Life Unmastered
The School Quest: Navigating Your Options
Have you ever grappled with the public vs private schooling debate. We share our thoughts on this, focusing on aspects like financial implications, uniforms, and the potential impact on family lifestyle. Drawing from our experiences, we underscore the importance of aligning our decisions with our values and what's best for our families.
We open up about our journey of changing our plan from homeschooling to private school, recognizing signs of an unhealthy school environment, and the relief associated with finding a school that aligns with our family's needs. We promise, this deep-dive into education decisions will leave you with a fresh perspective and thoughtful insights. Join us!
Thanks for joining us for your weekly dose of confidently unqualified advice!
Let's keep the conversation going! Connect with us below!
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lifeunmasteredpodcast
Email: lifeunmasteredpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.lifeunmasteredpodcast.com
Have you ever grappled with the public vs private schooling debate. We share our thoughts on this, focusing on aspects like financial implications, uniforms, and the potential impact on family lifestyle. Drawing from our experiences, we underscore the importance of aligning our decisions with our values and what's best for our families.
We open up about our journey of changing our plan from homeschooling to private school, recognizing signs of an unhealthy school environment, and the relief associated with finding a school that aligns with our family's needs. We promise, this deep-dive into education decisions will leave you with a fresh perspective and thoughtful insights. Join us!
Thanks for joining us for your weekly dose of confidently unqualified advice!
Let's keep the conversation going! Connect with us below!
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lifeunmasteredpodcast
Email: lifeunmasteredpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.lifeunmasteredpodcast.com
The kids are back in school.
Speaker 2:For a whole week now.
Speaker 1:And all day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like full time, not just like half days anymore. It's like real school.
Speaker 1:I know I'm still getting used to it, but in the best way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't believe you wanted to have them home all the time.
Speaker 1:So the kids are back in school and it's crazy to me that it feels like we're doing like real parenting now, like this is like a big one, like we're doing drop off and pick up every single day, car line. Like what. And yeah, like you said, we had originally planned to have them home with us all the time by homeschooling.
Speaker 2:Do you ever stop and realize, like how many times we've said we originally planned and then we'd like call an audible midway?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's just because you know we go into things with the best of intentions or you have to plan or have an idea of what you want to do, right.
Speaker 2:Never goes the way we think it's going to.
Speaker 1:It doesn't and nothing. It's always a bad thing, yeah, but yeah, we do make a lot of changes along the way, of course.
Speaker 2:I mean life happens.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about that today.
Speaker 2:Well, let's start with why we wanted to homeschool.
Speaker 1:So I know that there are stereotypes with homeschooling like that. The kids are socially awkward or weird. They're not going to have any friends.
Speaker 2:Which is all true of the kids that I know who have been homeschooled.
Speaker 1:That is not true.
Speaker 2:It's not true at all. That was made up. You caught me.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I think, and I think that that was kind of true when we were younger, like I knew people who were homeschooled and they were a little weird. But I think that homeschooling has changed so much in the last 20, 30 years and it's not the same that it used to be, like there's you know all kinds of things now that Well, before I met your family, I envisioned homeschool kids as the movie Mean Girls portrayed homeschooled kids.
Speaker 2:In the beginning of that movie they have like a whole skit about how they're all like weirdly religious or like anti-social or don't believe in certain things. And that's how I because I heard that's how homeschooling kids are. So like, how many things do we know like that, where it's like well, that's what I heard when I was growing up, so it must be true. Well, I don't know. That was before internet and you could just like find out the truth in seconds on your phone, so you just kind of went with it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So I, my mom, homeschooled my two youngest brothers who are totally normal and the most like I don't even know how you would phrase it like socially mature kids I ever met. I guess I would say like. They always make good eye contact, they're always very polite and like there's. You would have no idea like that. They're quote unquote homeschoolers. That was so creepy, yeah.
