First off, for those of you who read my post yesterday, I added a quote and few clarifying thoughts to the bottom of it this morning that most of you probably missed. Please check it out! To be clear, I can’t stand the term “free-range” when used as a descriptor for parenting choices and our children, and I’m not judging if you ARE a more cautious parent. I’m just often surprised at the fact that I am not, and I was curious as to why people’s feelings vary so widely on this topic!
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At any rate, this morning I got an alert on my phone: Pre-school registration – 8am.
Eek! How is this happening already?
Our little town has one, maybe two options for pre-school. There is a public pre-school, which is thankfully pretty awesome, and a Montessori pre-k, though they aren’t for sure reopening in the fall because of funding issues. The public school has 23 available full time spots, and I’m guessing because people are unsure of the fate of the Montessori school, as of last week the public pre-k already knew of 27 interested families, so you can bet your bottom dollar that we were there early today!
Beginning August 31st, Stella will be going to school 5 days a week from 8am-3:25pm. Wednesday (which happens to usually be my day off) is early release day at 2:20, which works out perfectly for me to get a little extra time with her on those afternoons. Our nanny is going to charge us a very small amount to watch Stella from 4pm-5:30pm the other days (she will be able to ride the bus home and get dropped off about 1 block from our house). The deposit was a whopping $20 “supply fee” which is actually refundable, so it was a no-brainer to get her signed up, even if we end up changing our minds come fall for some crazy reason.
That being said, we are pretty set on the public school at this point. It’s a fantastic school (which we are SO thankful for!), and it has a bus system, which is pretty key with 2 working parents with inflexible work schedules. She can get on the bus in the morning and ride it home in the afternoon with just a 1 block walk. Also, the public pre-k is $25/day ($500/mo) and the Montessori is closer to $850/month, which is a drastic difference that we just can’t justify (or afford) right now.
So yeah… registration went off without a hitch this morning, and in fact we were the very first people there. Between Stella’s excitement to go to school and my desire to ensure she got a spot for the fall, we were there 15 minutes before registration opened, and Stella used that time to check out the cafeteria and make a few friends.
After all was said and done, the only tears that were shed this morning were by Stella – she was upset she didn’t get to ride the bus and that she couldn’t start school right away today!
