Summer is over and it's the school year again. Before now that didn't mean a lot, even when #1 was in preschool four days a week that's just glorified daycare. I could drop him off late, pick him up early or we could skip altogether without any questions at all. Now he's started kindergarten, and the adjustment is real for both him and us.
Early this year we were debating options for elementary school and thought we'd made up our mind. After doing the kindergarten readiness screening through our school district, usually recommended at age three and our son was four-and-a-half, which he aced btw, I learned that our district has something called 'magnet schools.' These are specialized schools that require winning a lottery to enroll but you can effectively pick a focus for your child even at this age level. A couple of the options were science and engineering based, where the elementary school students learn basic concepts about design and programing and more from the very beginning. This was a little appealing to me, knowing our son will probably enjoy math, but we ended up applying for the environmental studies magnet. After almost dismissing this one out of hand we visited on a tour night and loved what we saw, especially after hearing they go outside twice a day all year long. Being prepared for the Minnesota winters is a big part of the school and outside play for young children is important for us, it looked like a great fit. We applied in the spring and got in!
During the summer my wife was thinking more and more about private options. She found a Christian K-8 school closer to us than the magnet where we'd been accepted and we went on a tour there as well. We liked this school too, though it'd be an incredibly different experience, and even learned that one of our kids' neighborhood friends goes there. They had a spot open for the upcoming kindergarten class and we had a conundrum on our hands. I was tasked with deciding what we were going to do and gave it some serious thought.
In the end we wanted our son to go to a private Christian school. This was partially due to our concerns about public schools at large, including in Minnesota specifically, and we are choosing to avoid them. Nearly all of this is related to what happened, or was revealed, with Covid. It wouldn't be acceptable to us to have a school that's unnecessarily closed down for long periods of time or that requires young children to wear masks. We do not want to run the risk of our son getting a teacher obsessed with teaching such young kids about sex or that believes he should in some way be held back in pursuit of equity. This was also partially because we believe he will simply get a better education at private school, think faith-based schooling is a positive thing, and now, when starting kindergarten, was a now-or-never time. Admittedly this decision was a hard one for me, as I was a public school kid all the way through, even college (Go Gophers), and I don't want to think that public education has fallen so far. But we have hard evidence in declining test scores across the state and heard enough stories about other weirdness to give us pause. It's possible he wouldn't encounter anything like that and our concerns are in vain, but at the very least we can more-or-less guarantee a good education and give ourselves peace of mind about everything else. It's just going to cost us some money. We're guessing more people will come around to our point of view eventually, private schools and homeschooling have already taken off considerably the past few years and that will likely only continue.
He started the week before Labor Day and that means he's already three weeks in. The hardest part for me is needing to get him there, and pick him up, at exact times. Since it's a private school there's no buses and everyone comes and goes in cars. Drop-off isn't too difficult, the line movies quickly, but pickup is a bit of a cluster and I've learned to arrive at least 10 minutes early to minimize the total wait time with other kids that don't like sitting there. The most challenging part for our kid, at least the first week, was going all day long without ever napping. Emotions ran high and he was extremely tired at the end of the day. But he does seem to like going more than preschool and his teacher is completely impressive. Thus far his favorite activity every day is recess and/or gym, which is completely unsurprising, though he has a penchant for music too, and thinks the reading lessons are boring. I haven't heard much of anything about math, alas. Long term I think the smaller size of the school overall and his classes too are going to be a phenomenal aspect of where he's going. My wife and I, whether we want to or not, will get to know the other parents in a way we wouldn't at a bigger school. And any friends our son makes he'll get to see all the time. I have to say we're pretty happy.
That's not the only big change that's happened either, our #2 son started preschool for the first time. Shortly after moving back to Minnesota my wife found a nature preschool, where the kids for the most part just play outside all day, but it's tiny and we sat on the waitlist for almost two years. By the time our name came up our eldest was about to start kindergarten. Fortunately we have another kid who's (barely) old enough and he got in instead, on a three days a week schedule. It's absolutely perfect for him and he's trotted off to play as soon as we arrive without so much as a goodbye and doesn't seem all that interested in leaving when I pick him up. We'll see if that continues once it gets cold outside but so far it's great. He even crashes at night without the extended bedtime routine, it's crazy.
Between kindergarten and nature school I suddenly have multiple days a week where it's only me and the baby, who's already one(!). Everyone I've talked to keeps asking what I'm going to do with all the time, but every day so far has completely flown by. I will have more time to take care of things around the house during the day instead of after the kids go to bed, which will be nice. But for the most part I don't think my life will be that different, though it will be quieter.
I will say, the strangest part is being away from #2 so much. Since we brought him home I've always been with him and most of the time he's needed someone close by, even now he's simply a bigger, more reckless version of the baby tornado. The two days a week I have him home with me are days I look forward to now. But I'm still glad we put him into this school, he needs that outside play time.
Finally, maybe I'm slow on the emotional side of these changes, but it's starting to hit me how old #1 has gotten already. He's in kindergarten! How did that happen? Between school and his desire to spend nearly all his time at home with his neighborhood friends I don't spend a ton of time with him anymore. At this stage I need to be more intentional and find activities for us to do together. And work on not getting so frustrated when he clearly doesn't listen to me about mostly trivial things, like not taking his shoes off when he comes inside or doesn't clean up his toys scattered about the yard. In the grand scheme that doesn't matter. This is your reminder Joe.
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