I have been avoiding blogging about this because of the mixed feelings I have about it but … some of you know how I’ve wanted to homeschool our boys. Well, David registered James for Kindergarten on Wednesday morning. He’ll be going to a very new school in LISD that feeds into David’s middle school as David doesn’t have any plans on looking for a different school to teach at. He really really loves being at the school where he works and I don’t blame him. The staff is wonderful and the kids are great. Though it doesn’t have anything to do with the school… the pay is fixed for this school year so the pay is okay, now, too.

The school principal puts together tours on the day of kinder registration and we attended the last one of the day. I’d wanted to take my big girl camera but David didn’t want me to be *that* mom (and I really need to replace my 50mm and get a new one because the 85L is too much for that scenario) so I took a few snapshots with the phone as we walked in.

I have to say, I am impressed. The school is organized into “neighborhoods” and the main hallway really is a main hallway. The Kinder and 1st graders are in the same “room” which is really a giant room with big windows. The classrooms are all off the “big room” with some in the very center. Everything is kid sized and there are tables and chairs and project areas and sinks and materials and all kinds of neat spaces in the “big room” outside of the classrooms. I think I was most impressed that each classroom has its own bathrooms.

Tears only started once… the lady running the tour was describing the end-of-year goals that each child be able to read a book with 4 words per page and I started crying because James can read every word on this blog post including: registration and neighborhood. That boy is smart. She did follow up to say that they would work with the kids on their level, so if they can already read, they’ll take where he is and run with it. I think he’ll be reading on a 5th grade level by the time he gets to 1st grade if he keeps learning. My biggest concern with him going to public school is boredom. The boy is very intelligent and I’m not just saying that because I’m his mom. The area he can probably improve the most is handwriting because once the decision was made to send him to public school, I stopped all forms of “playing school.”

All-in-all, I have made the decision to be excited about this for James’ sake. When he is older, we may re-evaluate things again, but for the time being, if I don’t get excited for him to go to school, he won’t be excited to go to school, too. It’s not what I would have chosen for my boy if I was the one making the decision but he will be fine. He will do great and learn much.

I love my James and I can’t believe he’s going to be going to school all day long staring in August.