Mood:

Topic: Lauren
We are just about to start the second month of school and the year so far has been surprisingly easy considering we switched Lauren to a new school.
In our state there is something called Open Enrollment where anyone living in one school district can enroll their child(ren) in any other school district provided there is space available. We had considered doing this for Lauren’s first grade year (last year) which was the year when the school district we live in was deciding whether to close a school and redraw the school boundaries. The school board decided on the option which kept Lauren at her school so we continued in our own school district.
But, we were not all that pleased with the curriculum for Lauren last year. She was reading at a 5th-6th grade level and while she was in an advanced reading group, it was every day in a different room with a different teacher. Now, how could they even begin to assess her growth with that scenario? In addition, we just weren’t sure about the rest of class curriculum. In the beginning of the year Lauren was capable of adding two digit numbers with carrying (regrouping as they now refer to it), but her class was starting out with tally marks. They did manage to end the year at adding and subtracting up to/from 18, but the teacher would never provide more challenging work for Lauren.
At the end of last year, and I mean the end…like the last week of school, after we heard a few things from neighbors about other issues at the school (class size and principal issues), we decided to think about switching again. It was a difficult decision and we went through a lot in finding our answer. We visited three other schools, talked with parents at the other schools, and had many discussions between ourselves about what it would mean to switch. In the end, we decided it would be better if we switched now, before she became that much more attached to her friends. So she started at her new school a month ago and has loved every minute of it. She is just so happy to be back in school, I’m not sure it would have mattered where she went just as long as she went. And when it comes right down to it, that’s more than half the battle, isn’t it?