Changing Direction Again

"Mommy, I have too enough of first-day-of-school dresses. I don't think I need another one," Monkey1 told me.

That's lucky because I don't think I could make one in less than a week, and she's supposed to wear a uniform on her first day of school.

Uniform? First day of school? But homeschooling...? See how fast life can change with a single phone call!

I was driving from Classical Conversations with Monkey1 to the preschool to pick up Monkey2, and my cell phone started ringing. It was the school. Fearing that my littlest monkey was sick or having hysterics, I fearfully answered the phone. The secretary first assured me that Monkey2 was fine, and then offered Monkey1 a spot in the Kindergarten.

"OH!" I said. Then I secured time to think about it overnight with my husband.

The call we had been waiting for!

"Who was that?" Monkey1 demanded from the backseat.

I drew a breath. "Remember how I told you that the teachers at Blessed Sacrament were trying to figure out how to get all the desks into the classroom? Well, yours fits now..."

"YEAH!" she screamed.

I called my husband.

"What does Monkey1 think?" he asked.

"YEAH!" she shouted again, for his benefit.

Just recently I had uncluttered the fridge and found two letters dated March 25. One had admitted Monkey2 to the preschool while the other had placed Monkey1 on the wait list, "somewhere in the top ten," for the elementary school. Now, nearly seven months later, her name had reached the top of the list.

By the time I had driven over to the school to claim Monkey2, our decision was made. (I think this counts as distracted driving.) Monkey1 would go to school.

Within twenty-four hours I had a bundle of papers to complete our registration, a check to write, a class supply list to purchase, a pile of used uniforms -- dress uniform and gym uniform -- to launder, and a class visit scheduled.

I'm a little sad to leave behind homeschooling. This week there were several incidents that pointed how much Classical Conversations and our own homeschooling books have enriched us. A calendar arrived from the National Zoo, and some captions identified different animals as carnivores or herbivores; the science fact in CC a few weeks ago involved carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores. Then at a display of football mascots, we identified a Spartan; last week reading Story of the World we had learning about Sparta and Athens. In kindergarten!

When I talked to one of the Kindergarten moms this week, to get a measure of what was going on in the classroom, I heard so much wistfulness in her tone and words; she really felt left out and left behind as her daughter went into the classroom each day. What really goes on? We will never know because sometimes our children don't have the words for it yet.

I'm really glad that we were able to start this year homeschooling. It is not something to be afraid of!