Registration

Kindergarten registration for Luke, the middle child. Why am I blogging about this?

Here is the story...

We live in a small town, part of Northern VA. We have a very small elementary school with limited capacity. A few months ago, a rumor was circulating about the upcoming kindergarten class. There is only room for one class, about 25 children. Based upon the survey of our town, there are approximately 40+ children eligible for kindergarten. What happens to the children that cannot fit into the elementary school? In the past they have been bused to a neighboring town for school.

I must admit I panicked a little when I heard this rumor. So I called the principal. I told her the information that was being passed around. Basically she would neither confirm or deny the circumstances but did say that there was a concern because the school was reaching capacity. She told me that registration day was important...to be there early with ALL of the paperwork completed. She did not tell me how they would be making decisions about the amount of children.

Registration was at 9:00 a.m. yesterday. People started lining up at 6:30 a.m. Luke and I arrived about 7:45 a.m. and ended up about 12th in line.

So back to why I am blogging about kindergarten registration...

First, I cannot have all three of my boys at three different public schools. Carter in Waterford, Luke in a neighboring town and Brayden in Leesburg for special ed. I cannot do it.

Second, I had no idea how valuable it was to be in our local school. I really know the teachers, staff, children and parents. There have been countless times that some incident happened with Brayden and Carter (who is currently in 1st grade) had to go home with someone else. His teachers and the parents know our circumstance and have been incredibly helpful. I know that even if some emergency comes up for Brayden, my boys will be okay and will be close by.

We will not know much about the kindergarten class for next school year until August. I have done everything I can to ensure Luke is at our local school. I talked with the kindergarten teacher and the school principal about why we needed Luke to be in Waterford. For now we just wait.

Luke is thrilled about kindergarten. He so desperately wants to be there and ride the bus with the kids in our neighborhood. He was so excited about registration that he even let me take his picture (he is more excited than he looks, he carried that paper around all morning).