Speaker 1:So there's all these like stereotypes around homeschooling and I think that I was worried about that, even for my brothers, when I found out that my mom was going to be homeschooling them. Like you cannot homeschool them, like they're already dorks, because you know, they're my younger brothers, they're just, that's just natural and they're not really. But I just feel like I was worried about that for them. But there's now that I've seen them go through it. You know, I never would have wanted to be homeschooled because I was so like social and the thought of just being home all day with just my mom was just like would have been torture, not not because of my mom, but because I wouldn't have been around my friends or, you know, seen teachers or had whatever. But now I feel like the world has changed so much that the idea of keeping my kids home with me all day and making sure that they're safe and protected and they're learning the things that we, you know, believe in and believe to be true- and deem appropriate for their age.
Speaker 1:Exactly. I think that that is what intrigued me the most about homeschooling and why I wanted to homeschool. But beyond that, as I get older and I learned more, and especially after COVID, you know, homeschooling became even you know, even more popular. But there's all these different things like co-ops. There's so many resources now and what do you mean co-op?
Speaker 2:What's co-op?
Speaker 1:It's like we're a bunch of other people who are also homeschooled get together and they do things like nature studies or they go on field trips together.
Speaker 2:So it's like a at home classroom type thing, basically, where you're getting together with other families and kind of having your own class, just kind of in your own homes.
Speaker 1:I kind of, but I think they actually don't meet in homes. From what I know, they meet at like a park or a neutral space.
Speaker 2:But there's other kids involved. It's not just like one on one, no socialization type of thing.
Speaker 1:Correct. There are other kids same age the moms can get together. I think I have a friend who has her kids in a co-op and all the moms take turns. So each week a different mom will plan a lesson for all of the kids and they get together in a big space so that they're not taking turns, ruining each other's houses with all these kids. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And again, I've never been part of one, so I don't know exactly how they work, but that's kind of my understanding of them and I know that too they've got all kinds of other programs where the kids can participate in sports. Like my brother homeschooled, he has gone to all of his high school dances with other kids that are homeschooled.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he really didn't miss out on, like the activities and stuff.
Speaker 1:Nothing at all and he's got all these extracurriculars as well and he's got, like so many friends, yeah, what I've heard about homeschooling.
Speaker 2:What's amazed is like you talk about all the extracurricular activities. It's because you're able to get through a full days worth of school in like really like half the time, like if you're just focused on like one on one teaching a child, like they can get through the schoolwork in half the day and then you have the entire rest of your day to do activities or like go out to museums, do these things and do like real hands on learning that you wouldn't get if you were in a class with 30 kids.
Speaker 1:Well, right, exactly Because the teacher is having to divide her time. She's having to tend to multiple kids needs and they have to break up their day with recess and all these, like you know, laws and whatever. Yeah. And that's where you really have the ability to knock out school in three hours if you wanted to, or you could do school on a Saturday or I've also heard stories about kids who do school on Saturdays, or they knock out so much of their schoolwork that they actually ended up graduating early.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so very common. There's a lot of perks I mean you just have to deal with. You know being crazy.
Speaker 1:What do you mean being crazy? I mean as a parent or as a child.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're at home with those kids 24 seven, it's going to happen.
Speaker 1:It'll drive you crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think it depends on the kid too. I don't. I don't think that every parent or every kid is meant to homeschool, as great as I think that it is now. Now that we've you know, I had our experience being parents and we kind of know our kids better and know ourselves better, we essentially came to the conclusion, you know, because of a bunch of reasons, that that's not necessarily for us, but I do think that homeschooling is great, and I'm not saying that it's not something that we won't do down the line, but for now we've gone a different direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were kind of forced to. I think we ran into some unexpected hurdles, I think pretty early on in the kids development that we as just regular parents weren't qualified to help them through.
Speaker 1:Right, so Jace has a speech delay no-transcript. That's something that we're actually still working through and it has Caused some additional delays, like learning delays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not just he can't communicate so much and he does significantly better now, but it wasn't, when you think. When I thought about it I was like, so he can't talk, what's the big deal? But I didn't realize that it affected his other Like I don't know, learning habits. I guess you would call him.
