Officially A Dragon

Dear Ian,

I can't believe I am getting ready to write this, but in exactly one month (on April 7th), I will attend a mandatory meeting for parents of incoming kindergarteners.  And then in five months (that's only one hand of months - ack), it will be time to purchase school supplies and send you off to kindergarten. 

And while I am all sappy and Mommy-ish about my baby boy starting kindergarten, I am thrilled.  You, my little kiddo, were randomly picked out of a lottery to attend The School of Arts and Sciences.  SAS is a rockin' charter school right down the street from our house and a stones throw away from Advent.

I fell in love with SAS when I was a teacher there in 2005.  I loved the arts based curriculum.  I loved the Montessori based learning centers.  The respectful environment was amazing, and the staff was committed to their jobs and the philosophy of the charter.  The kids learned by doing.  This last part appealed to me the most; your mommy is a kinestheic learner.  If I can physically manipulate something, if I can DO it, I can learn it.  And you seem to have the same sort of mind.  But I digress...  Watching the kids learn, even as kindergarteners, multiplication by using bead bars, or helping them learn to read with moveable alphabets made SO much sense to me.  Participating in hands-on gardening activities made them more aware of their school environment and therefore made them proud of where they learned, and that was just wicked cool.  And the atmosphere of respect based on Conscious Discipline was just a really refreshing change.  I remember saying out-loud, "If I ever have a kid, I am going to my darndest to get him (or her... again, this was years before you were born) in this school."

But.  To attend SAS, you have to put your name in a hat.  Maybe not literally, but yeah.  The school is filled by lottery.  Parents fill out admission forms and then wait.  Our current school zone is for Gilchrist Elementary, which is a great school, and I was going to be ok either way.  But deep down, there was this hope that you'd get called.  And we did.  And I practically did a cartwheel.

So, in August of 2015, you will start kindergarten as a dragon.  And if you read the last letter, you'll probably guess how very excited you are about that part.  Dragons, knights... you get me?  Yeah.  You're thrilled about that part.  Kindergarten?  Meh.  You're rather blase' about it.  According to you, big school "will probably be fun."  But you're going to be a dragon, and that part just makes your day.  
It makes my day, too,  little boy.  But for majorly different reasons.  My boy is going to kindergarten soon! 

Love you lots and lots,
Mommy

*Random weird fact: back in the day, the campus that is now SAS used to be a church based preschool through Epiphany Lutheran Church.  Your Grandma Brooks taught there when it was Epiphany in the same classroom that Mommy taught in few years later.  So yes.  I have taught at Advent where she taught and SAS where she taught - even in the same room.  I'm trying to make sure that doesn't sound creepy.