First Day of School (sort of)

Abbie has her first day of 2nd grade today at the school that she has been attending for the past two years. However, after two years there, we have decided to completely switch gears and enroll her in a Montessori school. In contrast to the traditional "drill-and-grill" that has been her education for two years, we are excited about the possibilities that come with the Montessori approach - self-directed study, and the ability to move at her own pace, just to name a couple.

So, then why is she standing in her uniform at her old school, you ask? Well, its a long (and not very interesting) story, but the end result is that Abbie will attend her old school for a couple of weeks and then will switch to her new school, which doesn't start until the end of next week anyway, so it all works out okay in the end.

In the meantime, though, she is kind of in this in-between land where some of her friends knew that she was going to leave for a new school and so were totally baffled as to why she was in class this morning. I think that some of the parents were equally as baffled yesterday when I showed up at the orientation meeting. We like to keep people on their toes! :)

I will undoubtedly have more updates when Abbie has her second first day of 2nd grade in a couple of weeks. The exciting bit about it is that Abbie was able to attend the summer program at the Montessori school for a couple of weeks this summer so she already knows many of the kids that she will be in class with. I think that this will make a smoother transition. Also, the teachers were able to get to know her a bit over the summer and to assess her reading and math levels, so I think they have a good idea of what she needs to be working on. All good stuff!