Another Beginning…
May 5, 2011
Xander had his ‘Kindergarten Connection’ (screening) meeting yesterday. After touring schools and weighing our options, we finally picked what we hope will be the best one for both boys. The connection meeting went pretty well – they certainly have it organized and down to a science.
We walked into the cafeteria and went to the registration table. Xander got a name tag and we got a giant terracotta pot. There were 4 ‘stations’ set up, and we were directed to the 1st station where Xander played with one of the kindergarten teachers (they are big on magnetic letters) on a baking tray (cool trick since it’s magnetic) while we chatted with the principal. They got to test Xander’s letter recognition and organization and we got some handouts (which we could carry around in our handy pot). Xander got to pick out a seed packet (to plant in the terracotta pot) and we moved onto the next station. At each station they evaluated things like gross and fine motor skills, following directions, etc. and we met with people like the school nurse, the OT specialist, reading specialist and teachers. As Xander finished whatever task was in front of him, he was given some sort of reward (a beach ball from the health table, gardening gloves from the OT table, a drawing/counting game from the academics table, etc.)
When we left and I asked Xander how he liked it, he said ‘it was ok… but they didn’t have any dinosaurs for me to play with’ On the other hand, this morning he asked me where he was going to school today, and when I told him, his current school he made a face at me. I asked him what the problem was – he loves his school and he informed me yes, but he wanted to go to kindergarten! So, I guess any qualms I had over him being ready (the OT lady’s first comment when she met us was ‘wow, a little guy – he just barely meets the cut off!’) are moderately relieved since he’s pretty confident that he’s ready 
We live in a small town. I mean, really small. When we moved in, we bumped the number from 84 to 91 people in town. It’s small enough to not have a school. Taxes pay tuition for local children to attend any school in the district. So that’s kind of cool – we can pick any of the 7 schools to send our children to. It was easy enough to narrow the choice down to two schools and now we’re stuck. School #1 is in the bigger, regional town. By high school all of the children in the surrounding town are fed into this regional high school. It is also the town that both Zach and I work in. It is the town where the boys’ doctors are located as well as their day care. School #2 is also an excellent school. It’s closer to home, they have a contract signed with our town so even if class sizes are big, they can’t turn our kids away, which is a small risk at the 1st school. We’ve talked to parents with children in both schools, and everyone has had positive experiences at both schools. My next step is to contact the schools and set up some observation time.
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