Changes, Changes

If you’ve followed the blog and the show since the early Fall, then you know that this year has brought a lot of change, experimentation and indecision when it comes to schooling. For the last 8 years all my kids have been in the local, Catholic schools. Over the summer I had to make some decisions about schooling based on one of my children. Instead of just focusing on that one child, I made a decision to change everyone’s schooling and pulled 4 kids from the K-8, Catholic school and put my 2 younger boys at the local, public school and my two 7th graders went into a homeschooling program. Once Clay came home, he reviewed the changes I’d made and watched me juggle the house, kids, blog, podcast, writing and homeschooling. To his credit, he agreed that my juggling skills were pretty, darn good, but that one of the girls should definitely go back to the Catholic school to finish out 7th and 8th grade and we could make other decisions for our other daughter as needed. So, off he went to the Catholic school to meet with the principal to see if there was still space and if we could have our daughter come back. Four days later she was back in uniform and sitting in class with her old classmates. We then focused on our other 7th grader and made the decision to stop homeschooling and put her into the local middle school. This was SO hard for me. But, I must admit, she’s doing very well, has met friends and is on top of her work load. Once the girls were settled and doing well, we turned out attention to the 2 boys. They’ve been doing great at the new school. They are both working well above grade level and have made friends that live near by. Our intent has been to let this year play out and then pursue spots for them back at the Catholic school. BUT, time has been sped up. Clay, once again, sat down with the principal and reviewed the openings that were still available. The decision was made that since there are openings now and may not be when it’s time to register and apply for next year, that we jump in with both feet.

So, after beginning this school year with all sorts of change, we are now going to have everyone back in the same school, except the one 7th grader. The boys were really excited to find out the news. It’s nice that they’ve made friends that they will be able to keep, here in the neighborhood. But for schooling, it’s going to be best for them to go back to the program that they were used to and for me to cut down by one school. Whew! This has really been an experience for our family! Leaving the Catholic school and then hoping and praying that the kids could get back in, has made us appreciate the education our kids get there and to know that no matter the cost, that we want our kids in a faith-based environment for their schooling. Yes, we still have one daughter who’s getting a different education, but in her situation, it’s what needed to happen for this year. Hopefully she will continue to excel in the program she’s in and we can reevaluate what the best schooling situation is, for her, for next year.

I’m amazed at how things have changed from when I was a kid. Back then, you just simply went to your local school. It seems that we’ve looked at the schooling for our kids, every year and asked ourselves what the best options are. But now, I feel confident that for as long as we are here, the kids will go K-8 at the Catholic school. As a matter-of-fact, Gabi and Luke-Xavier will both start preschool there, next Fall. I will have 5 kids in one school and on one time schedule! Not to mention the last of the Lang children will be walking out the door and into school!

Wow! Let’s talk about the life-change in that situation another time!

Have a great day~

This entry was posted on December 18, 2008 at 9:20 am and is filed under children, family life, homeschooling, kids, mom, school, schooling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.