I’m feeling Pollyannaish again this morning, so just bear with me. If it gets too trite take solace in knowing that within the week I’ll be back to my slightly cynical self.
We went to open house at the girls’ new school yesterday. We didn’t know enough to celebrate or groan when we saw whose class each had been assigned to and from the reactions of the other students pouring over the posted class lists, the opposing reactions seemed to have more to do with what classmates were or were not sharing teachers than what teacher was actually assigned to the room. We saw that as a good sign and headed off, chanting class numbers and teacher names under our breath so we wouldn’t forget them in the midst of the throng and have to return to the posted lists.
We trekked the short distance to Little A’s classroom where her excitement immediately evaporated, replaced by paralyzing shyness. She did manage to mumble a few required responses to her teacher’s polite questions, but for the most part she twirled her hair with one hand and reached for me with the other. “Mom, I’m scared!” she hissed at me as soon as the teacher walked across the room. We did lots of exploring of her pretty classroom, trying to be reassuring.
Next we navigated the twisting hallways to J’s classroom. I think the stack of books on each desk gave her momentary pause, but after chatting with her teacher for a bit and discovering that her teacher’s mom had been my 8th grade math teacher, J seemed reassured and quite comfortable.
We made our way—albeit the circuitous route—to the library, where we talked with the librarian who also has a daughter J’s age. J and Holly have the same piano teacher and we really like Holly’s mom, so at least they are looking forward to library day as well as the two book fairs. Then we ran into another family friend followed by another and then another…yet further reassurance to me that we made the right decision to move back to my home town and to move the girls into this school. There are already teachers we know and who will keep an eye out on our children. There are other parents there with whom we have a relationship. We feel part of the school community and the school year hasn’t even started yet. I even feel good about the after school program—very structured, very professional, seemingly very caring and competent staff.
It was also fun to sign up for various volunteer duties just as “the mom”. There were certainly things I loved about having the girls attend the school where I teach and undoubtedly there will be times that I’ll miss them being with me, but I also love my work life and my children’s school life being separate. I really have the best of both worlds. Because of where I currently teach, I have more flexibility than most teachers do. If one of the girls has something special going on that I need to attend, chances are I’ll be able to. I was even brave enough to sign up to help with the fall carnival AND to be a room mother in one of the rooms.
Will this new experience be all sunshine and roses? No, but it's not supposed to be. We'll all have challenges. But I don't want my children to never struggle, to never be frustrated, to never have to deal with uncomfortable social or academic situations. I want them to experience all of that "unpleasantness" of life stuff while they are in a supportive, relatively safe environment, and while they are under our roof and are still willing to talk to us about all of the stuff that gives them pause.
Oh—and Little A has returned to being excited. She was most concerned about what doors to enter in the morning--oh, if all problems could be resolved so easily! And once she learned that she gets to earn “money” to spend in their class store just by completing her reading assignments each day, and that she can earn a trip to an indoor playground by completing a certain number of reading tests, she declared her class to be both “the BEST!” and “Awesome!” Even her brother said that was a pretty great way to get kids to read. Oh, who says bribery and education don’t go hand in hand.
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