Milestones

How is it that you try SO hard to keep your kids sheltered and secluded and with little influence from the outside world, in the hopes that they will stay 2 and 4 and never change and never have to grow up, and as a result I will never have to lose my sweet little ones, and yet, try as you may, they do get older and bigger and venture out into the world, despite all your best efforts? Tonight, we registered Lucy for kindergarten. *sigh* I remember when we were attending prenatal classes while I was pregnant with her, they told us that the kids being born through that prenatal class would start school in 2010 and graduate in 2023. At the time 2010 seemed so far away and 2023 seemed like something out of star trek and they'd be going to school on hover-crafts eating pizza's that you re-hydrated into full-size (most of my ideas of the 'future' come from Back to the Future 2). Now it's 2010 and we're registering Lucy for kindergarten and 2023 seems all too close.
Because of where we live (rural Cochrane), Lucy has a number of choices when it comes to kindergarten. There are 2 different public schools in town, one that also runs a french-immersion program; a catholic school; a public rural school North of town and a private rural program. We looked into each, but have decided to go with the Private Rural program that is run at a school called Westbrook about 10 minutes North of us. Because it is privately run, and we don't actually fall into boundaries, I will be driving Lucy to school, but I can't really imagine sending my 5 year old on a bus anyway.
I wanted to list here, as a means of journaling, the reasons why we chose this school over the others in the hopes that those reasons still hold true in September when she begins, and throughout the year.

• It is a K-8 school. More specifically it's a K-8 rural school. So the little kids will be interacting with the big kids, but the big kids come from rural communities and the school is literally in the middle of nowhere, so outside influences are next to nothing. There is nothing for a grade 8 student to get themselves in trouble with, and therefore nothing that they can be introducing to my innocent 5-year-old, unlike some of the schools in town. This will come more into play as she progresses at this school from grade 1 to 8, but it's nice to get started on the right track.
• It's also the school that Tyler and all his siblings attended, so although administrations and teachers change, we still feel good about sending her there based on each of their experiences.
• The program runs Tuesday/Thursday all day, rather than 4 or 5 half days. This will hopefully help her transition into grade one where she will be doing 5 full days. Everyone has their theories, so this one isn't too major for us. But, the perk to full days is that they get to have really cool field trips like to the zoo and science center and don't have to be restricted to the half-day schedule.
• The teacher seems really awesome. Lucy got to meet her tonight and spend some time with her. She's very sweet and friendly but seems to have a good balance in her focus on play and academics. Lucy hasn't felt very challenged in preschool and often comes home saying, "all we do is play." It seems funny that a 4 year old would complain, but she's ready to be learning, so I think kindergarten is going to be a blast for her. The teacher also comes out to each student's home the week before school and spends an hour of one-on-one time with them, getting to know them and helping the child feel comfortable before the school year actually starts.
• The best part, we think, is that the program is run in a portable beside the Westbrook school, which is where we hope Lucy will do all of her schooling (up to grade 8), but it's still privately run. The funding stays private, and the program is private. They get to use the school's facilities, such as the gym, playground, library and computer lab, but on their own time, so they're not competing with kids of all ages. Plus, their lunch and playground time is private, so the teachers can monitor what's going on a lot better. The public kindergarten program has the kids in with all the others and only one lunch-time supervisor...so I imagine the little ones can feel overwhelmed at times - and Lucy would definitely fit into that category. Towards the end of the year, they start to have joint playground time with the Westbrook students to help them get ready for grade one. Basically, this sold us on the program, and we filled out a registration form and paid our tuition right there.
  

I'm hoping these things that seem so important to us now, will remain the same as her new year starts and as she is progressing through the program. It seems so crazy to be making all of these decisions already, and I know that Lucy will be the trailblazer for her younger brothers who will have the benefit of hers (and our) experience to rely on. I guess she must have known that would be part of her roll, and decided she wanted to be the oldest anyway. She's pretty great at it, and it makes me think her experience is beyond the 4.5 years that we have been witness to.