UMCS!
Oh wow! We just got a call from Urban Montessori Charter School—Robin has been offered a spot in their first-grade class!
And we accepted it. We weighed out the pros and cons of going with UCMS versus Kaiser: the only real drawback is that Robin will be skipping kindergarten, and that’s a disadvantage that is mitigated by the mixed-age classrooms and individualized instruction under the Montessori model. Robin’s still not a fully proficient reader, but I spent some time going through the Common Core standards and Robin does meet the language goals for a graduating kindergartner. I don’t think he’ll be too far behind the curve.
Everything else weighs in favor of UMCS. They’re located within walking distance of our house so dropoffs and pickups will be easy. Their program goes to eighth grade so we won’t have to go through a lottery for junior high. And the most important factor by far: we were impressed with the school during our visits and think the program will be a good fit for Robin.
So, this is really good news, even if it does mean some last-minute scrambling and readjustment of plans!
August 17th, 2013 at 1:59 pm
Awesome! Now THAT is a good start, congratulations!
August 17th, 2013 at 4:58 pm
Thank you 🙂
August 18th, 2013 at 8:38 am
Congratulations 🙂
And a school in walking distance!
I am really looking forward to your posts 🙂 The website looks interesting …
My Robin starts 2nd grade Monday with his previous wonderful kindergarten teacher. We are thrilled/relieved.
Daniel start kinder with a ‘new to the school’ teacher.
Oh, our Robin didn’t really start reading until first grade- and even now it certainly doesn’t come naturally.
This summer I finally discovered the Captain Underpants (in english) and Magic Tree house series (spanish & english) mostly because a friend had given me this comic book called Copper that Robin loved.
Copper was the first and last book Robin ever spontaneously picked up and started reading.
Anyways, these series are really helping because they are more engaging then most of the awful Spanish learn-to-read books he had at school.
That said, the series are also above his level and I have to literally sit with him and either point to the words or hold a piece of paper under the line he should be reading!
We are in the midst of Mummies in the Morning (Spanish/English) and off to the Rosicrucian Egyptian museum in San Jose today 🙂
Maike.
August 19th, 2013 at 1:01 pm
I’ve been to that museum! It was years ago though. Hope you had a great time — and I will check out Copper!