Speaker 1:I think it caused a lot of frustration for him, mmm, when trying to learn things, because he didn't quite understand us or what we were asking of him. He, just he. We almost had to trick him into learning anything.
Speaker 2:Remember that. I remember it was like a game and as soon as he Understood that, like the paper or whatever we were working on him with was for learning and not like, oh, I'm just playing coloring, he was out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like it was like a switch flipped and he's like wait a minute.
Speaker 2:You guys are trying to teach me, to me in the learning how dare you.
Speaker 1:I'm over it. So I think we had started with him so young. Probably maybe I would say that because I started with him so young, that's maybe partly why there was frustrations to like he was probably too young to be trying to do some of the things. Sit down, pay attention and like yeah right, but I felt like he was already behind. I wanted to try and help him along as much as I could and so, looking back on things, and we did. We did things differently with Carter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was also hard with Jace was we had such a Because we had Carter, who was also young, and you were at home with both of them, so you had set amount of time during the day to like squeeze in learning and because he was so young like he I would, he could have been in play mode at the time or he could have been like sleepy or hungry or something.
Speaker 2:So it's like, well, this is our only hour to get through this. We have to try to get through it, and he just wasn't having it.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's definitely true, because I feel like I had such a small window, I was trying to fit in all of these things, you know, like let's not just play, let's, let's make this educational, and he just he was young, he wasn't interested in that, and I feel like this is kind of a pattern.
Speaker 1:We kind of talked about this last week about how we forget that the kids are the age that they are, like they're still so young and I think that in my way, like I mentioned, I was trying to help him along because I knew he was behind in this area and I wanted to make sure he wasn't just falling farther and farther behind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you wanted to try to help him catch up, basically right so, but through that, I think that I had a lack of patience, and then he, you know that caused even more frustrations and I think that between his lack of focus and my lack of focus, it just made it hard to follow through on these things day after day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think without it sounds silly, but we should have got like a school bell or something like like an audible alarm of it's time to switch like subjects or something, instead of like Free time to squeeze in whenever we could.
Speaker 1:it just could have been more structured, I feel like yeah, I mean I, I lose track of time so easily. I'll be in the middle of something and then all of a sudden it's like three hours went by. I'm like where, what happened?
Speaker 2:Well, and especially at that time, like it's one thing now where the kids are the age they are, but trying to remember that long ago and again, carter was choose a baby. So I was still, you know, dealing with nap times and nursing and all you know which is also hard, because it's like, hey, carter's asleep, let's get in some lessons, but don't make any noise.
Speaker 1:And he is like he has no volume meter, like it's 11 all the time.
Speaker 2:And we were in that two level house where the main floor was Directly above, directly above Carter's room, which would be technically in the basement of the house, I guess you would call it. But like. So, any steps or walks you did, she was awake, yeah.
Speaker 1:So so it did. It didn't make thing. It made things difficult and I just I felt like he needed more than we were capable of offering him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we. There are other things involved in that decision, I think, and we'll get into that again on another episode, but we definitely realized that we weren't doing our job as parents by Doing this at that time, and so we wanted to explore other options.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think it's important for us to know our strengths and you know it's easy for us to be hard on ourselves because you know, hindsight is 2020.
Speaker 2:I remember it was hard and having we talked about this a lot, about it's okay if we can't do everything, like it's okay if we aren't like providing feeding, teaching, like there's a reason people send their kids to school, you know.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's just hard to accept, like at that time, because we really wanted to do this.
Speaker 1:And we had this vision for what it? Would look like. And then all of a sudden it's just kind of falling apart in front of us because things aren't going the way that we had planned. Yeah. And that was like hard for me to swallow too, because and I held onto it for a really long time, actually the kids are in school full time now and I'm still holding onto it. Like right directly behind you is our collection of home school materials that I still have.
