As I've written before, moving to Hartsville 5 month ago meant that we'd have to sink or swim in the midst of a lot of transitional milestones: new house, new city and state, new job & church, new baby (Naomi came 5 days after we moved in) and a first-time school experience for Justin Alexander. Granted, the last item on the list was self-imposed, but we thought it would be a bright idea to send Justin and Jasmine to preschool for a semester or two in order to give Venesa the best opportunity to cope with a newborn in the midst of so much change. In the end, she hyperventilated over the thought of being left home without any kids, and so we decided to just send Justin.
Well... fast forward 5 months, and I am excited to say that (as of Dec 16) the preschool experiment has come to an end. And boy was it a journey. From over-the-top Halloween celebrations and Santa Claus confusion (there will be no fat man in the chimney for us), to bullying and discipline issues; it seemed like every week brought a different issue that made us revisit and question our sanity decision. In the end, I could write a book (or at least a really long pamphlet) about our not-so-virtuous experience with private preschool; but I suppose that I also have to balance that by giving credit where it's due: For one, we appreciated his teacher. As two educators ourselves, we know that we probably have many years ahead of us of being overly critical of our childrens' teachers. Yet, I can still easily say that we appreciated Ms. Denise's level of dedication to her students and her classroom.
In the column of pros, I should also point out that Justin had fun. He looked forward to it everyday and adapted better than we could have imagined. Lastly, he did learn a lot. While we can't say that they added a lot of academic value, there were lots of new experiences (new songs and games, school play, etc.) and plenty of non-academic lessons to be gleaned from his classroom and sandbox adventures (some of which I've written about here). But perhaps most important of all, the whole experience was akin to using a quality primer before the final paint job: It paved the way for our homeschool experience in more ways than one. It helped Justin learn firsthand the structure and purpose of school overall. And our constant observations at the more detailed level gave me and Venesa more ideas than we could count in terms of how to build and shape a school of our own. I guess you can say it was like an internship. Experience gained and a nice stepping stone for what's to come. From that perspective, I guess you can say it was successful after all.
In the column of pros, I should also point out that Justin had fun. He looked forward to it everyday and adapted better than we could have imagined. Lastly, he did learn a lot. While we can't say that they added a lot of academic value, there were lots of new experiences (new songs and games, school play, etc.) and plenty of non-academic lessons to be gleaned from his classroom and sandbox adventures (some of which I've written about here). But perhaps most important of all, the whole experience was akin to using a quality primer before the final paint job: It paved the way for our homeschool experience in more ways than one. It helped Justin learn firsthand the structure and purpose of school overall. And our constant observations at the more detailed level gave me and Venesa more ideas than we could count in terms of how to build and shape a school of our own. I guess you can say it was like an internship. Experience gained and a nice stepping stone for what's to come. From that perspective, I guess you can say it was successful after all.
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