Wednesday, May 18, 2011

School

Awhile back I had mentioned my wanting to share some of the things I love about public school.
Assuming that Marshall continues to nap and Logan continues to play quietly, I will do that now.

I am going to start by saying that, when considering our schooling options for Brady, I did consider both private school and homeschooling, but decided positively on public school. There are things about both private school and home school that Peter and I decided were definitely not what we wanted for our children. But, since the intention of this post is not to bash those options, I'm going to focus on the things I love about the public school where Brady goes.

Brady started school at Farmington Elementary School last fall, as an afternoon kindergartner (I don't even like to think about the fact that the school year is nearly over). Farmington Elementary is in easy walking distance from our house, but due to the busy road that separates us, Brady rides a school bus (which he LOVES). It is also an older school and reminds me so much of the elementary school where I went, which I love.

Here's a list of what I love about this school.
- Reading night
- Simple, optional fund raisers
- Hat Days (Brady loves these)
- A great playground, with TONS of swings
- A wonderful, caring, and very personable teacher
- Family Fun night
- The chance for Brady to meet lots of children from different types of families, cultures, races, and privilege.
- The opportunities for Brady to share his faith and relationship with Jesus with non-believers (both teachers and students).
- Field trips
- Independence and self-confidence. Learning to handle the bus, his locker, backpack, lunch, bathroom, and assignments by himself.
- Friendships and social skills (we'd be lost without preschool on this one).
- A great school district in a quiet city.
- The opportunity for placement in a more challenged classroom.
- The school is very clean, and the meals and snacks are healthy and inexpensive (although I'm certain we'll be going the route of cold lunch).
- The school is safe and the employees in the office are friendly and helpful.

I'm sure there is much more I could say in favor of Brady's school, but these are the things that I love the most. I could go on the talk about the 4 different options for kindergarten, the after school program, the extra-curricular programs, or the sports, but those particular things don't pertain to us at this point.

As hard as it was to send Brady off on the bus for the first time last fall, and as hard as it still is sometimes, I am confident we made the best decision and I am so happy with our school! It will also be fun to have 2 kids at that school in a couple of years, and then all 3 there for 1 year too (assuming we don't move before then)!!

At the MN Zoo last week with friends Clayton and Maclain.

Go Tigers!! (which oddly enough, was the same mascot we had at my elementary school).

Next up...
Sports.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! I totally forgot that we were the Tigers too! :)
So glad Brady is enjoying school and I must agree that I'm a big fan of public schools.

Katie said...

Great post!!!!