children

The title should warn you of the contents…

Lexi FINALLY pooped in the potty at home and all on her own this morning. We’ve been making her keep her panties off after an accident because normally she goes like 8 times in a row. Well this morning this tried to go once and couldn’t and went back and did it! We’ve promised all kinds of things to her and most recently it was a Dora backpack she wanted at a shoe store and a trip to Chuck E Cheese on the recommendation of someone’s doctor. In fact, I told Mom I’m surprised she didn’t come out saying, “I pooped in the potty..do I get my backpack and Chuck e Cheese and sticker and ice cream and toy at Target and movie?” I hope she keeps it up because I am SO OVER this potty training thing.

Today is the first day for L to be here for about 4 hours to play with the girls.  If you don’t recall, she’s the middle school daughter of a lady that works for my mom.  She spent a few weeks with us last summer.  This year (well, today) is going quite well.  All 3 of them are (obviously) a year older and no one is guessing what Lexi is saying since she’s talking better, they have no problems going to her for help, their activities aren’t quite so messy, etc.  It’s working out quite well.  It’s been nice not to have to get up every 5 minutes to help the girls do something.  Not saying I don’t like helping my kids…just saying it’s easier to actually do work.

but the decision is not.  Rambling ahead….

The tour went well.  The administration office is only two days old and it is very nice.  The admin and principal were extremely nice.  The classes were spread out with 3-K being in one building, 1st in another and 2nd-3rd in yet another building.  4th-12th is at another campus.  Most everything was taken down for the summer.  Only strings hanging from the ceiling, tape on the walls and desks pushed to the side where carpets could be cleaned.  Very few children were there for the summer day school.  We didn’t really meet any of the teachers.  The A/C was out in one of the rooms.  It wasn’t an overly impressive visit to say the least.  But everything was clean and organized.  Nothing jumped out at me and said this wasn’t a good place to be.

I don’t know, I guess I just thought I would get an overwhelming sense of “being home” if that was the place she should go.  I suppose I just didn’t feel the peace I thought I would just “knowing” that was where she was supposed to go.

We got to talk to the principal at length.  I liked everything she talked about. I especially appreciated how integrated faith is into the curriculum.  This is something I hadn’t heard yet…as an example she said they might even talk about how God and math are similar in that it has no end and no beginning and also is the same every time.  Neat huh?  They said they try to build Scripture into the lesson wherever possible and are specifically trained for that.

They pray and do all the pledges.  They take frequent field trips…usually once a month.  They have accelerated classes and a tutoring center if they are lagging behind in an area.  They have several enrichment programs including Spanish class, music, art, Bible, and PE.

I was very happy with all the programs, discipline, security, etc.  There wasn’t anything that I could point out that I was unhappy with.

I guess right now the two things holding me back are the travel time and cost.  It was 13 minutes there vs. 3 for the public school.  That’s an extra 40 minutes a day of travel time.  And I do think about the level of education they receive there compared to (our) public schools.

And we are still going back and forth…is it better to have a really good foundation of faith built into the education or is it better to do extra work at home and let her learn from situations in public school as well as be a good influence to her peers.

Honestly, I really felt a pressing of the Holy Spirit the other night she should go to the private school.  I guess in my head I want it all to make sense.  So I could spout at 3 reasons why she should go there.  But I know it doesn’t really work that way sometimes.  And I’m really looking for confirmation from others around me praying about it and I just want complete peace about and I know I don’t have that yet.  At this point, I’m just planning to pray a whole bunch about it.  Really, I don’t know how else to handle it.

So we’re still on a mission to choose a school.  We’re serious enough I told Emma today she might be going to a different school than we planned.  She seemed ok with it.  I definitely ruled out two schools and made an appointment with the one that was on the top of our list for a tour tomorrow afternoon.  In all honesty, I think we’ve decided it’s going to be that one if we do choose private, but I’m still trying to keep an open mind to a few others.

Lexi still isn’t singing the alphabet…I just asked her to and she mixed two different songs and then just grinned…

“A B C D E F G Won’t my mommy be so proud of me?”

At least she rhymed.