November 4, 2009
Well, I am coming up on the one year anniversary of this blog, have passed the one year anniversary of my son starting at the Sudbury Valley School, am living in a different way in my personal life, separated from my husband and on my own financially, without the kids half time, learning how to do some new things I couldn’t do last year, use a digital camera (thanks, Sarah and others), use itunes and Pandora (thanks, Ben!), write personal and reflective stuff for the world, as well as observations and education related thoughts. Finding myself and my family and even the day care in a somewhat new place is sometimes energizing, sometimes overwhelming, sometimes dizzying, sometimes grounding, never know what the next year will bring a reminder from a friend on the side of the pool this summer something I must believe.
Last year at this time, my vision was for a new alternative type school. Now that seems far off and unlikely. Lots of reasons for that, but not ever sure. Can’t imagine making a big change financially right now, barely figuring out my own personal finances, never mind a business expansion or a change in my income that would involve a lot of risk. Can’t imagine working more than I already am as a single mom ofthree kids who wants to also have a life of her own. Do love working with the mixed ages, in the summer, after school, on Fridays with our mix of younger kids and homeschoolers. Do love working with a larger group of teachers, an accidental discovery I made while Alice was out this summer, two great subs to remind me of all the wonderful ways there are to be a teacher/caregiver, and of the joys of working with younger teachers, of being a little bit of mentor, of learning new things from them, of mixing up the different life stages and personalities for the adults and the kids. Loved all the reading and writing and photographing this year, can’t imagine giving it up, can’t imagine keeping it up:) My book shelves, even with a new one this year, are overfull, and there are more books I want to read than I can possibly get to this year, maybe this lifetime. Also had a great time thinking about music and art in a fresher way this year, and nature and seasons and the outdoors, and doing things by hand, and real work, lots and lots and lots I want to think about and to keep exploring, but no idea in the world where I will be next year at this time, refreshing and scary as can be, this place of unknown, but also a reminder that we never really do know, even when we are feeling secure and sure of ourselves, things change. Hope I am learning to adapt, to take life a little more as it comes, not to be such a worrier and control freak (probably just two of my potential downfalls).
Going to keep on keeping on. Going to go back to the Alternative Education Resource Organization conference in June, to Gilchrist in July, if I am able, to my Community Reflective Supervision Group if I can hire Danny to sub and afford the time away, to keep on watching and wondering with the adults and kids in my life to see what next. And will keep on cooking and eating delicious food, making and appreciating some sort of art on my own and with the kids, singing and listening to music, and dancing every so often, spending time in city and in the park and in the woods and in the water and with friends and family, reading good books, writing whenever I can, thinking hard and wondering on just about everything in the world. Hopefully that will make me a good mom and teacher and caregiver, best I can do for now.
October 12, 2009
Fall is here, and about six weeks into our new group and our Friday homeschool experiment, I have no idea where we will be next year at this time, though my guess is that our family day care group will continue and thrive as will our after school group. The homeschooling is a more experimental venture and the success or long term viability of that is yet to be determined. We now work with two homeschool families on Fridays. A third did a trial and the fit was not right for now. There are two other established homeschool groups in the area and all these families are familiar with the three and with many families who participate. Our program seems much more child directed and child care based than the others, and also has a wider range of ages and does a wider range of things (summer care, after school care, child care, home school support). One of our homeschool girls came to learn Spanish from Liana and to learn more about caring for babies. After several weeks, she wishes she could be with us more and we wish she could, too. Her younger siblings are also taken with the toddlers and so I see the wide range of ages as a unique opportunity we provide, and Spanish also. Our other home school boy is not as taken with the babies, but the mix of ages has been really useful to him in learning to form relationships, in being admired and a mentor, in learning to be with a wide range of people in different ways, from physical to artistic to repairman mode to cerebral. I think what we offer to home school families has value, but it is not enough time one morning a week to know what it would be like to do it full time, and it is also interesting to notice that it is in fact the care aspects and the wide age range, and the child directedness of it that seem to make it useful and somewhat unique.
