Kindergarten Round-Up

Before Brianna was born, Chris and I had several discussions regarding what we would do about schooling with our kids. It's such a hard decision (or it was for us, at least), and we would talk about it a lot but never really make any firm decisions. We've discussed homeschooling, private school, and public school, and feel like all have their pros and cons. 

After Brianna came along, we continued to explore our options knowing that the time to make a choice would be here before we knew it. And sure enough, the past five years have flown by! I've written just a bit on here about how we chose to keep Brianna home this year and not have her attend a preK or preschool program. And, while I have worked with her consistently on preK skills, we did not use a curriculum at home. We kept things pretty unstructured and have mostly learned through exploration and play. This has worked well for us, and I don't regret one bit keeping her home this year. I think it has been good for both of us to have her home. However, the time has come for us to either do something with a bit more structure, or to enroll Brianna into a program outside the home. 

After years of wrestling with the decision, praying fervently about it, and weighing our options, Chris and I have decided to enroll Brianna in public school. While this wasn't something we took lightly, we are happy with the choice we made for now. I do think that we will re-evaluate each year and that eventually we may homeschool. At this point, we are keeping our options open. 

Kindergarten enrollment was on March 11th. This was a Wednesday morning, and since I had a three year old and two 5 week old babies at home, Chris took the morning off from work to take Brianna. I was super sad that I was missing out on such a milestone, but really it was nothing more than Chris taking Brianna to the enrollment center and filling out a bunch of paperwork. 

Our big girl was beyond excited to be enrolling for Kindergarten! She has been looking forward to going to school since she was two years old (she always assumed she would be going and we never told her any different). 

Please tell me when my baby got so big?!?

Excited!

Of course, enrolling a little one in public school requires quite a bit of paperwork. Brianna insisted on carrying "her papers".

Chris said that she acted on her best behavior and very grown up at the enrollment center. I had to laugh at these pics he took because she is standing so still with her hands in her pockets. That's just not like our spunky girl!

The administration building/enrollment center is located in a building that was once one of the schools in town. Brianna wanted to look all around the building, and actually wanted to visit her school as well. They did look around the admin building, but did not visit her school :-).

While I was certainly sad to miss out on the enrollment process, Chris and Brianna both enjoyed their one-on-one time. We are quickly discovering that one of the most difficult things about having four littles is spending quality time with each child. Sometimes they just need that individual time!

It's hard to believe that come August our firstborn will be going off to school. I'm already feeling emotional about it, so I need to get it together before the first day! Just thinking about her being gone all day makes me miss her, but I think this will be a good thing for all of us.