Back in March of this year a note was sent home from Adelaide's pre-K teacher reminding me of Kindergarten enrollment coming up. I noticed her little Christian school was going from a half day K5 to a full day. I mentioned to her teacher that I had wished they would have kept it half day since Addie will be turning 5 just a week before school starts. Full day/ 5 days a week seemed like a lot at barely 5. She suggested I wait another year to start her for social reasons. I honestly thought she was crazy. She went on to tell me that although Addie was one of her top academically she was the youngest by 7 months.
I spent the next month researching this " Academic red shirting" concept. I interviewed every teacher and parent that sat in my salon chair. I also prayed and prayed and prayed for wisdom and guidance.
I wrestled with this decision. I didn't want to hold her back. I felt like she was too smart. My conversations with God mostly involved me telling Him how she could already read and do simple math etc..( like He didn't know)
But through my close friends, family and clients God was confirming what I was stubbornly trying to not hear.
One of my sweet clients who used to teach Kindergarten was thankfully in for a hair appointment during that month. She had held her July birthday child back a couple years ago and encouraged me in my decision. She also was teaching pre-K at the church my son was attending Mother's Day out. She said " Put Addie with me and during nap time her and I will do Kindergarten work to keep her challenged". Bryce agreed that plan sounded great. Not to mention the thought of taking both kids to the same place just might help simplify our busy lives a little.
So it was decided. We enrolled her and that was it..... Wrong!
God wasn't done changing my plans. I still didn't have a peace about something. Bryce mentioned homeschool. I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes.
(quick back ground.. Bryce was homeschooled until his Freshman year then he attended public school. After going to Christian school K-8th I started homeschool to be able to travel and sing more. So I was homeschooled all of high school )
God began working on my heart with the homeschool idea. The more I prayed the more I felt Him calling me to trust and obey.
I have to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Homeschool. I didn't exactly academically thrive in the environment and it wasn't on my radar for our kids. Patience, organization and teaching.... not talents of mine. And how am I supposed to fit this in? I have a salon business and I travel on tour 2 weekends a month. ????
None the less I went to a homeschool fair picked out kindergarten curriculum and registered with a umbrella homeschool.
So we find ourselves doing a hybrid homeschool year. Attending pre-K 2 days a week doing kindergarten homeschool 3 days a week. Yeah it doesn't make sense to me either. What does that mean for next year?.... Kindergarten, first grade, public, private school or homeschool??... NOT
A CLUE! Oh trust me I have asked God and all He's said is "I'll let you know".
Let the journey begin. I'm excited to see what God has in store. I'm sure it's more about my character development and obedience than my child's education this year and you know what?.. that's ok. We made it through our first week and Addie only said she hated homeschool and didn't like me being her pretend teacher once.... So we are off to a good start. lol!
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