Riley and Avery

...or "punk-min" as Avery says. The girls had a lot of fun helping with the pumpkin. They actually stuck around while I carved it, which is an improvement over previous years when I am left to carve it by myself after they become bored. I chose a simple design this year in order to better hold their interest. Fun times all around. Of course, we roasted the seeds and Riley loves them.

So, I got a confession out of Riley. I asked her "Hey, Riley, which hand did you use when you were taking your test?" and she said "this one" and held up her left hand. That's as far as I went with it because I didn't want to give the issue too much attention. So yeah, homegirl was goofing around. Gah. There's a lot of money down the toilet.

We visited Globe Charter School today. I really liked it and so did Riley. Rudi not so much, but I don't agree with his reasoning. He didn't like that it was so "intimate" meaning that it is a very large space with dividers up between classes. He thought that children should feel school pride and that isn't possible with partitions between classes. My argument was that yes, it doesn't have the institutional feel of a concrete walled school, but Riley would have a great educational opportunity, I think. I mean, seriously, there are just over 100 students total in K through 8th grade. What kind of building does he expect? I'm perfectly fine with it. The classes are so very small and the lady who was showing us around said that all of the elementary grades are on the same schedule (doing math at the same time, doing reading at the same time, etc.) so it's really easy to move a child to higher grades for certain subjects if need be. She also said that because they are a charter school they don't have to adhere to the same strict rules regarding grade advancement that other public schools do. I just like the fact that Riley will be one of 23 kindergarteners (in two classes) and will be in a small enough population to be really individual, etc. Going from an intimate Montessori setting to a "regular" school will be hard enough without 500 kids at a new school. It would be totally different if Riley had had preschool experience at one of those larger schools, but as it is I think she would be very overwhelmed. And she is rather adept at flying under the radar, so I would feel better if she were in a smaller school. So I told Rudi that we will go for Kindergarten and re-evaluate at the end of that year, and then continue with the rest of elementary if we're pleased with it. Then at the end of elementary we'll see if she wants to go to a bigger middle school (we're thinking about the availability of sports clubs, science clubs, and such that may be more easily available at larger schools) or if she wants to stay at Globe through 8th grade. So I think our decision is made. Globe next year for Kindergarten. It feels nice to finally have made a decision.

Now to break the news to Golden Mountain. I really love that school, it just won't work for us any more. No one can really expect me to drive 2 hours every day (30 mins there and 30 mins back, and 30 mins to pick her up and 30 mins back) can they? That's all I'll say. I just can't do the drive any more. And Avery really flourishes at home when Riley is at school, so I think I may do more of a homeschool preschool with her and wait for Kindergarten. Or if worse comes to worse, I can send her for one year of preschool. I have a pretty good stock of Montessori materials I can use for her at home. And I'm just not ready to send my littlest baby to school. Call me selfish...