School Days

"School" has been a heavy topic in our household the past couple weeks. Between Alex, me, and Jason we've all been busy contemplating/taking steps/or planning about our future school endeavors.

Alex is enrolled in Grace Lutheran's Pre-K 3 year old program next fall, and we are very excited for him to start. When people hear that I've enrolled him in something like this, they get a false sense that I'm sending him to school to learn, when that is not my intention at all-I am actually looking forward to furthering his socialization skills. Grace offers a 50/50 play/academic atmosphere for their 3 year old program, so it's not exactly "school". It will give him an opportunity to engage with a different group of kids, different from daycare or Sunday School. It also starts to give him a consistency in the academic side of things, and introduces the concept of following specific directions. I'm looking forward to seeing how he likes the program.

Jason took an Accuplacer exam earlier this week, which is basically an exam you have to take because you didn't complete an ACT or SAT upon high school graduation. It's a measurement of basic skill levels in reading, writing and math. He scored well in reading and writing, but not so much in the math. He seemed discouraged when he got home, but I assured him that anybody that hasn't thought about math in the sense of Algebra and Geometry in 10 years would have done the same. And I also reminded him that math doesn't mean measurements in 16th's. Being out of school for so long takes a lot of motivation to go back, but once you do-it's hard to explain that how you view school is completely different. Jason is looking into the Civil Engineering program w/ an emphasis on structural engineering, this is offered as an associates degree through MPTC. He's going to be taking an Algebra warmup course this summer, and then start w/ his curriculum in the Fall. Just like me, he'll be working at it parttime, so it will be a work in progress. Being self-employed with a family to support, I think it's important for him to give himself something to fall back on when he moves on to that next step in life-he's talented in construction, in both the mental and physical aspect of things-I think this degree helps him to utilize the best of both worlds. Being a student myself, any encouragement given is a nice reminder of who your support systems are-Jason would probably appreciate some encouragement himself the next time you see him.

I am enrolled at MPTC in the IT Tech Support Specialist program and anticipate graduating next Spring. I only have 5 courses to complete, so I feel as if it's right at my fingertips. Part of me wants to dive in and take 3 classes next Fall (in hopes of graduating sooner), but then I remind myself that I have a working life outside of school, that includes 2 small children. I also think, what's the hurry? And in the same breath part of me starts thinking even further-like continuing to work at my Bachelor's as soon as I wrap up my associates. School is almost addicting, it's as if I'm almost finished w/ what I had in mind-but I'm looking for more before I'm even done. I'm looking into to the MAAP at Marian College, majoring in General Management. The accelerated program is very inviting-1 night a week, classes only lasting 6 weeks long and running year round. Before anyone says (or thinks it) I fully realize that these courses will be 20 times harder than my current courses-so I need to take that into consideration as well. Why Marian? Ripon College is a member of the ACM, basically a consortium of private colleges in the Midwest; one of our fringe benefits is that we, our spouse or our children can attend RC free of cost (w/ the exception of books and room & board). We can also attend other colleges in the ACM at an 80% discount, which is where Marian comes into the picture. Not many liberal colleges offer non-traditional courses or programs, especially only 20 minutes from home-so that is why I'm looking into that one.

All of these thoughts, and then the next day-I'd rather go down to working part-time in an effort to stay home with my kids more. And 'd like to emphasize part-time, because those of you that know me, know my patience couldn't withstand being a fulltime sahm. Working fulltime you miss a lot of the firsts, someone else defines what consistencies your kids go by until 5 p.m., and you have to work together with someone else on the important things like discipline, potty training, and naps. I've been blessed with a wonderful caregiver in Tammy, she loves my kids as if they are her own-so that is some solace to me. Unfortunately staying home isn't an option for me right now, but I hope sometime in the future we can make it work. Kids are only young once, and while I do make the most of my time-there's not enough time in the day for spending quality time with the one's you love the most when it has to be squeezed in on weeknights and weekends.

I don't know what the right answer is, or which way I'll go-but when the time comes, something will happen that will let me know what the right direction is.