GENERAL TOPICS > Parenting

Starting School, starting over, just getting started.

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EL TATE:
Some parenting updates and what I think will become more of a bragging corner at some point, but here goes anyway.

Sam headed off for his first day of his senior year at a new high school. Pre-calculus, quantum physics, advanced body sciences, computer programming and another that escapes me, I think it's a fluff senior class like weight training. (Not a bad idea though). As we prepare to guide him through his final year of high school and prepare him for his future college classes we were surprised yesterday by a phone call from his former school district office, but not for him, for our 4 year old Sophie.

Sophie missed the kindergarten cutoff in our district by 14 days, as she turns 5 next Monday. She's super smart, (I know all parents think this, but follow me here), so we paid $100 to have her evaluated for early kindergarten. She landed high 90th percentile in all subjects but failed on fine motor skills. basically she couldn't draw the shapes they wanted the way they wanted, but then an hour later at home she molded an art eraser into fairly anatomically correct cat's face. Come to find out only 1 child in 7 years had been accepted and it dawned on me that with class sizes the way they are and funding the way it is, this "early learning test" is really just a fund raiser, with no intention of passing anyone.

So I'm irritated, but ok with it as I'm not ready for my little girl to grow up yet anyway. My final jab at the district was that if Sophie were 15 days older, would she be considered special ed. due to her "lack of fine motor skills"? "Oh, absolutely not sir, she's very intelligent..." my point exactly. This is last Wed.

Last night the phone rings and it's the school district looking to place Sophie in a peer role model program. She'll attend half days, get the same kindergarten curriculum, and assist more challenged students with learning problems by really just being herself. Her vocabulary and comprehension is highly advanced so mostly she'll be used to help kids w/ speech problems, but she's getting the social exposure, the early learning that she's just not getting at preschool, and a serious leg up when she starts actual kindergarten next year.

Now I have a wife who works from home that will be there when both kids get home from school, but has some time to herself for the first time in 5 years, because before this day, she was with either one of them at some point, and with me working a second job, much more time recently. Sam is getting ready to finish High School and Sophie is just starting out. By the time Sam's done, the compounding effect of paying off debts and rolling those payments into other debts and so on will not only have us paid off by that time, but paid up towards his first year's tuition. With that same model moving forward, we should have Sophie's entire secondary education paid for by the time she graduates.

It's an amazing time and we're starting to see the fruits of our labors. God has truly blessed us.

cudakidd53:
That's awesome Tate! :)

husker77c:
That's awesome. Well done sir

Atkinsmatt:
Great news.  She is starting school as the teacher.

Dawg25385:
That's great Tate

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