Speaker 2:My eyes are tired from rolling them Every time. It's like we still my home school. Like, no, we're not.
Speaker 1:We could. You don't know what the future holds.
Speaker 2:We could, but we won't.
Speaker 1:Well, we don't know that we might.
Speaker 2:And I don't know if you're holding onto that home school stuff because you can't stand to get rid of it or because you still think you're in a home school.
Speaker 1:It's probably a little bit of both.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The materials, the resources.
Speaker 2:They are costly.
Speaker 1:And they're beautiful and I do use them like I use them today. Yeah, so it's like we still use them occasionally not as much as we did, especially because the kids are gone all day now but I just, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the plan is for them For now they're sticking around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so obviously, with home school not working, the next obvious choice for us was private school.
Speaker 1:Right. So, with his personality and his speech delay, we knew that he would thrive being around other kids and so, as much as I was hesitant about it, we knew that we had to get him into classes, and so we landed on private school, like you said, and that was more difficult than I thought it was gonna be, because I don't know why I just I forgot. I thought waiting lists only happened, like at the preschool level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was weird because it all kind of happened really fast where we made this decision to transition them into school and we realized that Carter was still young, where it's like it's very much I don't know.
Speaker 2:It wasn't even pre-K, it was like daycare, almost Like right, right it was preschool, Okay yeah, and with Jace we wanted to get try to get him into kindergarten and just as much as we could. But finding a school that had openings for both of those age levels in a military town where people are constantly coming in and out with kids, it was hard and it just kind of all fell into place, thankfully.
Speaker 1:But you know what's interesting about that is. So we originally planned on putting Jace in pre-K last year as a five year old. Oh yeah. Because I felt like he needed that. He had never been in a school setting before and I was like he can't just jump right into kindergarten. He doesn't know how to like, he doesn't know all these things. And the school was like no, he's gonna go in kindergarten. And I was like oh, You're terrified, I was terrified.
Speaker 1:Like I was like you can't tell me what grade he's gonna go in, yeah, and so Michael was like let's just see how this goes. Let's you know, we can always move him, but you know, let's just start here.
Speaker 2:I think I said let's give it to Christmas, Like we'll check back with him at Christmas and it's like half a school year Like how is he doing? Does he need to go down like be honest with us, and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Right. So we did, we put him in and, oh my goodness, it didn't take long. We didn't even get close to Christmas yeah.
Speaker 2:It was like a couple of weeks in and he's coming home with like homework and stuff and like adding and subtracting and I blew my mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I remember the first time he came home with like math homework and he was adding and I literally called you I'm like you need to get over here right now Watch him do this.
Speaker 2:I think this is saying more about us as parents than Jason as a student.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely.
Speaker 2:Like we have always done this and I hate that we do it and we're aware of it now, so we're trying to correct it, but we have such like not my boy, or like we're always like selling them short.
Speaker 1:I know. But it's interesting because then there's sometimes where I'm just like Jace, you need to do this, because I know you know how to do this. It's like I can't. I can't.
Speaker 2:In my defense, though, I don't know what to believe because I'll catch him like licking the window and eating the wall. And then he's telling me like he can count to 100 and he does, and I. So I don't get it. This is very true. So like I'm just like I'm going back and forth like wait, are you a genius or not?
Speaker 1:I know. So I think you're right, we are aware of it and it's something that we are actively working on daily of not underselling him or underestimating him, and he continually proves to us that he's capable. Yeah. And I feel bad that we have kind of like put him in.
Speaker 2:Handicapped him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess. But anyways, we're getting better about it and I think that there are some things that he still does need some hand holding on and we just need to kind of figure out where those areas are a little bit better. But him being in school was the best thing that we could have done and I really do wish we would have done it sooner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it definitely made things easier for us mentally and for his development. But also that's one of the things that went into our like decision to try to do private school was one we could do like the half days, so like we were able to like transition him slowly into school. It wasn't just like okay, you've been with mommy and daddy your whole life, now we're dropping you off for eight hours a day. So that was nice and I also think that it gave him more of a setting that he was familiar with, cause he already we already take him to church and like he has his class at church that he would go to where they do worship and stuff. And because it was a private Christian school, they would have chapel and so he'd be able to sing and dance with the other kids and it was a very comfortable setting for him.
