How did we get here? It's long!

First want to get the boring stuff out of the way. I'm a new blogger so bare with me. I'm not extremely articulate and I don't consider myself a writer. I'm just gonna give it to you they way I get it. Blah, blah, blah.

I grew up in GA. I have an associate degree in Applied Science for Radiologic Technologies. I have additional certification in Computed Tomography. I currently work as a PRN for a small, local hospital. My husband is a Commercial Truck Driver. Therefore, he is only home a couple of days per week. My mother lives with us in our mother-n-law suite. In 2009, my one and only child was born. And we named him "Mason". I named him this because my dad was in construction. Particularly Masonry work so that inspired the name. We currently have no plans to have anymore children. I am 35 yrs old and my husband is 44. We devote a lot of time and energy to one son.


We live outside of Atlanta. I grew up in the country. And over the years things have developed around me a lot. Like most areas, our home has gone down in value. The area we live in has many foreclosures. Most of the schools in our county are Title 1 schools. A Title 1 school is a school that has a high percentage of kids on free or reduced lunches. We had always hoped to move to the other side of town by the time Mason was school age but moving is a big deal. We have room for our 3 dogs, my mom, and all of our stuff. Plus, owing more than the value of home means that we would have to pay out of pocket to move. We refinanced recently which has dramatically reduced our monthly payment. There is no way we would find a comparable amount of space for what we pay now. So like any parent I started exploring and researching all of our options. What I have learned from that is that there a lot of options. Not like when I was in school. Back then, you either go to school or get a spanking. I feel fortunate to be living in a day and age that allows us to have options for our children. We just have to open our minds to it. Every child is special and will thrive in different atmospheres.

When Mason turned two years old I decided to enroll him a 2yr old preschool program at Methodist Church around the corner. I've never regret this decision. He learned to talk, play, and be part of a class. It was only a half day program. We watched him learn, grow, and thrive. I immediately learned that Mason would always thrive in a classroom. He needed that structure and routine. We kept in this program for age 3. We switched him to a different church at age 4. Just to change it up a bit for him. I started to feel pressure to move. When the time came to register Mason for Kindergarten. I had already educated myself on homeschool, GA cyber academy, Montessori Education, Christian School (we aren't religious), and Public Schools in our area. I did that through the personal testimonies of other parents, friends that are teachers, online blogs, YouTube videos; anything I could watch or read that would help be find the best learning environment for my child. Moving would be so drastic and burdening.

I asked myself what I wanted for my kid. I wanted him to learn and thrive. I wanted him to experience people and independence. I wanted him to be safe. I wanted him to be happy. And in all that I had to consider what was best for us as a family. Because you have to take into consideration, all families are different and know what is best for them. So, I wasn't going to let the opinions of others affect my ability to make the best decision though all advice was welcomed when I solicited it.
Most of all I wanted to be the parent that was fueled by the vibes of my child because I believe a mother's instinct is strong.

Well you are probably asking yourself, "Don't you have a public school in your district?". Well yes, we do. But I don't think I should be limited to that. If I'm willing to drive my son to school everyday then I should get to take him where I want. There is another school just as close to us but we are over the district line. It's a better school. So why wouldn't I want that one? It's just as close and I'm driving him anyway. I don't care for the neighborhood I live in. Lots of break in's. I see a lot of things in this neighborhood I disapprove of. I only live here because my husband owned this home as a bachelor. It's not an area I would've moved to with the intent to start a family. My child would be going to school with the children of these families. I know that that's not the children's fault but it's not my son's fault either. I hate to be that person but it's just how it is. And I'm not using my son to start a movement or a revolution. There are smarter ways to do that. In my daily life with my child I promote diversity, equality, and culture. I teach him we are the same people, we deserve love and respect and must give that to others even when they don't reciprocate. Being this open also opens us to vulnerability and there are people who will take advantage of that. So the protective mother part of me decided to that our district school wasn't even up for debate. Unless we could find the right fit for Mason I was preparing myself to homeschool until we could move. Besides, it's just Kindergarten it's not rocket science. None the less, I had spent 3 yrs of preschool preparing him for this and I didn't want to stop now because he was ready! He is a young  5 yr old so even the option of holding him back crossed my mind. That didn't feel right to me. He's not a genius but the kid can keep up, so why hold him back? 

