Kindergarten

We've been fretting the decision of where to send Carter for Kindergarten. Fretting might be an understatement. I told Jeremy this past weekend that this has been one of the hardest decision of my life. Usually, we can agree on things, talk it over, make a decision and then move forward, never looking back. This time, we both kept going back and forth. After much prayer, listening, talking about pros and cons, we worked our way through deciding.

If you had asked me a year ago if we'd even be having the discussion, I would have said "no way!". We love Chagrin and have heard so many positive things about the school, but as the time got closer, we started to rethink things, or at least became open to possibly giving him a catholic education. I talked to many many people at both schools, many families that go to St. Joan's church, but send their kids to Chagrin and some that send their kids to St. Joan's. All gave us so much to think about. I also got advice from friends and family, which was really key to making the decision. To be honest, sometimes less is more, but in this case I really felt we needed to get as much information as possible before deciding.

We had already attended two open houses at St. Joan's and one at Chagrin over the past few months. As of last week, we had decided to send him to half day Kind. at Chagrin and he went through Kind. screening on Friday. While we were there, I kind of had this empty feeling, like maybe this wasn't the right decision for him. I also called the principal at St. Joan's last week and asked if I could come in by myself that morning and sit in on the Kindergarten class. I stayed for an hour or so and after the kids went to gym was able to ask the teacher some other questions. He was pretty impressive and I think a male teacher might be be good for Carter.

We still were on the fence this past weekend. Monday rolled around and it was decision time, as I told the principal I would let her know before their Kind. screening at St. Joan's, which was today. I had one more conversation with a friend that I really admire at church, who has been in our spot before. Jer and I then talked about it that afternoon one final time and decided we'd like to send him to St. Joan's.

So, off to Kindergarten screening again today. All went well and he got to meet his teacher and was really excited. I'm nervous but feel good about the decision and hope that he'll be in a positive learning environment while strengthening his faith. No looking back. Decision made...finally! One piece of advice we rec'd again and again was no matter where we send him, it's up to us as his parents to teach him his faith. This sort of takes the pressure off where to send him. If for some reason, it doesn't work out, I know Chagrin would be great too. But for now, we have Christmas concerts, uniforms and prayer throughout the day to look forward to, in addition to learning to read and write! :-)