Speaker 1:Right and obviously every family is different and we all have to make decisions that are best fit for our family and our needs, and nothing's a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:There's pros and cons For each option and we learned that too at the first school we sent them to. There were definitely some cons about that school.
Speaker 1:We just didn't know them up front right, but I think that you and I both had experiences in both private and public school. You know, I went kindergarten through eighth grade in private school and I Was very sheltered, but I'm not mad about it.
Speaker 2:No, I am shocked at the stories you have told me about how old you were when you learned about certain things, because I was explaining it to other kids on the playground, like first grade.
Speaker 1:You and I had very, very different.
Speaker 2:I can remember the day that I got in trouble Because my uncle held up a bolt and a nut and said here's all you need to know about life. This is a boy, this is a girl in the garage to his friend and I looked at my brother and we giggled. So we got in trouble because we knew that, joe, he was making yes, you and I did have very different childhoods. I went to public school right.
Speaker 1:And Again, I don't think that everybody who goes to private school is, you know, sheltered and not learning things like things. But just that was my personal experience with it. And I like the idea of my kids being a little sheltered, of keeping them pure and you know I can't guarantee everything I I can only do what I can do. But that's like when I think about it, that's kind of like what I feel like well, pure isn't the word I would use.
Speaker 2:I would use. I like the idea of my kids being kids for as long as they can be kids, sure, like I don't want to make them into little tiny adults in first and second grade right.
Speaker 1:I really want them to hang on to their childhood as long as possible. I want them to learn things when I choose to teach that to them at home in my own way, and I don't want them to be forced into, you know, experiencing things that they're not ready for or that I don't feel that they're ready for, and what I feel might be different than what other people think, but I don't care, these are my kids. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I like the idea of having them in private school, where I get more of a control, more and more of a say over what and when they learn things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and private schools get to choose their curriculum, essentially so, like it's when you're picking one, it's kind of like, okay, this lines up with what we believe, so that's why we want them there exactly, and you know, having them at the private, because there's different types of private schools, there's movement in Catholic and Christian, and you know the list goes on.
Speaker 1:So, choosing a private Christian school, our kids are learning the Christian values that that we believe and and support, and and that makes me happy because I feel like they're getting it both at home and at school and it's both building those core values for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we want to have a foundation for them.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. In addition to that, the the private schools I love also too, especially because Jace does have these things that we've talked about, but they've got smaller classrooms. So I mean, I don't know how. I don't even know what the average is. I think it's 25 to 30 kids per teacher at public school. Well.
Speaker 1:And that was just like a quick Google search. But at the kids school Jace has 15 kids in his class and Carter has 10. So that's like really small groups in comparison and so I like that for them, for like their friend group, but also for that one-on-one, like the teachers can really pay attention to each kid and kind of.
Speaker 2:Well, they get to know them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, but at the old school, I mean, I was texting the kids teachers and, like we, they knew our children intimately and you know, every day when I go to pick them up, I'd get like you know he did really good today or he struggled with this, or you know, whatever it may be, and I liked that intimacy that I got from them Because I felt like I was dropping the kids off at a friend's house to learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the the eye-opening part for me was when we dropped, we went to back to school night or whatever it was, and the teacher was explaining like If so-and-so had a bad morning or they woke up late or they're a little grumpy, make sure and let me know. And in my head I'm thinking, if I try to explain, if my parents tried to explain to my teachers growing up like, oh, mike's a little grumpy today it's not very good, like they would make so and you know what it's?
Speaker 1:I have not. I never experienced public school at the elementary level, so maybe things are like that. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have no idea right.
