. I’ll attend the info night next month and try to get into a tour. I don’t think it’s really a Sudbury school, as I don’t think that model is particularly compatible with the requirements a charter school may have within a district, but it may have a democratic education model, which intrigues.

I also requested an information packet from the other K-6 Montessori. Based on the website info, this school has an academic emphasis for the older primary classes, and mentions both testing and homework. We’ll see what the packet has to tell us. They appear to prefer children who have a Montessori preschool background, so there may be some meeting with the teachers to determine if he’ll fit. There IS a two-week probationary period for the child. So based on what I’ve read, this may be the most straight-laced option.

District information nights are next month. Will have to secure one parent at home, which will be similar to directing air traffic, as it will be mid-evening, mid-week, and mid-winter, when the traffic can be most fractious.

Seamus and I are taking a break from Starfall for reading, as he wants to move through all the stories, but starts having trouble focusing after a while on reading words like “hit”. He’s also resisting reading words on a page, but has agreed to using flashcards. So I’m making those, and we went through our first batch this morning while he stood danced at the table. This worked better than sitting in the reading nook under his bunk, so I think we’ll keep our “school” at the kitchen table until the dining room is finished and ready for its conversion to our library/arts and crafts/family room. 

After weeks of bringing home unmarked writing worksheets (and me thinking he wasn’t ready to learn to write), he wrote his name on some art yesterday, then practiced writing it for half an hour completely on his own. I figure if all else fails, we’ll teach him to play pool so he’ll always have an income.

*”Goat rodeo” is an aviation term indicating a situation in which multiple things need to happen correctly if one is to survive it. It is now my new favorite term to describe this school thing.