Sunday, September 8, 2013

Starting School

Well friends, you have read about M's 4th Birthday.  You have seen the photos of this day.  You know that he is "really" four now.  You might be curious about what M is going to do for school this fall. We are highly anticipating next Tuesday... the beginning of a new era for us. 

This fall M will be starting Classical Conversations.  You can read more about it HERE if you would like to learn from the experts.  Since we are just beginning, I am sure the website will do a much better job of describing things than I could at this point.

For those of you wanting to read this post before checking out the site I will explain it a bit.  Classical Conversations (CC) is a PreK-12th grade classical home school model that allows you to work in partnership with other families and follow the same scope and sequence as families all over the country and world.  M and I will attend (CC) each Tuesday.  He is in a room with kiddos his age.  There are about 45ish kids in our local chapter.  He will get a start on Grammar, Latin, Science, Math, History, Geography and Fine Arts for the week with his peers, and then take those concepts home to work on through the week with me.  There is beauty in the process.  We will get to know many other families and children, learn with them, play with them, and eat with them.  We will also get special mommy and M time (T will not be joining us).  We will get to work together to learn many things outside of class as well.  We are very excited about this opportunity for M and feel blessed that it meets next door to us in our church.

Many Options:
There are lots of options for schooling.  One great option with a late summer Birthday 4 year old internationally adopted boy is no school at all.  Trust me, after our orientation experience (more on this later) I considered just pulling him out and waiting a year.  Another option would be a local public 4K program.  These programs are free and there are many local sites offering services.  Another option would be a Christian private preschool.  This option would also be next door to our house and we know the teacher. 

I believe that every couple needs to seek the Lord and make the schooling choice that is best for their family.  I have friends that do every type of schooling.  I respect that educated adults who deeply love their children and deeply love the Lord can look at the school choices and come to several decisions.

So, why did we choose Classical Conversations?
There are several reasons that CC fits our family.  Much of what M will be learning has the opportunity to be music based and it is no surprise that M loves music.  He has already learned many history lessons and the US Presidents through the CC songs on CD.  After living his first 17 months without us we feel like no matter where on the schooling spectrum we would fall, sending him to preschool right now would not be quite right. 

In all honestly, we are considering continuing on in CC for many years to come.  I appreciate the mission, model, and method of CC and can see it being a great way for M to learn.  Because the location is incredibly ideal for us, and because CC is spreading like wildfire around the US, we decided that we needed to start M now and even if we don't make it every week, we can hold his spot in the local program.  Because there are so many levels of CC even a place as big as a church building fills up quickly. It would be sad for us to have to drive many miles to another CC when there is one meeting quite literally in our back yard.

Orientation Ordeal:
A couple of weeks ago we had our CC orientation.  M did not enjoy it too much at all.  In fact, the main thing he said that day was, "I want to get out of here." He clung to me and was not interested in doing anything his teacher asked him to do.  It wasn't real class, but sort of a preview of the things to come.  I truly believe that once we get started and it is just M and I we will do much better.  Hopefully he will not be dumping out snacks when it isn't snack time and needing to be on my back in the Ergo long term.  M, sorry if this embarrasses you later, but I need to mention it for journaling sake.  Be of good cheer.  I was the same way at your age.  Your grandparents can tell you many stories about this. 

So, are you curious about what T will be doing during CC?  
Oh my heart.  At orientation it became obvious to me that M needed me full time and that T was much too busy to "hang out" in the room and color for 3 hours.  Yes, some kids do stay and do that.  M might have been able to at her age, but she is SO BUSY so this isn't a great option for her.  After much prayer and time we have decided to hire a young woman who we respect and care for to watch T while we are at CC.  Even though T knows H, we have not left her alone at all yet.  It does sort of seem funny that we are hiring someone to watch T, but we truly believe it is the best option for everyone.  We hope T will get to go on walks with H, to library story time, read books, and play as loudly as she wants.  She comes alive in huge ways when she has unlimited adult access, so I think she is going to cherish her little breaks from big brother each week. 

As I said at the beginning of the post, the first class starts next week!  Stay tuned for pictures and words from our first day of school :)




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