Speaker 1:So this is just like our experience and what we are appreciating out of this.
Speaker 2:So it's probably like that everywhere. It's like the movie theaters.
Speaker 1:It should be everyone has cushy seats now right, and I do think that things are different. You know, I hear the term like helicopter parent and I try really hard not to be one, but it's really hard not to be one because I want to make sure that my kids are completely, 100% okay all the time. Yeah, right, um so, but I think that because that's very common these days, which is why you have some of the issues that we have in today. So I think that maybe that's something that happens at every school now, I don't know, but that's definitely something that I appreciate at our current school. So Another thing that I appreciate is the stricter dress code.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the when the principal was explaining the dress code I was kind of confused because I don't know what all those terms mean.
Speaker 1:But I will say I felt I felt called out when she was explaining the dress code. Why because she's talking about how you know monesty and we want to teach. You know she was talking about all the kids, but specifically the girls.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm you know that you don't need to dress a certain way or be showing a ton of skin to get attention, or you know we want to get attention for other reasons, which, yes, I agree with all of that. But Carter is sitting there with us in shorts that are basically underwear. They're so short.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's cuz her dad's really cheap. Yeah, she went through.
Speaker 1:This growth spur in the middle of the summer and I wasn't about to go out and buy her a whole new set of shorts so she can wear them for like five days before it got cold again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's not Carter's fault, but they were, they were short, they were short all summer.
Speaker 1:Really they were short. Yeah she just kind of outgrew them and I just I didn't have it in me to go buy new ones. So I felt a little judged in that moment. But I feel like I see these girls walking to school, even like in our neighborhood, and it looks like they're wearing like Booty shorts and a bra. I'm like wait, are you going to the pool? Are you going to school? So you've got a backpack on we sound so old right now.
Speaker 2:I mean I agree with what you're saying, like I Believe in modesty and everything else and again, we want our kids to be kids for as long as possible. I just know we come across so old right now.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying like I yeah, I mean teach their own, I guess, but I was never. I just sound really judgy right now, but I, when I was younger, I was never able like to wear halter tops or spaghetti straps. You know, I couldn't have my stomach showing, and now that's like the norm, like, you know, high-rise pants or what I don't know. I'm so not fashion forward, okay, and and I, you know, I dress Carter. She wears spaghetti straps, it's not, it's fine. I just, I just appreciate that I actually would like if the kids had uniforms.
Speaker 2:I love uniforms and so I was gonna say that's not necessarily a public, first private school thing, because I went to public school my whole life and up until high school I was in uniforms.
Speaker 1:See, I had uniforms for seventh and eighth grade only, and I Loved it. Those were the best two years ever, because it took me zero time to get ready in the morning, because I didn't have to put any thought into what I was wearing. I got to pick from three color shirts and two color pants, and that was that and you were done. Best two years ever.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, for me it was different once we figured out like they weren't specific on the type of blue shorts you had to have. But you had to have blue shorts. So as soon as I realized I could wear dickies, that would naturally go past my knee and I no longer had to have my butt hanging out the entire time.
Speaker 1:Well, that's good. Yeah, nobody likes a butt hanging out.
Speaker 2:Well, it was the time, Okay unless you're a plumber.
Speaker 1:That's just not appropriate. Or Justin Bieber. So, anyway, I think we've done a lot of talking about why we like public or private schools. Yeah and again there's. I mean, I have my opinions about Everything, really yeah and again.
Speaker 2:I know it's just what worked for us and I think our reasons are pretty legit.
Speaker 1:So and you know I think that it's a big sacrifice really to putting them into private school, and I know it's not something that everybody can do. And I'm not saying that if you don't put your kids in private school you're doing it wrong. That's absolutely not the case.
Speaker 1:Yeah just like with home school. That's something that we wanted to do, but it just didn't fit for us, and so he made a different decision, and I think often you and I are like, mmm, maybe we could try public school so many times, especially when they're like Not my favorite people in the house.