And, I am happy and really loving work these days, in all its varied forms, mixed age summer care, daytime care of toddlers and preschoolers, and now Fridays with home schoolers added to the mix, after school, which has expanded this year and is more fun than ever, and also in being a teacher/provider and learning new things from the substitutes we have had this summer and fall while Alice has been out for surgery, and from the parent group, who has been giving me feedback on the blog, and from Liana and Alice, who are growing, too, and from my colleagues at the park, my slightly larger provider community. I am not missing the involvement with BAEYC (Boston Association for the Education for Young Children, where I as a board member for three years), or my volunteer work at school for our public alternative program (though I am looking forward to chaperoning an upcoming trip to Nature’s Classroom overnight), nor the grassroots organizing or support group for family child care providers. All these things were huge in my understanding of the larger world of education and care. The perspective I gained from working with people from around the city and state learning about and advocating for education and care were invaluable. But now, my work on infant and child mental health from the spring, and my own exploration of how children and adults live and learn has taken over. Writing the blogs and taking pictures is helping me to see what is in front of me everyday with new eyes and is waking up my heart and mind and dare I say soul, and that for now is the direction I am heading, wherever that may lead. I am alive and taking each day as it comes and looking forward to the next, not so much with a plan, but with hope, and that is huge.
August 26, 2009
Fall is fast approaching. Our mixed age summer, with kids from two to ten, sometimes an eleven, twelve, or fourteen, has been pretty darn good again. The mixed ages today, as we head back to school, made me wishful again that we could somehow extend what we do to include school age kids as an alternative to school every day. I love the interaction between the ages, today in woodworking, building, cooking, looking after one another, conversation, social skills, play, real work, I kept thinking and thinking how stimulating the place can be, how well kids behave when they are with kids of wider age spans, how much growth the younger and older kids experience in these roles of mentor and apprentice, caregiver and nurtured one, observer and model, needed and supported, the list could go on. I also just find myself really happy working with this wide age range. My ten year old alum brought insights to my work and to the day care, returning each summer after having been with us three years, that I really appreciated, and I think he was probably moved to reflect on his own growth as well as he shifted this year to a more adult conversation partner and to a true helper in the work of running the place and looking after the younger ones, but continued to do his own real work and projects, not running out of things to do, nor could I imagine that happening soon.
But then I also am looking forward to our toddlers, coming soon, and I love the fact that we serve working families who have a desperate need for good places for their youngest ones while they are at work. As families leave us for school, they are so grateful for the time their children have been with us, and as families enter they are so eager to begin. Makes me wonder how I would give up the early childhood work and the child care work for school age work that would be part child care part school (or just a life of learning?).
And I wonder about expanding, am very resistant to the idea of losing the intimacy of what we do, not interested in doing a lot of fundraising or administration, in doing less direct care, or in working in a space or program that is at all institutional. I love home, love the neighborhood, love homemade food, couches, kittens, old folks and neighbors, parents coming and going and I really don’t want to spend my days any other way, just don’t want the kids to leave and love the timelessness of life in family day care, the freedom kids have to follow their passions, to interact, to relax, sit back, watch the world or jump right in according to their energy, needs, development.
And I feel strongly that kids grow tremendously with us, that they could grow and learn as well by following their more natural developmental paths, making many choices, socializing, being physical, building and making things, being outdoors, as they can in school, doing more “academic work.” What I think is really, really missing is the larger mix of kids, and in particular the socioeconomic mix that kids, at least in my kids’ school, are getting. I don’t know how to do what we do for families who can’t afford our tuition, which is not near as high as many private schools, but is more than my family for one can afford, if we were to homeschool.
Also, ten kids is a small number to serve at one time, and so the wish to do it all, family day care for working families with young children, and an alternative to school for kids from five to eighteen, or even five to ten or twelve, is hard to imagine, seems unworkable year round, though why I am not sure, as it works all summer and after school.
