Everett graduated from kindergarten and Sierra from pre-K. Shannon made up their Last Day posters and they had their photos taken on a windy day outside the school in the play area.
I’ve never been a fan of private schools, but First Step has worked out well for us and the kids. It made sense as a single point of drop off and pick up rather than have to work with two drop off and pick up times and locations. The teachers seem to be quite interested and the kids have a good time there. I think the learning is certainly much better too, and I’m sure a big part of that is the small class sizes where some of the lessons can be individualized.
Everett was really excited to move on to First Steps from Montessori because his friends Eli and Harrison were there. Next year, Harrison will be at G.W. Smith too, so Everett really wants to change schools, but we’ll be staying with First Steps for one more year before we take our sabbatical. Sierra doesn’t express much in terms of preference, and as her teacher tells us, there is definitely a warming-up period at the beginning of the day before she gets engaged with the classroom. Shannon wants to make sure to have some Piggy time so she is going to be in 3 days a week school next year.
The First Steps building doesn’t look like a nice school at all. It shares offices with a radio station (and thus a huge broadcasting antenna is mounted on the roof) and the educational minister’s office. The play area which is new for this year is a square piece of parking lot surrounded by a chain linked fence. North and southbound Gaetz borders the lot. I remember my early elementary school playgrounds and they were always green and grass landscaped. When I was at school at McGill and passed my the high school along University Ave, I always though those kids were deprived.
In contrast to the exterior, the inside of the school is very well put together and I think set up looking like a very nice learning environment.
I don’t remember any special fanfare as I finished one grade to the next, but times are different now. The kids got together and enjoyed some graduation cake. Congratulations!