Speaker 2:I'm like. You know, I gave up a vacation so you could go to school right, it takes up a lot of our monthly like Bills. Yeah they don't care.
Speaker 1:But I just I feel like still, this is the right direction for us. So we landed on private school, and you guys now know all of our reasons why, and we had originally our initial plan was to put them in for the part day for a single year. Let him and you know we had Carter there too, but it was mostly for Jase let him get the experience around other kids, learn the things that we want him to learn, and then we'll go back to home school. Well, he was in school for like a few weeks when we saw how great he was doing, and then also both the kids were like wait a minute, why are you picking me up? And all my friends are staying here? And so they were quickly begging us.
Speaker 1:To stay in school right and they wanted to be there the full day. We were like no, that's not the plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't. We again, we're still holding on to our plan for what we had set, but we weren't ready to. I think about like halfway through the year is when it made the most sense to try to switch them over to full day, and we just weren't ready to do that right and also financially.
Speaker 1:You know it's.
Speaker 2:It's a big check. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, we had towards the middle of the year that we're like okay, I guess this is what we're doing, we're gonna keep the kids in school and next year we'll do full-time. And then somewhere along the way we started noticing that the teachers were unhappy and things were super unorganized and we just started getting funny feelings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we quickly realized that just because this is a private school Doesn't mean that means everything's perfect there. Yeah, these are human teachers still teaching our kids who are openly Complaining about the school they work at.
Speaker 1:Yeah to the parents and yeah in front of the parents and to them specifically like you had Conversations with teachers and they would just openly say like, oh, so and so is horrible and I I appreciated the honesty because there were there were some concerns that I had that were then validated, but I I do feel like it was just too much, like my thought is okay if the teachers are unhappy, they're gonna take that out somewhere, right? Not necessarily saying that they're gonna all take it out on the kids, but it's hard to enjoy your job and be good at it when you're unhappy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean any job, any job, exactly like. It doesn't matter what you do. If you're unhappy with your workplace, it's gonna affect your work exactly.
Speaker 1:So we had started getting these uncomfortable feelings and we had considered Pulling the kids or putting them somewhere else, and then, for whatever reason, we kept saying no, no, no, and Then, eventually, when we decided, okay, that's it, we need to put the kids in a different school, it was almost too late and the kids beyond another waiting list other waiting list.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately they got in. But I say all this because, even though we've said all these things that we love about private schools and all the reasons that we want to send the kids to the private school, doesn't mean that every private school Is is perfect just because it's a private school. I mean, I know you said that, but I just think that's a good reminder For myself too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can't just check out his parents. Like it's not. Like, oh, I signed it up, I'm handing you off, everything's good. Like you do have to follow up and pick up. Like if there's signs, like if if there's smoke, there's fire in all year. Like I remember the back to school night we had at the beginning of the year, you instantly on the way home you were like I don't like this, this isn't the way it's supposed to be, it's too disorganized and everything else. And we're like well, it's the only one without a waiting list, basically, and we were able to get him in, let's write it out. And you just can't be too comfortable. I think that's a lot of the decision-making was.
Speaker 1:We felt comfortable with what we knew and so we didn't even bother Looking to see what else might be out there right, and I think too, we had made these decisions so last a minute, that we just had to take what we could get yeah and Also, too, we kind of I mean, some of these things were a little right like the the head of the school would send out emails or messages constantly with like 15 typos in them.
Speaker 1:Does that really matter? I don't know. To me it did like you're the head of the school.
Speaker 2:Proof your emails right.
Speaker 1:But is that really affecting how my child is being taught? Probably not, but it bugged me. Yeah and it was just like one thing after another, enough to after another. But like everything was so chaotic, the way that the teachers and the staff To talk to each other was just like oh, gave me like icky vibes. So anyway, we decided to switch the kids to a new school and Fortunately we did have enough time to do quite a bit of research.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm and we found one that we really liked. We put the kids on the waiting list and that was like a nerve-wracking thing and they got in like at the deadline. Yeah, it was perfect. But it's a different.