Going to keep on reading and writing and thinking. Two more families asked me this week if we were still considering shifting to working with school agers as an alternative to school. We may be adding a fourth homeschooler to our school age group within the group on Fridays, and there is some potential for a group of younger kids, including two fours whose families homeschool, and others who have expressed interest, with younger kids still, to form down the road. Question is, do we want to stop serving all the families of young children that seem to need us to work with this older population, could we do both at one place in one time, or would we do two separate programs, or one larger program somehow?
No way to predict the future, can only dream and wonder about it. For now, I am going with a quote at the end of a book I just finished and loved, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
“There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient.”
July 16,2009
So, after the inspiration of the AERO (Alternative Education Resource Organization) Conference and the Gilchrist Teacher Retreat, my batteries are charged. Right now I am energized about doing lots of photographing and writing and finding the combination is drawing more readers to the blog, or perhaps the same readers and viewers are now checking in more often. The idea of spreading what we do by sharing with the world, of highlighting the importance of Len Stoddard’s ideas of Human Greatness and Positive Human Diversity, of using my talents in the Talent Show of Life (my silly term), maybe by being a family child care provider forever and sharing with the world what our version of the good life looks like, feels likes, sounds like, how we do it and how it makes us all feel and think, is a good starting place for expanding the world we live in, or maybe there is more, and by writing and photographing and sharing with the world, something new will emerge.
For fall, we have settled our group, now have four days with one through four year olds in the morning, and a mix of after school and younger kids those afternoons. On Friday, we will have a group of mixed ages from one to eight, including three homeschoolers and two of their four year old siblings, and five other kids.
I am also really energized by art, animals, gardening, family and neighborhood and outdoor spaces as models for what we do and exploring new ways to bring these things to the kids and to our lives feels good. Also, beauty, peace, rituals, freedom. love. All the good stuff that makes life rich and worth living I want us all to have more of and to enjoy with attention. This week we got kitties, we’ve had tea parties, art parties, made messes, cleaned up, felt joyful, inspired, loved and loving. Also sad, angry, defiant, hurt, but within a safe nest of the other stuff, the hard stuff can come and go with more ease.
So, not sure what this means about a school. I still like the idea a lot. I also love my work now and the time I have to be with kids, to do the dishes, put in the plants, talk with the parents, take pictures, write, be in my home. I don’t know if I want to give that up for a different place and commitment. I wonder if others are interested in joining a larger venture, or if keeping things small and expanding our world in other ways besides growing larger is what we are meant to do. Still listening, feeling, wondering my way along, good news is I am expecting the best, that things will all work out, and I am enjoying the ride even more than I was a year ago, before the idea of starting a school hit. Power of reflection, taking time to read, write, observe, learning to write a blog, use a camera, has opened up my world and brought me into lots of interesting conversations and new questions and values I am pleased to have found and to continue to explore.
Next step? One foot in front of the other, eyes wide open, faith in the power of the heart, the mind, the senses, the world and myself to help me find the way.
June 23, 2009
We are wrapping up enrollments for fall. For September, we will have a mixed group of homeschoolers and younger kids on Friday mornings. Monday through Thursday we will have ones through fives in the morning, then some will go home and school age kids will arrive for after school. There are quite a lot of school year only contracts for 2009-2010, which means we will have more spots for summer 2010 that normal, making room for more school age kids in our summer mix.
We are getting lots of positive response to the blog, continue to get up to ten readers a day on the Schooling Alternatives blog, and some days over thirty readers for Living and Learning Together. Liana and I are going to the AERO (Alternative Education Resource Organization) conference this weekend, open to meeting new people, sharing ideas, and maybe finding out something that will help us with direction and next steps for our alternative to schooling plans.
The following week I am attending a Teacher Retreat at Gilchrist, sponsored by the Yaegar Foundation, which is affiliated with the Fetzger Institute and which I found via the Courage to Teach website. I am going to spend a week in a hermitage (!) by myself reading, reflecting, writing, and listening, exploring the retreat center, and getting to know a small group of teachers who will be there that week. I am not at all sure what will happen and am looking forward to the surprise.