Fortunately, our community offers a Charter school. Charter schools have no limits on where you live as long as you are county resident. They are free, and part of the public school system. They are different in how they are funded and have the flexibility to teach how they want. This school in particular was implanting a new method of teaching called Expeditionary Learning that appealed to me. It's a more project based type of learning that isn't taught in many schools in the US but has a great reputation.  This was perfect! Something different and new that he could be a part of. A school full of diversity and parents that were required to volunteer their time. So that gave some quality to the student base. Unfortunately, they are on a lottery system due the high application rate. The charter school was relocating this year allowing them to take a larger number of students this upcoming school year. I was so excited, I could feel it all happening for us. It was meant to be, the year we apply to the lottery is the same year that they happen to be taking more students. Our problems solved! This lottery took place in the month of March so we would know early on if he got in. Because in May they opened the House Bill 251 to allow people to apply for transfers in the public school system. Which was going to be our Plan B. Mason got number 69 on the waiting list. By April I was stressed I got a flood of Migraines (which I'm diagnosed with and it's not fun) and I also got a flare up of Rosacea and Seborriheic Dermititis. This waiting period was awful. Waiting for the House Bill 251 Transfer in May to come along and in the mean time having to hear about all these parents talking about their kids starting Kindergarten because they live in a good area and their kid can ride a bus, etc.


Being the proactive parent that I am I had been talking to the director of the Dual Language Program at the other nearby public school I mentioned earlier. I had heard about the school's program and my neighbors, who are Hispanic, have children that go there. One of the teacher aides at Mason's preschool had a Kindergartener there in the program. I was primarily interested because I had taken 3 yrs of Spanish in highschool and did pretty well at it. Over the years I had Mexican friends that I had spent Christmas with and gone to their Quinceanera's, learned to Bachata, and witness first hand how the culture celebrated birthdays and other life events. I had jobs where I practiced Spanish speaking with Hispanic co-workers. I loved the language. My eyes were already open to how much GA's Latin groups were growing. Something like this would be amazing to be a part of. So I researched Dual Language Immersion programs and spoke with other mother's who had children at the school. However, I couldn't find a whole lot of the information I was looking for. Yes, I found on the internet that DL programs promote better test scores and allow children to develop cultural sensitivity but I couldn't find a lot of experiences out there about what happens in the program and how parents liked it. So that's why I wanted to start this blog. So that I could tell you why I chose this school and how it is going so far. I want to tell you how Mason likes it and how material is presented.

In May of 2013 I applied for a transfer within our school district. This came with another flood of stress. For whatever reason, budget cuts, I don't know I heard lots of excuses, transfers are frowned upon it seems unless you have an emergency that requires a transfer and then they call it a permissive transfer. I learned that the transfer process was going to be a lottery. The schools posted how many spots they had in what grades and that was how they were going to fill them. It didn't matter that I was nearly first inline and had done all this communicating. I was at the mercy of a lottery system that had already failed me once this year. I was getting nervous. I had to wait 3 weeks after applying for that transfer. And then I got the phone call that brought me to tears. Tears of relief. All my perseverance had paid off. My son got a spot in the program. All the things I wanted for my son was awaiting him. This school is still a Title 1 school. But like I said before it wasn't about that. I looked at several schools that offered the perfect poster child of what you want. I didn't want those. They weren't real to me. My son has the chance to participate in something unique and special. It's going to require a lot of my support and involvement. He's going to have bad days. I talk to him all Summer about what to expect when he started Kindergarten at his new school. "The Spanish School" so he calls it. School already started August 6th. We are one week and half into it. The first week has been policies and procedures and routine. This upcoming week of August 18th they start the actual immersion process.  I can't wait to hear how his first day goes! I will share it with you if you come back.