Moving On Up

After a month of kindergarten we made the decision to skip our son to first grade. AAAH!! Did I just write that?! Part of me is thinking this is awesome because he works so hard at learning and the other wants to bring him back home and never let him leave the house again!
I really appreciated all the info I got while making this decision, so I'll write about why we did it in case anyone else goes through this.

His teachers brought up skipping the first week of school, but I didn't think he could handle it behaviorally and when praying just didn't feel like it was the best thing for him. I spent the month volunteering in his class and have noticed a downward trend. He was bored and I could see seeds of poor study habits and lack of motivation beginning to grow. But he needed to learn how to "do school" and I needed to get a better idea of where he was academically.

I had quite a few people advise me to leave him in K because then he'd be the smartest in his class all the time. But I don't like the message that sends. School isn't supposed to be about being smarter/faster/better than other kids, IMO

When his teacher and I discussed skipping a couple of weeks ago, his future GT teacher agreed and after the principal agreed too I prayed again. This time he would have a different teacher and I felt like it would be a good move. She's really nice and really fun. There's some neighborhood kids in his class that have already welcomed him warmly as well.

Today was his first day and I only cried for about 15 minutes after dropping him off. Don't ask me how much his kindergarten teacher and I both cried yesterday.

I miss my little guy. I like all the opportunities he has going to school (like he already gets to look through a microscope!), but I still hope to home school eventually. One of the things that gets me stuck though is feeling like I don't have the space! Meanwhile, I'm busy gathering curriculum. Just in case. I should probably spend that time getting back on track with getting rid of more stuff. Why is there so much?!

By the way, it's National Chemistry Week. If you live near a university, see if they have anything going on. We got to go to a magic show (ie blowing stuff up) and will be visiting some exhibits later this week. If you live in Utah, check this out for things going on in Provo http://www.chem.byu.edu/nationalchemistryweek

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