I feel the same way about the school idea, not at all sure what will happen and looking forward to the surprise. I have met lots of interesting, good people this year as a result of exploring the possibility of creating an alternative to schooling, have found the world open to me for the exploring, as I have read, talked, observed, and written about How Children (and adults) Learn. Sure there will be something down the road to come, not feeling too much pressure to know just now what it will be, hoping others will join the fun and that we might make something new together. One thing I have learned this year is how much it takes to start a new school or program, and that I don’t want to and am not able to do it alone, or even with a very small group. It takes a village to raise a child, and probably to raise a school.
May 6, 2009
We have interviewed many families and spent the school year thinking, dreaming, writing, planning, talking, reading, reflecting, and are now in a place to plan for the fall, if not to know where we will be down the road. It has been a magical year in many ways, moving out of my roles as family day care provider and public school advocate to consider the larger world of education and care and reading and writing about a lot of things I wasn’t even thinking about last year. My oldest moved from public to private school, a move I never expected and is so happy at the Sudbury Valley School. My younger son and daughter both considered SVS and my daughter and I considered homeschooling, then recommitted to public school. My daughter and son both went through child study processes last year, considering their learning and other needs from a special education perspective and this year we have changed focus, stepping back to allow their development to take it’s course and to find ways for them to grow and bloom with less anxiety.
Many families expressed interest in our ideas of expansion to include school age children in our family day care program, other families and teachers expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of creating a new alternative school. After learning a lot about how to do these things, exploring real estate, licensing, financial, and administrative implications for all kinds of options ,we realized that for next year we could manage the inclusion of more school age kids in our family day care program. These students would need to be homeschoolers, as we cannot claim to be a school and all kids must either attend school or be homeschooled.
After interviewing several homeschooling families and sharing our ideas with the world via our two blogs, putting the word out on many lists and by word of mouth, it became clear that we could not gather a solid group for a five day a week experiment next fall. Instead, we have a small group of homeschoolers on Friday, and are in the process of enrolling younger kids for the remainder of the week. We will see how this feels for 2009-2010 and as we go through the year, we will see if shifting or expanding to a new format for 2010 makes sense.
Part of the result of this year of reflection has been that we have become more joyful in our work and if possible, even more committed to what we do as family child care providers. Reading about new ideas, and writing about all sorts of things having to do with living and learning together has brought attention to the everyday grace of our work, to the sense of meaning and peace it brings to us as caregivers and to the children and families in our care. We love what we do and in some ways we just want to keep on doing it. It would be wonderful if we could find a way to make this sort of experience more widely available, if older kids could get what we offer, if more teachers and programs could experience the joys of living and learning with children that provides deep satisfaction and growth. For now, living and writing about what we do seems to be the best we can do. Maybe down the road we can do more.
Notes below from prior to May 2009
Here are some things I/we need to do to figure out how/whether we can make a new school or expand/modify our family day care to include school age kids:
1. Visit with Natasha at her homeschooling group program to see how it works to have kids from 2 to teens working in a home setting with a lot of self-direction and some adult direction. 1/13/09 – Visited and really enjoyed the experience. Strong differences between that group and ours, but a viable model from which we could learn a lot. A very inspiring/inspired space and leaders in alternative schooling/group homeschooling.
2. Talk to the west coast connection from Nadia who set up homeschooling resource centers within public school buildings. Find out how this worked. 2/1/09 – Seems a bit far from what we are doing right now, though a good connection down the road. If we are able to gather a group of committed kids and families over the next year or so, we will have a better sense of whether homeschooling is the model our kids will follow, and whether or not a homeschool center is something that we could/would do.
3. Talk to Lynette who ran the Mystic homeschool learning center to gather her insights into our project. Liana is arranging for us to have a Saturday tea in January. 2/1/09 update. Scheduled for January, Rescheduled for February. Met in March, learned a whole lot about Lynette’s experience in family child care (!), homeschooling her own children and offering classes to other homeschoolers in her home, then establishing the Mystic Learning Center (a homeschool learning center that was first in Medford, then moved to Watertown, no longer functioning). Lynette now works in public schools again, so our talk was very much about our ideas, but also about the paths women take in their lives raising children, teaching, and finding security and satisfaction in their work across the lifespan. I felt enriched.
