I want to give you just a little bit of a idea of what the kids' new school is like. Last academic year (the school year runs from August to June here remember) our kids were doing a combination of home schooling and regular schooling. They were going to a regular school two days per week, and Sonia home schooled them three days per week. This worked reasonably well and because the school provided the curriculum which was a "classical" system, the kids learnt a great deal.
However it was a big pressure on Sonia as the curriculum was very rigid in what had to be done and the timeframes it had to be done in. We decided that, if possible, we would try to put our kids in the local elementary school. We have been very blessed to have such a great public school just down the road from us (about 500-600m from us) and we were also very blessed to have our application to the school accepted. You see, the public school system here in Louisville is a bit strange. You apply for a school and indicate your preference, but the Louisville school administration, in an attempt to balance out socio-economic profiles of schools, may send your child to any school in the city - they may bus your kids (even 5 yr-olds) a couple of hours each way on buses to achieve this goal. Most parents around the city don't like the system at all, and we have a number of friends who have very testing times with their kids being bused for miles across the city. So, we were very thankful to have our kids accepted for the local school here - we would have kept the home-schooling system up if they hadn't been accepted.
And the kids are loving the school. They love their teachers, they love the special classes like the computer class or the music class or the french class (for Ashleigh at least). We are really pleased. And to top it all off, the school's mascot is a tiger (Sam's absolute favorite animal).
Today, they had a "tiger fun-fest", which was a whole-school event which included running races (the tiger trot), a band with the music teacher featuring on saxophone, sack races, egg and spoon race (with pumpkins on tennis rackets instead - it's harvest time over here) plus loads more. It's a great atmosphere down there, with families involved in everyday school life.
One of the best things about the school according to the kids is the fact that they get to ride their bikes down there. They are two of the very few that ride to school so they feel very special. Last year the first downfall of snow was in late November, so we'll see how long the riding lasts.
All in all, we're very thankful for the school and what it is offering the kids. We are also very thankful that it is freeing Sonia up a little bit so that she can take a class or two down at the Seminary. They allow students' spouses to sit in on classes for free (if they're not taking the class for credit), and we figure that we will probably never again be in such close proximity to a resource such as Southern Seminary, so it's great that Sonia is able to learn from the faculty there. The kids have been at the school for 6 weeks now, and we're all looking forward to the year ahead for them.
