I am going to cry. I have to register Jax for Kindergarten in FOUR DAYS!! The public elementary school that we are zoned for is horrible and I wouldn't send him there so I need to apply to a few charter schools and the registration process begins Dec. 2 for next year. Already!??!

One of the schools is the school that DH and I both went to as kids. Crazy huh? That is actually my 3rd choice of the three though. Another is a public montessori - my top choice and the other is a very small charter school that is run like a private school but it's not. A few of his friends from preschool will be going there which makes me favor it a bit, but my reservations are that I'm worried there is like zero diversity there. So, we'll see. I just can't believe this is coming up already.

Who else goes to K next year??

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I can't believe it! These babies can't be that big yet!

It sounds like you have some good options for Jax. I figure it's actually a good thing that you have so much time before school starts...I assume you can visit the schools a few times between now & then and really decide which one will suit him the best. Once you've applied, how long until they accept you and when do you have to decide?

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Registration is through February, I believe, so we will find out sometime in March. Yes, I will tour the schools and do the best I can in figuring out which one will work best for him. It's just so unbelievable that he will be going to Kindergarten next year. I literally remember every second of his birthday.

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M will be going to kindergarten next year. It makes me so sad that she will be that old and she will have this whole life away from us. I feel like before I know it we will be dropping her off at college! Anyway, I don't think we have to register until February-ish. Do you have full or half day kindergarten?

J is starting Kindergarten also. However, it won't be much different for any of us than it is now. L will stay in pre-school but they are right next to each other so they will still get to be with each other most of the time.

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B should start next year, but we will actually be starting in January. I haven't had a chance to post about it yet, so I will give you the quick run-down. We have never wanted him to attend the public school we are zoned in (where I went, but I never liked it - bigger school and VERY click-ish). There are two really good private schools in our area - one a Christian school ran by a church and the other a regular private school. Both go from K4-12th grade which I also wanted b/c I didn't want him to have to change in the middle.

SO, to update -- we started him this past August at a daycare down the road from our house that has a K4 program b/c we hadn't decided on which private school to go to and wanted another year to make sure that DH's job would stay open. Well, long story short - it isn't the pre-school program I had hoped for and is pretty much "glorified day-care" and is very inconsistant and he isn't eatting well (you can't send his lunch). SO, two weeks ago, we called and both of the private schools we were considering had an opening in their K4 class which would allow him to automatically move up and have a spot each following year, should we choose to stay there. We went and toured both and quickly decided to go with the Christian based school. We saw that the other school was WAY worse click-ish than the public school I attended as most of them are Dr.'s and Lawyer's children (there were 3 Hummers in the student parking lot ) so I know we (B) wouldn't fit in and be accepted socially. Plus, they had some really off the wall teaching methods in both the elementary school and the high school that we weren't thrilled with. One example - the students are issued MacBooks in 9th grade and no longer have to take notes in class! The teacher just emails them their notes and assignments!! How is that preparing them for college?? Anyway -- students were very rowdy and walking around the classrooms seemingly with out much attention from the teachers.

The other school (Christian based school) was the complete opposite - very quiet classrooms (they all were working) and when the bell rang they all changed classes and were laughing and talking together. They limit the class size to 24 starting in 1st grade - K4 & K5 have two classes of 12 each. They normally average about 290-300 students total.

SO -- we have been to tour and filled out the paperwork and the last step is we have to go Friday to meet with the elementary principal and we should find out for sure if we got in (whick I pray we did!!). If all goes well, then he will start there January 4th and hopefully continue there for the next 13.5 years!

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Wow, Dana! I hope he loves it. Does he know about the switch, or are you waiting until you know for sure? Do you think switching will be easier on him this time around?

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Yeah, he kinda knows, but he doesn't the reason we are moving. We have just said things like "you have done so good at school that after Christmas you get to go on to REAL school!" and we have talked about him being able to take his own lunch if he wants and that my Dad (Big Daddy to Brett) will be able to come pick him up most afternoons when he goes there.

I think part of his problem adjusting has been this eatting issue. I didn't find out till the middle part of October that pretty much, two days a week, he wasn't eatting lunch b/c he didn't like two certain meals they serve. Instead of his teacher telling me or the owner, she was just telling B that he would be hungry if he didn't eat and then going on with the rest of lunch and him sitting there eatting NOTHING! I was furious! I thought he was probably throwing his plate away before she realized he wasn't eatting, but when I asked her about it, she was very haughty about it and said "No, he never eats on spaghetti day or ramen noodle day. I tell him he is going to be hungry, but I can't force him to eat. He doesn't like the juice (koolaid) either, so I *let* him get water." And she was supposed to be a *friend* of ours...heck, she sits on the pew in front of us at church!!! I was beyond upset about it. Since then, the owner makes sure that he has something else available on those days, but now, I have lost trust (and friendship) in his teacher and just want him out of there!

I hope that he will make the adjustment better since he won't be worried about food - if I had only found out sooner that he wasn't eatting...

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D, does K4 just mean that he starts now, as a 4 year old? Just checking to make sure I'm following this correctly!

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OMG, she lets him NOT EAT?! REGULARLY?!?!? First of all, I'd have problems with not being able to bring a lunch, especially since the meals don't sound all that healthy anyway. We can choose to feed our kids whatever we want at home (and mine certainly gets a fair amount of junky treats), but I would expect a SCHOOL to be serving something better than ramen and koolaid. Is the no-lunch-bringing rule because of the federal(?) reimbursement program for meals? But aside from that, you cannot let a kid go without eating. And if he does, HELLO! TELL THE PARENTS! Poor little guy, and poor Mama!

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