Lucy, I have some esplainin’ to do…

If you would have asked me two weeks ago where Ethan was going to start kindergarten at, I would have said, “home”. That was our plan. After going back and forth over our options we knew sending him to kindergarten in our less than stellar school district was just not an option. We then thought about private schools for a hot minute, ha! But then we remembered that we were not millionaires and had 3 other children to send to school. That was just not going to happen. 

One night why getting my hair did, I was venting chatting with a friend about this whole mess. She asked me if I had ever heard of this local charter school, and I surprisingly hadn’t. She raved about it, the academics, the high character standards, and the fact that many of the teachers were Christians. All I needed to do was place Ethan’s name in the “lottery” and hope he would be “chosen”. haha! 

After about a month past from the drawing date I realized Ethan’s name didn’t get chosen. We were right back to square one! I was completely frustrated. But I handled the big school decision in true Brittany fashion…just ignored the problem, ha!

A couple of months later Sam and I started a parenting class at church. The statistics about things children were faced with and at such an early age really began to convict us about possibly homeschooling Ethan. Really the idea of homeschooling Ethan scared me. Quite frankly I think the kids is already smarter than me…I was screwed. Also he is SO strong willed and refuses to learn from me. No lie. He will pick up ANYTHING Sam tries to teach him, and that’s frustrating, ha! 

It was decided. We were going to homeschool Ethan on a wing and a prayer. And lots, and lots of coffee. Amen. Summer was in full swing and we REALLY needed to buy his curriculum, and the week we had planned to purchase it something financially came up and we needed that money. What were we going to do? As we began saving again, I began to worry. How was all of this going to happen? All of his friends were going to start school the next week and we didn’t have his curriculum!

Then on that Monday I was cooking lunch when I received a phone call. 

“Sure, but I need to know today.“

My heart raced as I paced the kitchen waiting for Sam to pick up the other line. What should we do? We had fully intended on homeschooling. I was cautiously excited about it. What would all my other homeschool mom friends think? We didn’t have the money for him to start his homeschooling yet, so maybe this was where God intended for him to be? Sam and I took a second to pray about it and decided that we would take it!

The next 24 hours were a whirlwind. We went uniform shopping…to like 10 different stores, because everything had already been picked over. ha! Shot records and school supplies were obtained. Enrollment forms were filled out and lunch was packed. It was official my baby was heading off to kindergarten.

Why other parents had all summer to adjust to the idea of their babies starting school, I was only granted one evening. Let’s just say I was a HOT MESS. So here is our little man on his first day of kindergarten. He was BEYOND excited to go…which made me sad, ha!

Mommy and daddy with the BIG boy!

Though he was a little nervous as he walked in, Ethan sat right down and began to work.

In the left picture you can see him taking the school’s pledge to work his hardest and be of good character.

While I still struggle a little with the decision to send him to school, because it was so fast, I do know that any day i can take him out of it and we will homeschool. Sam and I said we would give it to Christmas at least, ha! 

Oh, and pretty much the entire first week I would ask Ethan if he wanted to go back to school or stay at home and do school here. He never hesitates to say he wants to go back to “real school”.