Thursday, July 08, 2010

Educational Dilemmas

From a very early age it has been engrained in my that education is one of the most important aspects of life and that you can get a lot out of it and it will help you go far. I don't think this engraining started when I was 3, but here I am making educational decisions for the girls that could affect their futures. I never thought that I would have to worry as much about preschool as I have/do. It is crazy, I spent months and months looking at different programs and schools and finally found one that matched most of our criteria, only to be able to get the girls enrolled one day a week. I was fine with that at first, but as it gets closer to school starting I wonder if they would benefit from an additional day. We have the opportunity to send the girls to a new preschool that is being held at our Children's museum. I have a few hesitations, mostly that it is downtown, which would mean driving the drive every week to get there, but it seems like a wonderful opportunity. It is a Montessori based school, which means it allows for structured free thinking a philosophy that I think is great and one that I wish we could have enrolled in from the get go, but the school out here just isn't affordable for us as this time. This program is and it offers what we want and allows the girls to explore the museum in way that they probably wouldn't be able to with me. My dilemmas you ask? Well, I fear that I will sign them up for an additional day at this school and then I will get a call from the school out here where they will also attend telling me that they have an additional day for them. Then, do I ditch the Museum school, eat the non-refundable deposit, do one day at each school or do three days of school. I know one would think that this shouldn't be a stressful but to me it is. I want the girls to have a great experience early with school so that they don't hate it later in life and I want them to learn as well so to me this is an important decision. Right now I think I am leaning towards signing them up at the Museum and seeing how it goes and crossing the bridge, if I get to it, if there is another day available to them at the school out here. A decisions, decisions, things that you won't find in a parenting book, but that would be helpful!