Kindergarten Woes

Go t a bit behind so there will be a couple of posts to catch up.


A week ago Makenna was on this “Woman” kick. She keeps saying that she’s a woman or that daddy sounds like a woman (which I’m sure he’ll love that I’m posting that….and my brothers will laugh hardily and agree with her) or that I’m a woman. On Sunday (April 17th,) I mentioned to Makenna that she’s almost 4.5 years old to which she replied, “So I’m a woman?” I gasped and said, “No…you’re not a woman…yet.”

I’m not sure if this came about from me showing her signs to restroom where she has to look for a “W” for Woman which then clues her in that she can go into that bathroom. Of course it doesn’t help when they have a “G” for girls and then Makenna just decided to use the one that says “M” because her name starts with “M” and I’m frantically trying to figure out where the heck she went. But, at least it was a one-person bathroom so it wasn’t all bad.

We also started the process of school registration. I’m starting to feel sadness about this already. Although I’m so glad to watch her grow and blossom, I look and other kids that are still in the baby stage and long for her to be back there. Then I wonder why when it was so tough to know what she needed at times and I was so tired. I think back to all the cute little things I did with her and all the cute songs I made up and sung to her and how that doesn’t happen anymore.

Well, back to the registration….We went to an informational night on Tuesday (April 19th) at a school in the CV district. We’d have to pay tuition and one of the questions I asked the Superintendent was how much tuition was going to be this coming fall. Before giving me the estimated answer, he explained how they are supposed to be charging around $6,000 but are “stepping” their way to that price. Therefore, he expects the price to be $4200 (more or less,). Then he explained how the High School is at $9,000 for a school year. I can only imagine what tuition will be at that grade level when Makenna is old enough to be in high school. We left there and Chris said, “We need to move before the end of summer.” I felt a wave of anxiety and pressure.

I explained that whether we decide to have her go to this district where we have to pay tuition or to the district that we pay school tax in, we still have a year at least to worry about housing. I feel that after 4th grade you’re starting to solidify some relationships with kids at school. Before then, kids come and go and it’s not too detrimental to move her around.

I still went the next day to get her registered in case we do decide to have her go to this school. I was surprised by Makenna who was either scared or nervous or both. I was sitting at a table going over paperwork with a woman and Makenna went off to a wall and sat down on the ground. I was waving her over to sit with me and she was too nervous and shook her head no. I left her there until I was done and then she came and sat with me.

Another lady came to get Makenna to do some testing but I had to come along in the beginning until I could tell Makenna felt comfortable enough to trust this person. She was having her do some gross motor skills like jumping, hoping, throwing, catching, rolling a ball, etc. Once she got past that and realized she was having fun with this new person, then I was able to walk away while she did some other tests. I guess these are to gauge where she’s at developmentally on different scales so they know if she’ll need help in certain areas before she even starts school.

When they were done and the lady returned, I did tell them about some poor results on her gross motor skills from previous tests at her Pre-K. So they marked that down as something to look at in the Fall…if we go there.

Next Week (4/25) is the informational meeting for Harpursville and we plan on asking some questions like why the test results in English and Language Arts dropped 12% from 2008 – 2009. Do they have IB or Regent Courses in the High School and what time does the bus arrive in our neck of the woods to pick her up?

My belief is that she has to be out by a little after 7am to be picked up by the bus for a 40 minute bus ride one way to school. I think she’ll be exhausted, and I’m a bit scared that there are no other kids her age on the bus right away. Not to mention that if something happens while I’m at work, that it will take me probably close to 50 minutes to get to her.

I also got to thinking about if she does make friends in school, then we’d have to drive her to Harpursville area to play with those friends and what a hassle that would be. Then last night drove the issue home for me in my opinion. Chris and I were discussing (our word for arguing) about getting to this meeting tonight. I was saying how I would run home after work to take care of the dogs, then run back down to get Makenna and take her to swim lessons and then get to the meeting after that.

He wants to meet me at home which means that we’ll be late to the meeting. By the time we get done with swim lessons and get her showered and dressed it’s close to 5pm. Then to get home it’s another 15-20 minutes. Then to get him and get to a place we have yet to find, I say that’s another 20 minutes so we’ll get there probably 15 minutes into the meeting. Plus, I have to hope that he actually is home when we get home.

My argument was that I didn’t want to be late and his argument is that it’s a waste of gas money for us both to drive out there and that’s when I raised my finger and said, “And that’s the problem with going to Harpursville!” Everything that she’ll be a part of as the school year(s) go on means going in a direction from our house that’s away from everything we do. If it was down more into town, (like CV school is,) then at least activities would be on the way home not past our home into an area we typically don’t go.

I guess we’ll see how the meeting goes tonight and then we have at least the Summer to decide what school….or to move…and start this paperwork nightmare all over again.