His Once A Month Opportunity

Once a month the PTA has a meeting and for the past two months we've taken the kids to school with us. They offer "childcare" to encourage parent participation. We reluctantly gave it a shot the first month just to check it out. Not only did we want to know more about the PTA efforts but we wanted to know how this childcare thing worked. It went extremely well! So last night we went for it again.

I was less impressed with the PTA meeting this month compared to the prior month. There are a lot of great efforts that the PTA supports that directly and positively impacts the students. But I feel as if I'm in a conundrum. I'm having a hard time getting excited about some of the approaches while at the same time I'm not overflowing with new suggestions. So for now, I wait. That seems to be my approach when I come into something new. I like to feel it out, see how all the pieces work, and then jump in. So I'll continue to do that and then hopefully one day I'll come up with some brilliant idea to change the world. I know, a bit ambitious.

Last nights meeting ran a bit long, again! So Carie snuck out a few minutes early to go check on the kids since it was very much the bedtime hour. She snuck into the classroom where the kids were playing and they were having a blast (understatement of the year).

The huge bonus is that the person who does the "childcare" is the school counselor. She also brings her son who I'm guessing is of middle school age. We are slowly getting to know her and she appears to be an awesome awesome lady and incredible asset to the school. So, the girls' know her from school as they've had their retreat with her and she's spent time in their class rooms. Spencer is so excited about "going to school" that I don't think he'd care who the "teacher" was. So dropping off is easier than a piece of cake. In my mind, it is also a great opportunity for our kids to get to spend time with her and for her to have the opportunity to get to know them on a more personal level.

Sure, we could hire our own sitter and the kids would be at home and at least getting ready for bed in our absence. Who, I don't know since our "regular" sitter we use so infrequently, especially since she went off to college last year. But we certainly couldn't hire someone this awesome for this low low rate of "free".

So Carie shows up and they are playing the freeze game and dancing to some fun music. They were really into it! When I arrived they were still dancing and hopping away. It was so much fun to watch! It was fun to watch him engage and participate at this level. It was awesome and heart warming to hear the counselor comment on his personality. There is no doubt in my mind that he would enjoy and benefit from a preschool experience next fall.

So, it looks like we have motivation to go to the monthly PTA meetings. It gives Spencer a chance to "go to school". It gives the girls' a chance to potentially be around their school friends in a less "academic" environment and a chance to get to know the counselor better. And it gives us a chance to participate in the school stuff together, get to know other parents, and hopefully some day make a difference.

If the kids weren't having so much fun and if Spencer didn't really enjoy his shot at "going to school", I could see us being less committed to attending the meetings.