Decisions, Decisions....

Now that we've moved back to Byers we are faced with a dilemma...

Cooper was all set to go to Strasburg preschool where I LOVED the teacher, the classroom, everything, but unfortunately there are now two problems: one, they called and told me that they are officially full and cannot take Cooper, and two, they don't take out of district, so he couldn't go to Strasburg anyway.

This may leave you wondering..."So where's the dilemma? Just send him Byers. Duh." The dilemma is this (and I'll try to put this nicely): I got a "bad vibe" from the Byers preschool teacher upon meeting her back in December 2010.  Sorry if anyone of you know her, but it's my opinion and it's how I feel/felt, so honestly I can't apologize for that.  Anyway, she came in for about 20 minutes of Cooper's speech evaluation in December. She introduced herself and shook my hand, but didn't smile the entire time, not even when she introduced herself to Cooper.  She "played" with him for about 15 minutes, but hardly engaged him at all.  He was throwing a ball around and she hardly responded to anything he said or did.

At the time I wasn't too concerned about this because I knew Cooper was not ready for preschool and honestly didn't feel as if we'd be sending him to school anytime soon, but as I've said in previous blogs, he has come a long way in the last 6 months and I believe his is ready for school at any point.  Though I don't feel it's entirely necessary for him to be in school at 3 years old, I think he is ready none the less.

So now we're left in a predicament, but we have a few options...

One: We can send him to Byers anyway, whether I "like" the teacher or not.  Obviously the pros to this would be A) that he could continue receiving speech help, and B) he would get some needed socialization.  He would see the speech therapist 30 min a day, once a week, and he'd be allowed to enroll in the preschool for free. Although I believe he could benefit from further help, who couldn't really, I've been told he doesn't necessarily need anymore help.  I was told that 6 months ago in December 2010, and again in February when he was able to stop his speech therapy 2 months early.  Although, he would be receiving help, personally, I am not fond of this choice. For starters, I have been a stay at home mom most of his life and he has never been to a daycare or any type of classroom environment, so this would be his first experience and I want it to be a positive one.  I understand there is always a chance that at some point in time one or more of my kids may be placed in a classroom with a teacher I dislike, and that, given the fact that we live in such a small town, I may not always have a choice in the matter, but in this instance, my son is only 3 years old and obviously not at a point in his life to understand what's going on if the teacher isn't a good fit for him.  In 3rd or 5th or 7th grade, yeah, maybe he could grasp what's going on, but not at 3 years old, and I think sticking him with a teacher that isn't right for him at this point in his life is obviously not a good idea. Just my opinion.

Two: When the teacher called to tell me her class in Strasburg was full, she told me about the Strasburg Rec Center's "preschool", which I was also informed about when I went there to sign the kids up for T-Ball.  I would need to look into this a little further, but the T-Ball sign up lady told me that they could also offer him speech help there, plus this would again be a way for him to work on his social skills.  If he was to go to the Rec Center I've been told it's only two days a week and I believe we would need to pay for it, which I obviously wouldn't mind if we decided that the benefits to him would be worth it.

But if we ARE going to pay for something, then we have option three, which is to sign the kids (all the kids; Coop, Chlo, and Bro) up for one of the Toddler Time type activities they have at the Bennett Rec Center. Again, I would need to look into this further, but I know it would be cheaper than the Strasburg Rec preschool, AND it's something that all my kids and myself could participate in.  He would get the socialization aspect of it (all of them would) and we can still work with him on his speech at home, as we have been.

And last, but not least, we have option four which is to just keep him home and wait on preschool another year, until he's four years old, in which case he would be with the four year old preschool teacher whom I actually like and have heard great things about. We would continue to get him the socialization he's been getting from going to parks and play areas etc, to play with other kids, and we'd continue working with him on his speech at home.  Of course going to play areas and parks isn't the same as a classroom environment, but I don't believe he will "suffer" in any way from not being in a classroom right now.

So...obviously we have a big decision to make and we need to do it quickly considering all the preschools are already filling up for next year.  Fortunately I don't think we need to worry about it because at this point I think we are leaning toward keeping him home another year, or signing up with the Rec Center.  I am of course open to comments and opinions seeing as I'm sharing this with all of you and this IS a public blog, so feel free to say whatever you'd like. :)  Ultimately Josh and I will have to discuss this and come up with a final decision, but no matter, I know our little man is thriving and doing well, and will continue to do so whether he is solely under our care for another year or if he starts preschool in the fall.

I know this was a long one, so thanks for reading if you made it all the way through.  I'll be sure to update when we have finalized our decision and I'm sure I'll be back soon with more updates and adventures.  Thanks for checking in! :)