A Big Change... Public School!! April 2012

Through much thought and prayer, we made a BIG!! decision to put our older three girls into public school for three months.  (I decided that putting Karina in half time Kindergarten wouldn't be worth the hassle, plus then we could keep our ties to ORLA.  Also, she was not behind in her school work, unlike the other girls.)  Just doctors appts alone had become a full time job, mostly for Calyssa-- plus I had started catching up on Dentist appts, Doctors appts, etc. which had been put on the back burner.  I also wanted some time to breath and get my sanity back, while also starting to put our lives and house back in order after three years of living in survival mode (my achilles injury, pregnancy and a new baby, my tonsil surgery, and Calyssa's health problems).  Although we had many reservations about the whole thing.  However after holding a family council and a family prayer, and explaining the situation and options to the girls, every single girl chose this option and I really felt at peace with the whole thing, which was huge for me!  [The options were- 1) go to public school all next year, 2) drop out of extra activities- dance, soccer, etc., 3) spend the entire summer cleaning and organizing the house, or 4) go to public school for the rest of this year.]  I also felt that it would be good for them to experience the other side of the coin and learn and grow in that way, as they have never gone to full time public school.  (I will write about their experiences at school in a later post.)

One of my big fears about public school is riding the school bus.  If I can help it, my children will never step foot on a middle school bus.  The things that happened on my middle school bus were absolutely disgusting!!  I wish I would've had the guts to say something, at the time.  On the contrary, we got very lucky/blessed, as we found out that the bus driver for our street happened to be a member of our Bishopric, in our ward at church.  Danny was so sweet and really watched out for our girls.  He even assigned them a seat, three seats behind him.  It was very thoughtful.  The girls loved having him as their bus driver.  They also really enjoyed catching and riding the bus with their good friends, Cayden, Dylan, and Katelyn.

On a different note, we found these super cute earrings at Justice with several colors of miniature gummy bears.  Sariah loved wearing them and received many compliments about them!

One thing I loved about public school was that Karina and Aurora became quite the little buddies.  1) Karina's 1st day at ORLA by herself, in some of her new clothes.  2) Karina and Aurora playing play-doh together.

Here are some pictures of their last classes/activities at ORLA:

1-2) Sariah in her Irish Dance Performance.  Even though she had only been in that class for 2 months, she did great!!  I'm sure taking clogging for 6 years helped!

3-8) Riana, Sariah, Tierra, and Karina participated in after school Basketball.  They had a lot of fun... except when Sariah knocked Tia's ball over near one of the coaches, Misha, who happens to be the guy Tia had a crush on (who happens to be a junior in high school.  I thought it was pretty cute that Tia had this little crush.  I only share because she is over it already and I know someday she will read this story and laugh.)  I didn't know whether to be mad at Sariah or not.  She was just trying to help Tierra to have a chance to talk to him.  But Tierra was pretty embarrased, so Sariah apologized.  Misha had no idea what was going on.

9-10) The girls love walking on the bars on the playground.  These pictures are some of their tricks.