The playground at Springwater is filled with great things to play and climb on without looking like every other plastic playground. In the background you'll see endless garden beds where the children are learning, hands-on, every subject around a science based curriculum. I love this! A true Oregonian way of life. Sustainable living. What a great way to teach kids.
The classrooms are filled with all kinds of evidence of curious learners. Here they cover fewer topics but go deeper with the ones that they do cover. The stuff that hangs in the Kindergarten or 1st grade walls is quite different from that which hangs in many or most, including my own former classrooms.
What kid wouldn't love a school where there is a boot shelf in the hallway! School meets M-T and then every other Friday the kids have Field Instruction. It is what it sounds like. Hands on with Mother Nature on the 5 acres out their back door. Friday is not optional, this is where much of the learning occurs and when kids come up with many of their questions. I can see Evan's black boots with the bright red and orange flames being added to this shelf. In fact, I think there's a pair just like them on the top shelf!
Schooling. Who would have thought I would spend so much time wrapping my brain about the eduction my son will receive. At birth it was just a given that he would go to a public school K-12 like I did, well wait, I actually went to a Catholic school for a few years in the middle.
I have been both student and teacher in both public and private schools. There are flaws all over the place and I am doing my best to figure out what is best for E. And it seems, the more I teach, the more I see that I am not crazy about. So what are the options?
Recently we attended an open house at a very neat Charter school (see pictures from above) that falls into the OC Public School District. I immediately felt things there were different. It's hard to put in a nutshell what they said and showed me that day, but I am hopeful that E will be drawn from that lottery. There is a different kind of learning going on there and with the small class size, and strong push on learning through project-based learning and the environment, I think it would be a great fit for Evan. But, there is the lottery to consider. I'm feeling lucky.
In the meantime, I reading up what I can on Homeschooling and talking to folks that DO. It's a lot to wrap my brain around but the boy at the center of this is worth it. I have time to figure it all out, and even then I won't have all the answers.
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1 comment:
Annie told me that they re-evaluate what is best for their children each year. Just because you start him down a path, doesn't mean that you can't change directions at some point. When in doubt, listen to the Mommy intuition. Evan's a lucky boy to have parents that give this much care and concern to Kindergarten.
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