My Barefoot Kid

The big Question:

So how did it go?

The Answer:

FANTASTIC!

She loves it. And I love it. I never realized how much I was affected by her school--and her being at her school.

I have always been a "suck it up and deal with it" sort of person. And the older I get--the more that is softening. I put her in Franklin--which is a back to basics school--because I wanted her to get a good education and I thought I could supplement with the arts and other sort of enrichment activities at home. Besides, kids in China have to do way more school work-- 6 days a week-so what are these sissy American kids whining about?

For anyone not familiar with Franklin philosophy--it is a no nonsense sort of school. It starts with phonics (which I love) and accelerates their learning in all areas. So kids are doing school work a year ahead of their peers. You know, 4th graders are doing 5th grade work and so and so forth. They drill math skills and just stick to the basics. The kids have art once a week which is done by their teacher, so they do have it. They have music class. So it's not like they don't have anything.

They have four class parties a year--one for season. But that's about it. No dressing up for anything, no red ribbon week with pajama day. Nothing. They also have a strict dress code where the kids have to wear pants, girls can wear skirts to their knees--but absolutely no shorts or even capris. No show and tell or anything of that sort. The have a stack of homework. It's all business. And I always thought I was an all business sort of person.

Turns out I'm not.

We changed schools at the perfect time. Her first day of school she went to Art class with and art teacher and they did oil colors. Hale is having red ribbon week. And they are doing different things. Wednesday was hat day, today was pajama day, and tomorrow is crazy socks day. Annabelle is over the moon about that--and she got to wear shorts on her first day of school. She wasn't nervous at all, and when I picked her up she had a HUGE smile on her face. She loved her first day and had a new friend with her the whole time. And as I was driving her to school the next day she said "I LOVE my new school. I didn't like Franklin. It was ok--I didn't NOT like it, it's just that now I WANT to go to school."

AUUUHHHH (that was the angels singing a chorus) .

That is exactly what I wanted for her--just to love it. She gets home earlier than the other kids because she starts earlier. She doesn't have much homework, which is actually hard for me to grasp. Franklin has homework starting with Kindergarten and it increases each year. I always thought it was necessary for a good education--but apparently it isn't. The school she is at now has good scores--not as great as Franklin--but still at excelling level. So she gets home and does the homework she does have and then she just smiles and bops around the house. She helped me make dinner and was so excited to do it.

I dropped her off this morning and then I had to drop my other kids off who are still at Franklin. And it was such a dramatic difference. When Annabelle got out the lady standing there said, "Good morning sweetie". And then when I pulled up to Franklin I looked at the lady standing at parent drop off and she was scowling. It's just a different feel. As I drove away I felt so happy. So happy that she is now happy--when she didn't even know she wasn't.

Because she's a barefoot kid. She is a barefoot kid who was in a laced up boots school--and now she's at a slip on sneaker school. Still snug, just more colorful and comfortable. And she's loving it.

I'm not naive enough to think that she'll be this excited forever. But I do think she'll be happier. How do I know?

Because when I dropped her off at her new school this morning--the principal was out front at unloading--and she was in her PJ's.