That would be the stuffed animal snake and bison, respectively. The Kid is good at naming his toys, if nothing else. Snakey was just renamed Slick tonight. Slick, by the by, was the name of my first car, a Toyota Tercel, which I wrecked the day before her wedding.
Anyway, in all reality, The Kid's really not all that comfortable. The poor little dude has caught himself a nice mid-summer stuffy nose and cough. He's way sick, yo. It is so heartbreaking to hear him cough all night. And then talk all day with the hoarse cough-voice. Poor baby. But he's not feverish, and he's so energetic. It's so hard to be sick and crazy at the same time.
Anyway, I spent the day interviewing daycares and talking on the phone with daycares and my sister, alternatively. I've brought it down to two daycares, both promising reasons both different and the same.
Similar?
1. Both daycares seem to have teachers that are literate. Always a good thing.
2. Both have familiarity with handling "spirited" children, and were not surprised or dumbfounded by his diagnosis, which is the reaction I got at the old daycare.
Different?
1. I'm attracted to Daycare 1 because of it's facilities
2. Daycare 2, because I witnessed a developmentally disabled student at the daycare and watched a bit of positive reinforcement with him. And I was impressed.
Making daycare 2 attractive because, honestly, I know for a fact The Kid will not be the most challenging kid at the daycare. Is that sick and wrong? But I seriously look around at kids I see (the little boy at Karate who has a facial tick and refuses to do what the sensei asks, for example) and know that they have disabilities infinitely more challenging than The Kid's and wonder, Where do THEY go all day? Do their parents not work? There has to be a single mom with a severely disabled kid, what does she do for daycare?
Anyway, I'm encouraged. We shall solve the ensuing daycare problem.
I'm also having a meeting tomorrow with our total absolute dream school which I cannot afford under any circumstances. It's a private school, founded by hippies about 20 years ago. They work under the amazing assumption that children can fuel the curriculum, and that learning is not all about "accountability" and tests, but about empowerment and creative problem solving. Admittedly, it certainly is about more than just test scores, etc... when one's parents are paying a $10,000 annual fee for the pleasure of attending such a school. So, yeah, it's awesome, but it's freaking private.
My mom was a primary teacher for many years, and my dad a secondary elementary teacher turned principal (so my sisters and I could go to college, not because he wanted to be a principal, I know for a fact he missed teaching so much after he took an administrative role), so I grew up hearing so very much about public schools, how they are run, how districts alternate between supporting teachers and squelching their abilities to actually TEACH. When I visited this school for the first time about 18 months ago, I got the feeling that it was built from the vision of teachers like my parents, dreaming about what their ideal school would be like. It is child-led. And creative. And they have this super great science lab. And art teacher. And I know people who have kids there and they can't stop talking about how awesome it is. It is not affiliated with waldorf or montessori or anything like that, and had I not secret ambitions of amazing scholarships or me washing the dishes every night to pay The Kid's tuition there, I would totally put a link up, but I do have these amazing fantasies, where somehow, amazingly, the $10,000 tuition is paid by some amazingly friendly millionaire who just likes to do that sort of thing, and yes, the fantasy is so amazing that it warrants the use of the word amazing and/or its adverb counterpart, amazingly, at least four times in one sentence.
Again, wish me luck.
And please, wish for The Kid to have a good night sleep with a nasal cavity cleared of that nasty crap he keeps coughing up. Because it's whack. And he needs to sleep.
7 comments:
"It's so hard to be sick and crazy at the same time." Tell me about it. The two do not mesh well.
Sounds like you've found some good options. Luck to you!
Daycare sounds promising. Short of being really rich, I don't know how ANYONE affords private schooling without massively cutting out all entertainment, vacations and things that keep us all happy and sane.
We briefly looked into area private schools in and around Denver a few years ago after my hubby had an interesting and firsthand story from a former co-worker with a child in private school.
In the end, we didn't bite as the price was over 13K for starters and seemed beyond our willing to scrimp boundary even though my hubby makes a very nice living.
Molla, if I had 10g's extra, I would totally give it all to you for The Kid.
Diane,
Thanks for your comment. I'm sure I'll get around to blogging this tonight, but when I met with the principal of the private school and we got around to talking about financing it, I thought about having to give up Bronco tickets in order to afford The Kid's education at this school. And while I am willing to sacrifice a great deal for The Kid's benefit, I am not willing to sacrifce that. I would sooner move to Canada or something crazy like that. : )
One, you lock the target, two, you bait the line, three, you slowly spread the net, and four, you catch the Canadian.
(If it makes you feel any better, I really want to come home now. Right now. I think I made a bad choice.)
That was low, sista. Low. I think the Broncos should sponsor the Kid. Your family has paid more than a few of their salaries over the years.
sorry fiend. I was going for a more, 'well, if I can't live here and go to bronco's games, I might as well live in canada' per Sarah and your recent 'move to the pacific northwest campaign' on me via myspace. That's all.
I'm still your number one fiend, right?
sometimes I forget that sarcasm doesn't translate in little boxes on the internet!
Of course yous is still my homie!
I love you truly, madly, deeply!
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