For the past six months or so, I've been struggling with an issue that has remained mostly (that's MOSTLY) in my head.  And while I don't think that I have a split personality, I've been having quite a debate with myself.  Each argument is presented in a slightly different voice, sometimes so district that I swear I could name them.

The Main Me: Martin starts Kindergarten next year, hmmm... I wonder which one of our options would be the best for him.

Sister Mary Margaret: St. Anastasia's has a fine program.  They've been sending Martin birthday cards every year, painstakingly hand-drawn by fine young students.  I think that they'd be willing to overlook your "attendance" record at mass and gladly take the tuition.

(Separation of Church and) Stacy: Aren't you a fan of public school?

Daria: Hey, did you get all of the paperwork in for his early admission to Harvard?  Better get right on that.

Glass is Half Empty Elaine: I'm worried that Martin will have a hard time focusing, that he'll be distracted from the task at hand.  I'm worried that he'll fall behind early in school, which will make him frustrated, which will make him get into trouble, which will make him hate school.

The Main Me: ECFE was fun and after a few weeks he seemed like he liked it, a little.  Maybe public school will work well for him.  It worked well for you, you loved school. 

Dr. Maria: Maybe the Montessori approach will appeal to him, many activities and the freedom to make choices, the adherence to following instructions - maybe that's just the structure he needs.

Daria: Um, he's four.

The Main Me: What about half day or full day?  Which would be better for him?

Harmony: He'll go to school for a long time.  Shouldn't Kindergarten be fun?  It's his only chance for half-day, he should play.  Ease into it.


Then there are the voices that are real and not mine.  They say:
Grandma Jane: I think he needs to have music and art and have some fun.  Maybe ECFE will be good for him again.

Marty: Whatever you think is fine with me.  I hated school and you loved it.  Let's hope he has more of you than me on this one.

Martin: I want to go full-day school because I want hot lunch.  And I want to ride the bus.


To help all of these ideas (voices) come to a consensus, I've worked out a plan.
Phase One: Explore the Montessori Approach
We placed Martin in a Montessori preschool over the summer one morning a week.  At first, he didn't like it at all.  "We don't play!" he said.  It wasn't the singing, art-making, playing place that we became used to at ECFE, and it was missing the key component - his beloved teacher, Heidi.  I talked to the Directoress (as she refers to herself) at the Montessori school and she suggested that we bring him half an hour earlier so that he has some time to play with the other kids before the lessons start.  I talked to Martin about how going to school is a job, and having a job means that sometimes you have to sit down and do some work.  There's time in every day for friends and fun, but work brings rewards too.  And I tried to explain it in ways that I thought would appeal to him.  Like learning numbers means that you can use a tape measurer to measure stuff.  Learning letters and words means that you can read your own books whenever you want.  Learning about shapes means that you can draw your own treasure maps.  I also told him that each day when I pick him up, I want to meet one new person in his class.  When I enter the room, I see him quickly scan the kids to figure out who I've not yet met, and he runs over to them to introduce them to me.  He may not be playing with new kids all the time and they may not have become friends, but at least he's branching out a bit.  The approach seems to appeal to him and he's definitely learning.  Last week he told me as he was cutting up some zucchini that a "tentagon has five sides" and tried to cut each piece to match his new favorite shape.  I was so proud, even though he didn't believe me when I told him that the word actually starts with a "puh". 

Phase Two: Return to ECFE
Monday night Martin started his second ECFE class.  I wanted to bring him back to this environment so that I could try to compare how he interacts in ECFE vs. Montessori during the same time period  Last spring he was a bit shy, sitting in my lap a lot, waiting for me to encourage play with the other kids.  But Monday?  He was a whole new man.  "I'm Martin John Nelson, III" he told each kid he met.  He stood up at the end of story time and told the whole group "I dropped a brick on my foot and there was blood all over.  We had to clean it up."  He brought his harmonica to play a special song for his beloved teacher.  He played and sang and followed directions and tried to be quiet even though he was bursting with things to say.

Phase Three: Tours
I've narrowed my focus to two places - our public school and the new Montessori elementary school.  I'm going to line up tours of both to get a feel for the locations.

Phase Four: Remember the Mantra
As always, when faced with decisions I think about WWJD and WWPD and remember what they always said about my own education - "You are going to get out of it what you put into it, and you can learn in any place as long as you try."