a walk around the neighborhood and a new school for ezra and i

a little beauty on our walk home from the playground yesterday

one of the neighborhood's nice homes

the ubiquitous golf cart driving down the road

(they even have their own special switch path streets 

to drive on and their own special parking spaces.)

i use my umbrella more for shade than cover from the rain

the montessori school where ezra and i will go starting

 the end of this month is down the street from where we live.

we walked by yesterday knowing we would meet with the director today.  

here is my heart, my love, my first born son who i am sending to school for the first time after homeschooling him for the last two years of being home together.  he is ready - more ready than i am for this change and has been the one asking me to go to school for the last few months.  i'm not even sure how he knows about it.  maybe because daddy has been in medical school?  

  i have quickly learned in the last month that to be a successful homeschooler (in my humble opinion) you need a bit of cash to support your school.  you need resources to teach your child with, educational tools, manipulatives, arts and craft supplies.  a car is necessary to connect your child with the other world of home schooled children if you are lucky to have a homeschool group nearby (which we don't) as well as the world itself for the interesting field trips home schoolers are so lucky to take.  i think a homeschooling group is necessary for a family and child like mine.  ezra is an only child in a new city.  we don't have neighbor children running around the halls of our building.  we don't know any families with children here and most of the children we meet at the playground are usually there with their nannies and don't speak english.  it's an isolated life.  i think one component to many of the successful homeschooling families i have learned about through blogging have multiple children, at least two close in age, but many times a family of 4 or more children make for a rich homeschooling environment.  if not, they have a support network around them and you can see their children are not deprived of interacting with other children their own age.  everyday for the first few weeks of living here, ezra talked about finding his new friends.  we went to the playgrounds and found kids but the language barrier made connecting difficult.  i never believed everyone who told us you need to speak spanish to live in miami.  when we finally got to key biscayne, we signed him up for a class at the community center where he could meet some other children.  he goes for one hour a week to a class where they play with balls, parachutes, cones, rings, and other props to encourage active play.  it has been his first experience with a teacher in a classroom without michael or i there.  we were a little concerned how ezra would react when the teacher told us she preferred to have the parents wait outside the classroom, but he was brave and ended up loving the experience.  he runs into class smiling and runs out with an even bigger smile.  this little experience gave me the confidence to just try something.  the montessori school down the street is the only preschool i would be interested in for ezra.  i was a montessori student myself and am a big believer in maria montessori's philosophy of learning.  so, i emailed the director telling her about our situation, that i am a credentialed teacher with 8 years of experience and would she be willing to do a trade with me for preschool.  i will work in exchange for my child to attend her school.  after two weeks of not hearing back, i thought okay, it was a long shot, we'll just carry on like we're doing and hope to sign him up for another class, continue going to the library, playground, and maybe sign him up for pee wee soccer.  and then on monday i got an email that the director would like to meet us.  we went this morning and it all went so nicely.  the director and office staff are warm and welcoming.  the school is beautiful.  we enjoyed talking with the director.  ezra shook her hand and told her his name and age before sitting at a little table in her office drawing pictures while we talked.  when she told me her daughter just completed her master's degree at pepperdine - the same school and campus where i received my master's degree - i took it as a sign.  i wasn't looking for ezra to go to school full time but the four year old program is from 8:30 to 2:00.  it is my only concern for ezra, that the day will be too long.  but, because i will be there and working as needed either in the office or as a substitute teacher, i felt this was too great an opportunity to pass up.  so this is very big news for our little family.  we start on august 29th.  hopefully before then i can get us to bed earlier and waking up at our new 7:00 a.m. wake up call.  i parent a lot by intuition and everything has been pushing me in this direction since our arrival to florida.  i am feeling grateful for this opportunity and hope that it will be an enriching experience for ezra and i.