PUTTING SEEDLING INTO SOIL

This weekend we took part in two events related to Nicholas' new school, The Arbor School of Arts & Sciences. Last night, we went to dinner at the home of our "host family," whose son is a current kindergartner at Arbor. Given the mixed age classrooms (2 grades are combined), it is possible that Nicholas and the little boy might be classmates next year. The husband and wife and their 2 children were lovely- down-to-earth, kind, open, and very, well, normal in the best possible sense of that word. They seem like people whom I would like to get to know and whom I could see us befriending.

Tonight, the Head of School, Kit Abel Hawkins, invited us and the other incoming parents to the school. It turns out that the only new families at Arbor this year are those with kindergartners as there were no spots in the upper grades, which makes me feel even better about our decision to enroll this early in Nicholas' educational life. Each family seemed very kind and interesting, and their love of their children was palpable without being pretentious.

We were asked to introduce ourselves and to give a blurb about our children, who were not in attendance. I spoke for our family. I said Nicholas was an amazing little boy, whom it has been a pleasure to get to know. I described him as passionate and deeply engaged once he finds something in which he is interested or a person in whom he feels comfortable placing his trust. I described his love of animals, Thomas the Train, music, and his friends.

In many ways, I feel as though this school will make me try harder to be a better and more thoughtful parent not because of a sense of competition between parents, but rather because I want to expend at least as much effort and care in raising him to be the man he will become as the school in which he is enrolled, which is a lot! He is one hell of a kid and one of the most interesting people whom I have ever met... at the ripe young age of 4.75.