Big Changes

Wednesday, February 1st

Dear Parker,

Well, the past couple of weeks surely have been interesting.  You have had a rough time at school for most of the year.  In the beginning, you had issues with your teacher.  Then you got a new teacher and things were better. Then, things started to change in the building.  Things got more chaotic feeling, there were often more kids than there should be at any given time (or I suppose fewer adults than there should be).  The kids weren’t being monitored as well during unstructured school time.  And, non-school time was unstructured.  You are a girl who needs her structure. 

We have applied to Orchard for next year, but we don’t know that you will get in or that we will get the money we need to send you there.  So, we knew we had to be looking at other options.  I did some calling around and your Mom and I went to take a tour at a school down the road early last week.  We were pretty happy with what we saw, so we decided to take you in for a visit on Friday.  Thursday when I picked you up, you were so unhappy that you started to cry the minute I walked in the door.  No one could really explain this, so we talked some on the way home.  I asked if you were happy at school, to which you replied, “no.”  I asked if you wanted to look at a different school, to which you asked if you would have to go back to your old school.  I answered your question with a question, “Do you want to?”  And, your telling answer was, “No.”  I stopped feeling guilty about even thinking about moving you in the middle of the year.

You and I went on Friday.  I stayed for about 90 minutes.  You were having such a good time and asked to stay through nap.  That clinched the deal.  So, we signed up and you started you started Monday.  Although we have had some tears in the morning, you seemed to have a really good time during the day.  I think that it is a much better atmosphere than you were in before.

I hope that you get into Orchard (and that we get enough money to afford it) but if not, I think you will be okay here for a little while.

Love,

Mommy