Ohio Moms Blog

What School Choices?

There's a problem I wish we had: where to send our kids to school. We have two options: our local, underfunded school district or the local, overpriced Catholic school. Neither of which are remotely appealing. When I hear stories about people being bummed that they were turned down from their top three choices, I want to cuss. And cry. And whine a little. I probably turn a darker shade of green as well.

In rural Ohio and even smaller cities of Ohio, there are no choices, no options. You simply go to the school in your district. We're lucky in that there is a private school option. Unfortunately, we can't afford it but, I guess I should be pleased that it's available.

Take Your Preschooler to College

On a recent weekday, my four and half year old visited two museums, a nationally recognized library, dozens of ancient and diverse trees, several historical markers and a 40 degree north latitude marker.  Admission was free on all accounts and nothing was crowded.

Where were we? The Ohio State University Columbus campus.

A Pox on Both Your Houses!

I had the chicken pox in first grade. I had a very mild but itchy case and was blessed to escape with no scarring. I have a vague recollection of pot holders on my hands but I may be confusing that with a sitcom. It's hard to tell. These thoughts have been brought to the forefront of my memory center with all the talk of Ohio making changes to keep up with the Federal guidelines for immunizations.

Children entering kindergarten and seventh grade are now need more shots. A second dose of the chicken pox vaccine will be required for your cute little five year old in addition to a final dose of the polio vaccine. Your moody seventh grader now needs a combined tetanus/diptheria booster or one that also protects against whooping cough.

All of these changes are hitting right around the time that parents are busy registering their children for kindergarten. In fact, a local school district registered their students the week before these changes were announced. I am curious as to how parents will then deal with the changes: will they be informed by mail? With how much time? Now? A week before school? The time issue is an important one and here's why...

Vaccines are expensive.

The Calamity of Calamity Days

With warmer temperatures in our forecast and the month of March upon us, I am hoping against hope that Spring is just around the corner. However, all over the state of Ohio parents, educators and law-makers alike are just really beginning to understand the true force of this past (and still present) Winter. Due to outrageous amounts of snow, (30.1 inches in Columbus in just February alone, the snowiest Winter in 200 years) most school districts have not only used all of their Calamity Days, they have surpassed them.

Wait. Their what? Calamity Days. That's Ohio's special snowflake (pun intended) way of saying Snow Days. These are five days in which school districts do not have to "make up" the time if they are missed for whatever disaster befalls the district. Any days missed beyond those five need to be made up. The problem, however, is that it is not specifically stated as to how each individual school district can or, rather, cannot make up the time. Many schools are simply extending their calendar, pushing the last days of school into June. Others, however, are creating an uproar with their plans.

Here's what's going on in East Muskingum School District (though plans changed due to even more snow): instead of simply extending the school year (though there's that, too), students will be attending school on a Saturday and every day this week the school hour was extended by an hour. A friend of mine lamented the fact that her children weren't getting home from school until quarter to five. My family eats supper at that time. But okay, extend the school day an hour. I can deal with an overtired child at bedtime. I really can. Been there, done that. Will probably do it for a reason unrelated to Calamity Days in the near future.

School on Saturdays? Unacceptable.

A model student

The time has come.  It’s a time I have not been looking forward to but saw on the horizon.  It’s time to enroll my child into kindergarten. My baby is becoming a KID! Soon it will be book fairs, school plays, band concerts, and proms.  It’s all going so fast.

Kindergarten means I’m enrolling my daughter into public school and Columbus has an open enrollment system.  This system allows children to “lottery” into schools that might be better suited for them or in a different neighborhood than their home school.  This has so many benefits, specifically adding diversity.   One thing I never thought about until recently is, what kind of student will my child be?  This question comes up because we actually have the choice (if chosen through the lottery system) of different styles of learning.  We have the traditional schools and the alternative schools.  The alternative schools are typically less structured and provide a different learning environment.  I feel very fortunate to have this choice, but this system is very flawed.  I know, what system isn’t flawed, but let me explain.

Pediculophobia

When our kids were young, we lived in the Cincinnati Public School district. Our older daughter went to kindergarten and first grade at an amazing, art-focused magnet school. During the summer after her first grade year, we moved to a smaller community with it's own school district and, as a result, we were no longer eligible for the magnet school. I contemplated the local school in our new neighborhood. It seemed o.k., and I knew other families who sent their kids there... Then IT happened.

A friend of ours down the street from our new house told me that their older child had lice. Apparently there was an outbreak at the school. This was the first time I had heard of “an outbreak” of lice. I never had lice as a child, and I never knew anyone else who had lice. My friend might as well had told me that there was an outbreak of snakes at the school, or evil clowns. All I knew was that home schooling all of a sudden became a very reasonable option. At the time I had only one friend who home schooled her kids, and even though I thought most home schoolers were nut cases, I thought, “We have to do this!” I discussed the home schooling option with my husband who, no doubt due to his “fringe political beliefs”, agreed that this sounded like a great idea. He was sold. I'm pretty sure I didn't discuss the lice reasoning of my home school decision with him. I didn't want to sound like a “crazy”.

But back to lice...

Patience my Young Padawan

My Kindergartner can’t read yet and it bugs me. Well, actually it bugs me that fellow mother friends keep reminding me that their young children can read and the tiny little comparison fairy crawls out of the bad spot in my heart and I get all cross at the world. I get all prickly and annoyed at the thought of someone thinking my sweet boy is not brilliant.

 Finnian is in half-day kindergarten. I drop him at 8:10 and pick him up at 11:05. This is not a long day when you account for the circle time, artistic ventures, breakdowns, and bathroom breaks. I barely have enough time to swig Starbucks and play trains with my toddler before it is time to go and fetch him. I don’t know how the teacher finds the time to teach them to read. She is a fabulous teacher and my son is in love with her, but it seems like a short amount of time to build these bridges of synapses and connections. It seems like a lot of pressure on one woman. It gives me anxiety just thinking about being in charge of the minds of tiny scary people.

I used to work in education and I am well aware that not every kindergartner will read by the end of the year, that some will still be emergent readers- so why does it bug me so much? I start to wonder if I have failed him by providing a very play based life at home as I was not academic and ABC mama at all. I start to wonder if I should have bought him more workbooks and smart baby paraphernalia. I think about how busy I am with my small business and perhaps I should not have stopped at two books at bedtime.I should have read more. I should have been….NO! I have to stop this.

Because I know my son is smart.