4. Consider the option of getting another space approved for a second family day care license, possibly by getting a tenant in the day care and licensing the upstairs of Maria’s house. Figure out the regs regarding one provider holding multiple fcc licenses, or consider getting someone else to get the second license. Also, think about how staffing, scheduling, and grouping of kids would work if we had two programs running simultaneously. 2/1/09 – For now, this plan seems to be one option, but we are pursuing the idea of building a broader age range within our group of 10 to keep providers and families together. The second program idea seems more like a step for 2010, provided we can build up our group of school age kids in 2009. The financial hurdles of buying a second property seem too risky and time consuming to figure out this year, but perhaps after trying our ideas with older kids next year, and experiencing more of the effects of the economic situation, we will feel this option makes sense for 2010. Also, the idea of trying our ideas with older kids while also incorporating new staff members seems like too big a risk. Liana, Alice, and I work well together and splitting our team feels like a bad idea until we know more about what we can accomplish together with older kids.
5. Learn more about the fire and building codes in Somerville (and surrounding towns) as they pertain to schools or child care centers/preschools. Maryann, Gerlinde, PHA, Fayerweather might be good resources. Should also talk to Somerville Inspectional Services. 2/1/09 update – Again, this feels like a step to learn more about once we gather a small group of families and begin to grow beyond our Family Child Care capacity. Good to know resource people and next steps for when we need to learn more about expansion possibilities. 4/11 update – for now, we are planning to go forward in our family day care format for fall 2009, so we are not investigating purchasing a property or needing to know about regulations and building and health codes for center care or school designation. Keeping an eye on other programs, including Agassiz, which purchased a house in Summer St. and is converting it this summer to a preschool cooperative to replace their wonderful space in Cambridge, which has been purchased and is being developed by Lesley.
6. Learn more about the Real Estate market and what sorts of spaces might be available and suitable for an expanded program, possibly a multi family house for multiple fcc programs, possibly a leased or purchased space to operate a learning center, preschool/school, or school age child care program. Make an appt. to meet with Therese’s real estate agent Paul or with Mr. Takvorian, who knows a bit about deleaded properties suited to FCC. 2/1/09 update. Real estate market continues to decline in Somerville. Many vacant spaces and properties for sale/lease. Again, learning process is gradual, and putting a lot of energy into a larger space before we have families interested/ able to afford what we are doing seems not to make sense right now. 4/11/09 update. Keeping an eye on the real estate market, but not ready to buy, as we don’t have a sense if and when we will expand. Several ideas keep circulating, including the idea of buying or leasing a space that could house multiple programs, serving folks in need of child care, home schooling, schooling, and after school care, as well as summer care. Also, thinking about how to grow the idea of real estate investment and family child care going hand in hand. Talking to folks about this concept as key to healthy growth and families in Somerville and surrounding area.
7. Make a business plan. Think about budget, space needs, timeline, program description. Figure out what the format could be, what info. is needed, useful. 2/1/09 – Made practice budget for a second family child care group with purchase of a bank owned two family home in our neighborhood. The finances were workable, but tight. Property is under agreement for the third time in six months, making me think there is something wrong with the property or that getting financing in this market is very difficult. At this time, postponing sorting out business plan and real estate issues for expansion in favor of connecting with families interested in what we are doing and shifting the focus of our stable, already functioning program and space to one which serves a broader range of ages including school age kids. 4/11 – for now, focussing on finance, budgeting, tuition, and contract issues related to serving homeschoolers. How will this populations’ needs be different, how are we willing or needing to shift the way we do things to work with homeschoolers without compromising our program’s integrity or financial stability?
