I'm a mom of a school kid

So Levi started school.

I don't even know what to say about this. It's really weird.  But, ya know, I think that by having the mentality of "this may be our only year of sending him to school, and if we do send him later on, it'll be because we choose to and think it will be best for him and our family," has made it a lot easier on me.  Prior I always felt like it was the government ripping our children out of our hands at much too young ages.  So this change of thought has made the transition much easier on me.  Also, two years years ago, I had a wrestle (in prayer, of course) with the Lord about Levi growing up.  I told the Lord I would let it happen (like I had any choice), but He'd have to make me okay with it.  You know, it really helped - a lot.  Also, since I taught him to read and started him in piano, it has been so fun to watch him learn, and has made me more anxious to see him grow and develop, rather than basking in his baby-ness.  All of these things have helped me be okay with his first day of Kindergarten.  I didn't even cry ... or worry.

This is the "casual day" uniform.  The "dress day" requires button up shirts and ties.  So darling. And no, he doesn't mind the tie at all.

Each time I get on to type, I think, "I want to talk more about homeschooling."  I do actually have more reasons than those I've listed.  But I write these posts pretty fast, and I'm not thinking of all my reasons at the time.  Then as I go through my day I'll remember others.  

BUT I'm not going to talk about homeschooling. :) I thought I should tell you why we decided to do the charter school.  

1.  Fear.  Yes, it's true.  I was afraid of giving up our spot in the charter lottery when I didn't really know what we should do.  So if anyone thinks I shouldn't homeschool out of fear, perhaps I also shouldn't send him to school out of fear?  Ha ha.  But anyway, in all honesty, this did play a role.  

2.  I'm up to my eyebrows in responsibility.  This is a challenging time for me, mostly trying to solidify everything with our health.  It has taken a big tole on me (and our budget), and ya know, one more year to get things all worked out (w/o having to worry about school) would do me some good.

3.  I wanted to see what the charter school was like.  It's not very fair to base my decision on his educational opportunities over at the charter school based on nation-wide stats of public schools.  Or even my experience in public school.  This is a fabulous charter school.  Sometimes when I see info about public schools they are talking about inner-city, low-income, etc. etc.  Not the best comparison, even to a nice district like I live in.  But the charter goes beyond the nice district, I think, and I wanted to really see what it would be like. Yeah, he's still in a big classroom w/o individualized instruction (though they do a lot of leveled breakout groups).  But I just wanted to test it out to really see.

Those are the 3 main reasons.  I know I didn't type as much about them as the homeschool stuff.  Funny why that is.  But anyway, the charter seems pretty good, so far.  At least he's having fun if nothing else, ha ha.  Oh, he did say he wants to be an astronaut, now, after learning about the moon today.  I'm sure that will happen.