Noelle's Life :: School Days

Can I just start this post out with a big sigh?? I can’t believe we’re already talking about school for my baby!

This post took me such a long time to put together because my thoughts were all over the place and there are so many parts to the situation and our decision. So I hope this isn’t too convoluted and hard to follow! But it is going to be long…marathon long. So only read this if you really care about my feelings toward putting Noelle in school or you are in or will be in a similar situation.

Bryan and I have been talking about school for Noelle for about 6 months now. The main reason for this is not because we’re eager to force her to her next age-related transition, but we have needed to keep in mind the fact that her birthday is 8 days past the state-mandated cutoff date for enrollment. EIGHT DAYS!! This is so frustrating but I know that we are, by far, not the only parents who have to deal with this.

When we first started talking about school, we automatically thought about starting her in 4K. But because of her September 9 birthday, we would have to wait until she is almost 5 to get her started. Online research will give you a hundred pros and cons for both sides of holding a child back because of age – also called redshirting (taken from the college sports concept of the same idea) - but it wasn’t something that we were interested in doing.

Now I am sure there are parents out there who see zero issue with holding a child out of school. And I'm sure there are parents out there who think 4 is even too young to start school. And I absolutely think that it depends on the child and the parents. Bryan and I truly think Noelle is ready for this. Which is why we decided to look into 3K programs.

Honestly, another (huge) factor in our decision has also been financial. Noelle’s daycare is not cheap. Like, more expensive than college…yeah, that kind of not cheap. And yes, there are other daycares we could go to and other places that money could go – to vacations, to a savings account, to a new house or new car fund – but Bryan and I were both taught from a very early age that education is the most important thing and we are not hurting financially in any other area, so it's very important for us to give her this awesome starting place.

We are also madly in love with our daycare center. Everything about it is perfect for us – the teachers, the other staff, the care, the educational components, the location – I will cry when Noelle leaves daycare for school.

Seriously, we have had very short conversations about the possibility of sending the baby to a different daycare to help cut costs and my stomach just twists into knots even thinking about it. I would feel like I was breaking up with the world’s most awesome boyfriend. I know it makes me sound like a crazy person, but shouldn’t every working mother feel that way about the place her child(ren) spend the majority of their time during the week? Absolutely.

Now even if finances weren’t a part of the conversation, I would truly think that Noelle is ready for this transition. She has been in the preschool room/program at her daycare since shortly before she turned 3 so I feel as if she’s already in “school” and not just daycare. In fact, that’s what we call it at home now. We don’t usually refer to it as daycare because it’s so much more than that. And honestly, if she stayed at daycare another school year, she would mostly be going through the same lessons she learned this year. The preschool room is for ages 3-5, so she wouldn’t be learning a ton of new things. And while it might be positive for some kids to do that, I’m pretty sure Noelle would just get bored and would flourish in a new, more challenging environment. I 100% believe she is ready for this next step.

How does Noelle feel about this? Well, as any mother of a toddler or preschooler knows, what they say is one thing and what actually happens can most definitely be another. But we have explained what it will mean to go to a “big girl school.” She knows that it means leaving her current school and that her friends won’t be at the new school. [Although she does have some older friends who have already left the center and are attending the same school she will go to, they will just be in a different class.] We have talked about it quite a bit to judge her reaction on different days and she is always excited to talk about it. Her best friend at school is Chase and we asked her how she felt about leaving him and these were her exact words, “Chase will miss me a lot, but I’ll come visit to give him hugs and make him feel better.” She was more worried about how he would feel about it than her own feelings!

As I mentioned before, I know the actuality of the situation will be a bit different than our conversations now, but I really don’t think we are in for a big challenge on this one. Knock on wood, oh my gosh am I knocking on wood right now!

How do I/we feel about this? Honestly, this is one of the easier decisions I’ve had to make in relation to raising a child. I am the mother of all worriers and anxiety is my middle name. But there is just something about this transition that just feels right. I am so excited for the road ahead of Noelle and I truly can’t wait to watch her transform from preschooler to elementary schooler and beyond (although, admittedly, that part of it is not something I like to think about!).

Ok, I think I’ll cut it off here…this is just getting ridiculously long. I’ll be back with part two which involves figuring out where Noelle would go to school and all the fun that comes along with that!