A Change

Tomorrow our girls will be attending a new school.  We have decided to transfer the girls to the Spanish dual-immersion school, Evergreen Elementary.  It has been a difficult decision and one that we didn’t make lightly.  All summer I’ve been going back and forth- it can be hard to decide between two good choices!  I have had a huge range of responses to this decision possibility from my friends, family, and members of the community, ranging from super excited and supportive to pure shock and disgust.  I have appreciated the dialogue, but thought I’d share some personal reasons why we decided on Evergreen.

1. My sister teaches at Evergreen. One of the biggest deciding factors is that my sister is teaching fifth grade at the school.  This relieves so much worry I have about the transition and the girls are so excited to see their aunt everyday and help in her classroom after school.  So many of the kids at the school know Melissa or their siblings have been in her class, so I think it will help the kids make friends, too.
2. Evergreen is closer to work.  I am working part time at the architecture firm downtown now and I can see Evergreen from my office.  My job is flexible so I can drop the girls off and go to work, eat lunch with them during my lunch break, and pick them up after school when I get off.  Convenience (or really, time) is always a big factor for me.
3. Abigail has been accepted into the Hi-Cap 4/5 class for the district that is housed at Evergreen.  The ratio for the class is amazing and it will be great to have her extra challenged.  She loves doing special projects and research and I think this class will cater to that.
4. Evergreen is dual-immersion and the girls will be learning Spanish.  Abbie is thrilled and doesn’t care that she’s years behind.  She really wants to learn and I think this will provide a great challenge for her. She is so motivated and hopefully can start learning the basics quickly.  Lauren, however, is not excited about learning Spanish, but I really think she can do it and will pick things up without realizing it.  We are supporting and learning from home as well, but I’m not planning on pushing the Spanish academically.  I’m planning to focus on encouraging her to make new friends and I think the Spanish will come as she has a good attitude. The Spanish program continues through middle school and beyond and what a blessing it would be for the girls (and me) to be bilingual.
5. The girls will learn about other cultures and experience greater diversity.  This is a tricky pro that could easily be a con.  They will definitely be the minority- I think only 2 in 10 students are white, but I think that is a valuable experience to have and an opportunity to learn about cultures from other parts of the world without having to move there.  The girls already have such a positive outlook on different races and ethnicities and I hope this will only increase that.
6. Evergreen has great extra-curricular activities.  These are beneficial because they are either before or after school and at the school so they’ll be mostly convenient for our schedule, and a great opportunity for the girls to make new friends and have positive experiences at the school outside of class.  They offer so much, and the girls are most interested in choir, guitar, dance, art, and Girl Scouts.  Narrowing down the choices will probably be the hard part!
7. There are other little perks as well including Art as a specialist option.  Lauren is most thrilled about that.  It will be taught in Spanish, but it is something she loves so it might help her attitude with Spanish in general.  A couple other little things they’re excited for are the provided healthy snacks everyday and the fact that the gym has a climbing rock wall. I also think it’s great that I know some of the staff and appreciate their warm welcome and confidence in the girls' transition.
8. The change will challenge Lauren.  This is the most difficult, but I think most necessary aspects of the choice to go to Evergreen. Lauren really struggles with change and is easily frustrated when she doesn’t understand something.  I know it might seem crazy to intentionally put her in a stressful and new situation with a language she doesn’t understand, but I can’t stop thinking that this challenge will help her in the long run (and it’s the long run that I’m keeping in mind.)  I know it is going to be hard.  I pray it won’t be too hard.  I really believe that weaknesses can become strengths and I want my little girl to do hard things and to know she can do them.  It’s true that it would be so much easier to stay with what she knows, to cater to her wants and her comfort zone, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to really help her grow.  Part of me is still terrified- scared of her getting too frustrated, worried that's she'll have a hard time making friends, afraid that she’ll get teased and bullied, and of course the fear that she’ll resent me forever.  But, another part of me whispers the affirmation that she can handle this and that this change will provide her with skills that will make her a better person and me a better mom.  

And so I am planting a seed. A seed of faith that this transition will be what's best for them and for our family.  This is the beginning of their story.