Coming of Age

So it just dawned on me this evening that Toots is officially starting school in ooooh, about twenty days time.  And I'm not at all upset that my baby is growing up, or that it's an end of an era, or that life passes by so quickly, or worried about how she'll get on... ...but I just realised that we have done nothing in preparation for this event, and I know nothing about what's happening either.

I grant you there are still twenty days to go, but I know if I was still in Scotland that by now I'd have gone shopping with iChum to Markies for a school uniform; Toots would have picked out a school bag, lunch box, pencil case and supplies, most probably from Tesco; we'd have found a pair of school shoes and packed a pair of plimsoles and sharpened the pencils, and so on.  Here, I'm not too sure really what's required...  I don't think Toots will have a uniform to wear, and I'm sure she doesn't need a school bag either, so it doesn't really feel like this significant, picture requiring moment.

But then it has all come about a bit differently than normal.  Last year, because she only turned four on 20th September, and the school year cut-off is 31st August, Toots had to enter a 3-year old (K3) programme.  I was a bit annoyed by this at the time because in Scotland she would have been attending nursery 5 days a week and preparing to start school this year.  But apparently State laws are strict and this was the class she had to be in.  She did love her class and learned a lot of things about listening to teachers and doing what you're told and respecting others and that social side of things, but I always had the impression that the level of academic learning just wasn't right.  So this year, she'd be due to enter the 4-year old programme (K4), which is still a prechool programme, and next year would start Kindergarten (or K5), which seems to be, learning wise, the equivalent to P1 in Scottish schools.

Anyway, about Spring time I was thinking that Toots was really ready for something more. She knew her alphabet and was putting letters together and wanted to write and was starting to count, and just needed more. And I know I know I could have done some home-schooling with her, and obviously we did help, teach and encourage her, but when I'm paying for her education I'm wanting my money's worth!  Plus, to stay in line with folks in Scotland (where the school cut off is end February), then this year she really should be attending school every day and learning to read and write and count.  So I spoke to the Director of Crestview and looked around the K4 and K5 classrooms, and the work that the Kindergarten class was doing was definitely the stuff suitable for Toots.  But they wouldn't accept her in to the year above there because of the State guidelines.  And again I know that many September kids here are gonna fall in to the same category, but I think when you have an expectation, based on what you know would be happening/would be age appropriate at home, and you know that your child is ready, it's quite hard just to 'give in' to the local way of doing things. Which I did last year, and do regret because I think she would have coped just as well in the K4 class.

So I started looking at private schools that might be more understanding to our international plight, and Trinity School, just down the road from us, agreed to test her.  So she had her test in May and I was most intrigued by the questions she told us they asked her (like our house number - she doesn't have a clue, though did know our whole address in Scotland - and my phone number - which she also didn't have a clue about, but made me think that maybe it's a good thing for a kid to learn!  Assuming I start answering my cell that is).  Anyway, she was accepted in to the Kindergarten class, and so this August is officially 'starting school'. Hooray!

Tiger, she'll be entering the K3 programme at Crestview that Toots did this year, and with her birthday in January she is right in the middle of the 'right' age group.  Which means that if we continue in the American school system (or the English one I think since their cut off it also 31st August isn't it?) then Toots and Tiger are gonna be two school years apart.  Which I know is totally normally, but is funny when for the first five years of their lives you think of them as only being one year apart - and they think of themselves as being practically the same age!  It also makes me wonder about what will happen when we get back to Scotland... if they've always been two years apart and Tiger's birthday is end January, are they just gonna hold her back and she'll be the oldest in her year while Toots slots in to the middle of hers?  Again, not necessarily a bad thing... just have to change my expectations I think. And give it time... it is years away!