What is best

It's hard to know what is best and then when you do know, sometimes, it is hard to do it.

We made the decision to pull Justin out of his school and put him in the neighborhood school. This was a hard decision because I really like the amount of parent involvement at Justin's school, I think it makes a HUGE difference. But you can find good and bad in every school. There are good and bad teachers in every school, good and bad kids in every school and good and bad family's in every school. We have greatly enjoyed his K and 1st grade experience at his old school but I know we will find good things at his new school and I am hoping he will meet many new friends in our neighborhood to ride bikes with and play with.

There were a number of reasons for our decision.

I don't work so I've always limited myself to 1 fill up of gas per paycheck. I have been filling up a lot more than that so much that the $160 - $200 I spent last year is now up to $500. Spending this much on gas is just too hard for us financially.

William is not taking naps at home. He takes them in the car for the 50 mins it takes me to drive to and from school. Since he is not in a carrier carseat nap ends as soon as I take him out of the car. This leaves me little quiet sanity time.

I am pregnant with twins. I won't have room to carpool when they are born. Getting Justin to and from school will be much easier when they are born if he is in the neighborhood. Plus if I need to start restricting what I do Nic can pick Justin up at school after he gets home.

It would be hard to drive to play dates. So it will be great for him to have friends in the neighborhoon that are close and not 20 mins + away.

There is no way I will make my 80 hours of volunteer time at Justin's school this year.

Justin's not having a great classroom experience this year. As a matter of fact when his teacher responded to my email last night. She said she was sorry to see him leave and that he must be getting more comfortable because he smiled for the 1st time in class yesterday. Now that is so very sad and breaks my heart because Justin is such a happy boy. To take well over a month to smile???? Now this is not the main reason for leaving as I could def. ask to switch his class however, it did make the decision easier knowing he has not been happy.

We've been over to his new school 2x. They seem very sweet. His teacher said she has a really wonderful class this year, no discipline problems and the kids are all very caring. She has 2 buddy's she will be putting with Justin to show him the ropes and for the 1st 2 days she will be taking her lunch with Justin and the other kids so she makes sure he is being included and meeting everyone. How sweet is that? Monday morning I will walk Justin to the office and we will go together to his classroom. I'll stay for a few minutes and then let him get started on his day. His teacher even called me last night just to make sure that all my questions were answered and to reassure me that she would be there to help Justin transition smoothly. This has just reassured me that we are making the best decision for our family.

Justin already seems excited for morning, lunch time and afternoon recess. Right now he just gets 1 short one as his day ends at 12:20, now he will go to school till 3:30. He is excited that he gets to bring a lunch to school and sometimes gets to get hot lunch because his new school has a cafeteria. He is very excited that when it cools down we will be able to walk to school and ride his bike. I know there will be some other wonderful things he will find to be excited about too.

I'm praying for a wonderful 1st day of school for Justin on Monday.