Fresh Start

In T minus one week, my Big Boy will start a new school. He spent his first two years at a Spanish immersion school. Since he's a strong learner, he picked up all that he needed to learn, but was frustrated by the slow-ish pace of the learning as well as irritated by the constant drill and practice worksheets he was required to do. The environment of his classroom was also quite chaotic.  By winter break of his 1st grade year, he had basically shut down and seemed depressed.  We happen to live in a district that has a nice handful of public magnet and charter schools.  They are a little tricky to get into, but we were gifted with the opportunity to switch from the Spanish magnet to a Montessori school this year.

One aspect of the new school that I am expecting to work out better is the classroom structure. My son went to school 4 days after his 5th birthday.  Even though it's common practice to hold boys back a year, I don't regret that choice (I think he would have similar struggles whether or not we'd held him back until he was 6). Montessori schools have multi-grade classrooms.  Big Boy's class will be a mix of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders.  It's my hope that allowing him to spend time with older kids for his brain and younger kids for his heart will help him fit in a little better educationally and relationally.

Another element of the new school that I am looking forward to is the focus on focus. Montessori schools seek to teach students how to work through distraction and disruption.  As a Highly Sensitive Child, Big Boy needs all the help he can get with regard to tuning out distraction in a healthy way.  Previously, in the classroom, he responded to chaos by withdrawing into himself and refusing to do work.  AND, if everyone is focusing...there should ideally be less chaos in his classroom.

The school new school SHOULD be a better fit. It's a Montessori school, which ideally, is more learner centered.  Big Boy loves learning.  He soaks up new information like a sponge and is able to accurately apply that knowledge in other circumstances. So, IDEALLY, this type of school should be a better fit.  But, I've lived long enough to know that there can be a giant disconnect between the ideal and the actual.  So, really, we'll just have to wait and see.

As a human being I consider myself to be an odd mix of hopeful and pessimistic.  Therefore, I am trying not to frame this school change as something magical that will make life glorious for my sweet Big Boy...but I am secretly hoping it will be. In my heart I know that the journey of life with Big Boy will never be simple. Everything that he does is going to require extra work and extra forethought.  I love my baby...he's the special snowflake that God gave to me...and my special snowflake starts his new school in one week.