Speaker 2:It's it's much, much Larger yeah, it's, it's all, it's all greats.
Speaker 1:It's preschool through 12th grade on a single campus. I didn't know they did. I didn't either, and it made me very uncomfortable in the beginning. Yeah but now that we've experienced our first week and the level of security that they have there and how organized and just like Everything- is spelled correctly.
Speaker 2:That's a big step forward. I'm just saying like everything is so professional, it's run like a real, it is cool and we went to Like the assembly the first assembly thing, with all the parents and teachers and, like they're smart about it, they only had, like they're like, here we're gonna do like pre-k through, like third grade. That's all we're doing in one batch. And this lady commanded that room full of kids instantly.
Speaker 1:Right and I was just like oh, it's real. And the kids they've only been in school for a week but they've already picked up on these commands. But when we first that went there, the kids are looking around like what just happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like a cult. She's like one, two, three eyes on me and all the kids shouted back one, two eyes on you and they just froze Instantly and like wherever they were, and she's like now go sit down and like she's talking into a microphone and you can barely hear her and the kids are all doing what she says. So I think she might have bewitched them. I don't know, like how to get that because, like in this house, that doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:We need her to teach us her way.
Speaker 2:We need a megaphone, and they still ignore us.
Speaker 1:But anyway, so far so good. A few things that I was nervous about having the campus be so big. But having now Gone through the process and experiencing it firsthand, I'm feeling very settled in our decision and the kids are just Just thrilled to be there. Yeah and Are loving it all day long.
Speaker 2:So is their dad.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because I really I had. This goes back to us having plans and visions that just don't Quite add up to what our imagination, you know, hopes for, but I just I thought they'd be back in school and I would be all day and I'd have all this time and there's just really not as much left as I thought there'd be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just filled with other things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but anyway. So again I this. Who knows if this is forever or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean for right now it is that's what we can afford to do. So we're gonna do it and see how it goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know it might change, but this is a good fit for our school right now or for our family right now. And picking a school is is a big decision and it just comes down to what's most important for you and what's working for you right now and what you're able to do.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and I think that you know Something to remember, especially because we've kind of seen, like Jace came home day one and again it's hard for him to articulate things fully, but we were worried because he was talking about, like how he hadn't made any friends yet and we just have to kind of like work through things with him to get the full story. But it just held had me remembering that, like, no matter where we send the kids, there are bullies everywhere. Yep, there's issues with every school. There can be bad teachers, there can be bad influences, there can be bad curriculums. No place is perfect.
Speaker 2:No, but I'm. The reality is is being a parent is Extremely stressful, and every day there's something new to be worried about. So if we can sleep a little bit easier, knowing the the values and things that they're being taught at school line up with what we're teaching them at home, that's worth it to me.
Speaker 1:That's true, and I think that it's important to make sure that we are still Communicating with the kids teachers. Oh yeah that we're communicating with our kids and Asking the questions, asking how their day went, asking them about their friends, and just trying to be as informed as possible and not just assuming everything is going the way that it's supposed to be going. Yeah so and and realize I went on control. That's a hard one for me.
Speaker 2:We still haven't realized it. This whole thing has been about our plan and even like when it didn't go our way, we're like, yeah, but we called notable and everything worked out because we did it. Like. None of that is accurate, it's just it's in our head, that's how it played out, but we weren't in control of anything.
Speaker 1:That's very true. So Next week we are going to be chatting about Jace's speech. We talked a lot about it today. Mm-hmm. Just you know, touches here and there, but that's something that we get asked about frequently, so I'm excited to dive more into that next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what it's been like and the frustrations that come with it for us as parents and also for him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you guys have any input on schooling Questions for us and the how we made our decisions or whatever, if you want to chat, let's do it. You guys can reach us at life unmastered podcast at gmailcom and you can also reach out over on Instagram at life unmastered podcast. But until next week, bye, bye.