First Day of School: Take Two

Well, things certainly have been interesting here at the Michael House. As some of you might have read, Isabelle started school at our local Christian school in August. Things were not easy. She spent most nights in total meltdown mode and that lasted over two months! She is a pretty young five year old, but we thought holding her back for another year of preschool wouldn't be a good idea for her either. To make a long story short, after several conversations with her teacher, we decided to put her in public school. Our Public school Kindergarten only goes every other day, as opposed to the Christian school that was all day, every day. The conseseus was the five days a week was too much for where she was at.

When I bought our house (before it was "ours" it was just mine) I wasn't thinking of school districts, and come to find out, when we had children, our elementary school is...ummm..scary. At least, is sure seemed that way. It's in a pretty undesirable part of town, and it's not even in our town, but in Columbus proper. We called all around to try to get her admitted to other elementary schools in the district, but every one was FULL! Finally, we went and visited our home elementary. We met with the principal. Found out the school is nearly half internationals, or English as a second language students. They have students from Somolia, Latin American, Lithuania, China, and Russia, to name a few. They speak over 17 different languages and have 44 different nationalities...at THIS midwestern elementary school. The call in the United Nations of Elementary Schools.

Well, in spite of our best efforts, we have felt like a pin ball in a game. Every time we try to go this way with our kids education, we get knocked over to the other side. Apparently, this is where God wants us. I can't say that I am surprised. I have always had a love of different cultures and nations. And I'm kind of excited to see where this leads!

Isabelle started school there about three weeks ago and it has been a 180 degree turn. She loves school. She loves to learn. Everything got immediately better. One thing that we suspect could have been a stresser was the fact that Isabelle was the only kid with brown skin in her class at the Christian school. She started saying things like, "I wish I weren't so brown!"(Or "I wish my skin was blonde!") In this school, she's certainly only one of many shades and colors. We love that!

Now, Thanksgiving is officially upon us and we are gearing up for a busy Christmas season. Thanks for keeping in touch with us. We love you!