Committed

If you read my novel about preschool, you know that we applied to 18 preschools through the Chicago Public Schools and were accepted to two of them, plus our neighborhood school. A handful of the other schools that we applied to sent us a letter telling us that Jett is on their waiting list. Some of the schools never contacted us at all. From the three that accepted Jett, we narrowed our choices down to the two closest schools and observed a class at each school. We chose the school and the teacher that we liked the best. Jett is now in his third week of preschool.

In the last week, three schools have called us to say that they have openings now, and would Jett like to attend? Well, no. No thank you. He likes his school. We don't mind the drive. Most importantly, we're in a routine, a routine that we all like, a routine that Jett is comfortable with. We will not be changing that, thank you very much.

Except, maybe. That one school is only a few blocks from us. It's so prestigious. And we could walk! We could walk there in 10 minutes! For a one car family like ours, this is important.

So that school called and I hemmed and hawed and wondered if we'd really consider moving Jett to a new school. Pros and cons and all that. I should say that this is not just an ordinary neighborhood school. This is a magnet school. Lot's of parents think magnet schools are better because...I'm not sure why. It could be that CPS invests more money into magnet schools. It could be that they focus on special areas, like science or languages or art. It could be that since you have to apply to them they attract families who put in the effort to apply. I honestly don't know what sets magnet schools apart from neighborhood schools, but I do know they are in a class of their own. For some reason. It's just not a school I can turn down without obsessing over it first.

Finally I decided to observe a class at this school. I lost a night of sleep worrying that this class would be better. I didn't know what we would do if this new class seemed better than his current class. Would we really change schools three weeks in to the school year? Now? After he's been doing so well, walking in to school by himself like a big boy? Oh, the hand-wringing I had to do over that one!

I lost a night of sleep, observed the class, and wasn't persuaded. What a relief!

We're not switching schools, so today I dropped him off for school as usual and he walked in the class by himself, all happy and smiley and waving. Then I talked to some parents and knew all of their names. We admired each other's kids and laughed at somebody's joke and noticed that none of the kids were crying today (a first!). It all just felt good, like we're all right where we're supposed to be.

Which is good, because last week I volunteered to be the lead preschool parent volunteer, whatever that means, so we should probably stick around.