Kindergarten

The kindergarten search begins. I never could have imagined how much work it would be to figure out where to send my kid to school. The No Child Left Behind Act coupled with a brief stint as a substitute teacher has made me really consider whether or not public school is a good option. Add this to the fact that CJ will be a "young" kindergartner and there is so much research out there on how negatively this can impact boys and you have one confused Mama.

I feel like this is our first big test. This is the really the first big decision that we could royally screw up. It's intimidating. Do we delay kindergarten even though his teacher's say he's clearly smart enough for kindergarten? The issue isn't about smarts, it's about socialization and the ability to focus as well as his peers that are almost a whole year ahead of him. Do we just send him to the local public school because it's kindergarten and how bad can it really go? Can we get him into the kindergarten that I love? If we do get him in, can we afford to pay for it? Are we complete idiots for paying a fortune to send a kid to kindergarten? Should we do the local charter school even though the pictures make the kids look like little soldiers?

I'm feeling very stressed about the process. We're trying to take it one step at a time. We've visited our first school (the one I absolutely love) last weekend. There are some drawbacks, but I met the teacher and it really looks good. CJ liked it. We'll need a scholarship for him to attend that school though. I've made a list of about 6 schools for us to check out. Hopefully, we'll find several that feel right. Then we can look at the financial aspects. I'm beginning to think maybe I should go into corporate law just so that I can have the kind of money it takes to send CJ to a school I really like. It's amazing. I always thought that more time was more important than more money. I hope that is really true.