I'm not happy with The Boy's experiences at his elementary school. I switched him into the school where he is because it is right across the street from where I work, therefore it was convenient for dropoffs, pickups, and any odd emergencies. It's supposed to be top-notch, at least in terms of test scores and such, and the "clientele" kids basically all live in million-plus homes, so you would expect that they would come ready to learn etc. Not the case. One parent at the kindergarten orientation wanted to know if kids would be okay if they didn't know the alphabet and their numbers.
The Boy has been bored this year as they have done little more than what he already learned in preschool. I have not been impressed with his teacher at all. She does not use email (how in the hell that goes on I have no idea), and demands handwritten notes be delivered to her room. That's inconvenient for me to say the least, but I'd put up with that if I got even remotely timely responses (or responses at all). For their "100th Day of Kindergarten" celebration, they spent the entire day counting to 100. He's been able to do that for a year and a half. His "report card" at parent conference time was stellar other than low marks for being unable to reliably pick out rhyming words (big deal in my opinion given the other benchmarks). He has also been very upset that he doesn't get invited on playdates after school. The mothers know that I work (there are only two of us in the class who do). I can't invite kids for afterschool playdates because I work till 4:30... so that's pretty much impossible, and it's hard for Jake to understand that sometimes. He's also been coming home and asking questions about how much our house cost, and how much our car cost, and when are we getting a new car and a new house. Those seem like strange questions to me, but he says that the kids in his class talk about stuff like that. That makes me a little uncomfortable, like they are looking for a way to rank him lower in the social strata.
Anyway, due to all of this, I am looking to move him to a different school next year. There are two magnet schools I have applications for. The First One is at least in the same side of town and feeds into my middle school, and The Other One is going to have a brand new building and expanded sports and music programs (not to mention significantly smaller class sizes so he would get more attention). Hubby is opposed to The Other because it eventually feeds into our designated middle school, which is not as good a school as the one where I work, in his opinion. I think it would be better because he would at least have some contact with kids from our neighborhood, and maybe make some friends closer to home. I know it will be much easier to get him in there (I have no idea if they will give me any extra consideration at The First One). I just know I really don't want him where he is any more. I want him to be happy, and I just don't see that there.
I hope I'm doing the right thing, and I hope we find a place where he'll be happier and be challenged more.
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