The 'To Do' List is Now a Little Bit Shorter

Yesterday I went to SP to visit two potential schools for the girls. (If you're wondering, "Why just for the girls?" that's because Braeden is in special education and once all of his ed-psych assessments are done he will be placed in the appropriate program for his developmental level.) This is why I completely forgot to blog yesterday!

SP has a program called "Logos" (Greek for "The Word") within their public school system. Schools that host the Logos program have classrooms at each grade level that are taught by Christian teachers with a Christian worldview and a focus on the Bible. The schools have the Logos classrooms intermingled with the "regular" classrooms (so there is no special area of the school for either). Throughout the schools, posters and artwork with the Word of God decorate the hallways.

There are two elementary schools with the Logos program, so I needed to visit them both and choose the one I liked best. This has been one of the many decisions keeping me up at night, so I really wanted to get it taken care of!

I thank the Lord that He helps in all things, and that He made this decision so clear and easy!

School 1:
- very unfriendly school secretary
- school principal either ignored children or yelled at them to behave as we toured the school
- in spite of exchanging numerous emails over the past couple of weeks, the principal had no recollection of me or our situation, making me have to explain all over again who I was and why I was there
- nearly 500 students
- loud chaos throughout the school, before and during lunch
- an extreme shortage of lunchtime supervision, both indoors and out
- students sneaking into the wooded area on the playground and not being caught by the supervisors
- bus drop-off and pick up on the far, far sidewalk
- did I mention the chaos and misbehaving children around every.single.corner?

School 2:
- super friendly secretaries who introduced themselves using first names (a plus in my books...my kids should call teachers etc. by "Mr" and "Mrs," but I am a grown up and don't appreciate them asking me to call them anything different than what I expect them to call me)
- super friendly principal and vice principal
- about 300+ students
- principal stopped and talked to students all along the way on our tour, repeatedly praising them and encouraging good behaviour, telling their teachers when she noticed anything exemplary that she wanted them to be acknowledged for
- both during lunch and after, children were seated and doing what they should be (though lunch time was louder, there was no sense of chaos or disorder)
- a slightly lesser shortage of lunchtime supervision
- bus drop-off and pick-up right at the front doors, always supervised by the principal or vice principal
- met the grade 2 Logos teacher, who was also friendly and outgoing
- discovered that the grade 2 Logos teacher lives on our street (as do 3 other families from this school, that she could think of), and she offered up her 16 and 20 year-old daughters to babysit!

Needless to say, Abbey and Megan are now registered in this school, and Shea's name is on the list for Kindergarten next year.

One more thing to cross of the list. Thank-you, Jesus!

And thanks to Christine for coming along and keeping me company, asking good questions, and being another set of eyes (since the GPS seemed particularly cantankerous). Thanks to mom for getting off work early to tend to five little monkeys. :)