8. Think about financing. 2/1/09 Update. Thought long and hard. We are not rich. Our target families are not either, for the most part. Money is tight. This is going to affect what we can do, our potential for expansion, our ability to find families who can afford to do what we envision. For now, while expanding might have the potential to lower tuition and make our ideas more accessible to more families, our ability or willingness to take the personal risk expansion would involve makes that option too hard. We are going to stick with the financial model we have been using all along, charging tuition that covers staff wages, expenses for the use of Maria’s house, food, and minimal supplies and equipment. We will continue to reduce, reuse, recycle, offering healthy, creative opportunities for kids with minimal expense, focusing on minimizing tuition for familiess and offering decent wages to teachers without letting Maria’s house fall down! Taking on loans or seeking outside financing or support feels riskier than depending on ourselves and our families to make the budget balance. Expanding slowly might be the goal for 2010, with an eye toward minimizing debt and financial risk while continuing to balance tuition against wages and space costs as equitably as possible. 4/11 For 2009-2010, we are going to continue with the current approach to budget and finance with the family day care model. For 2010, we will see!
9. Think about nonprofit status. 2/1/09 Update. Another goal if and when we build up a group and are ready to expand or shift to a model other than family day care. 4/11/09 Might be a goal for 2009-2010 if we can foresee expansion for 2010.
10. Gather people together again, both interested families and interested teachers/founders. Create a founders group? Find people with different skills to contribute, including administrative, fundraising, real estate, legal, as well as outreach and programmatic roles. 2/1/09 – Liana, Sarah, Maria working over e-mail and in conversation on shaping the idea and vision. We are also working on two blogs, one which is more reflective, and a new one, yet to be publicized, which will be more static and serve as a place for folks to get basic information about our program and to invite them to find out more about us (sort of like a web site). Sarah will help with technical support and outreach. Alice suggested business cards. Our ongoing work in day care and after school continues to feed our vision and confidence. Maria has interviewed two families and is in contact with some others. Need to expand that circle, not sure how to do that. No other founders/leaders have emerged yet. Maybe they will soon! 4/11/09 Blogs are generating interest. As of today, Thinking about how our children learn has had 1625 visits (since November) and Alternatives to Schooling has had 672 visits (since February?). Folks who contact us are very positive, appreciate all the information and stories, and request visits. So far, we have had 6 families visit who have wanted to know about school age care for kids who would be homeschoolers. Two families are committed for one day a week, most likely Friday for summer and fall of 2009. A couple of other families are still considering. Three families with younger kids who would like to stay on for the school years have also visited or will visit this week.
11. Figure out a timeline for fall 2009 to sort out enrollments for younger and school age kids, possibly including Isabel. 2/1/09 Update. Have asked families of younger kids who have inquired about WFDC to check in periodically. At this point, I am thinking I will need to do interviews in February so that these families can visit us before the typical deadlines for applying to other programs (though maybe these have already passed) and certainly before deposits are due for other programs. This is why our enrollment cycle has begun in December in the past, and I am taking a risk by postponing it this year. We are making plans to send out information about our school age ideas to more listservs in February, too, in hopes that we can find other families interested in working with us. If we can gather a group of three or four older kids to join the day care, we feel ready to do it. If not, we would have to consider how an individual or pair of school age kids would have their needs met within a program of primarily younger kids. I am not setting deadlines for figuring this out, but expect to have more information by the end of February and to figure it out as we go along. 4/11/09 Timeline in place. Families of school age kids have visited. Two families are committing for one day in the fall, most likely Friday, with a total of three school age kids, ages 6, 7, and 7. Another couple of families are still on the fence. Time to check in with them. Families of younger kids still visiting and we are getting ready to make schedules and contracts sometime in the next month or so. Also working on incorporating some of these prospective homeschoolers for summer 2009.
12. Meet with families who are curious about this option for their school age kids and invite them to visit the day care and after school. 2/1/09 – We have done this with two families and connected with a couple of others who are mildly curious by e-mail. We plan to update a new blog to act as a website of sorts to offer just basic information that might explain what we do and give people something to check out and decide if they want to come for an interview. Probably it would be useful to do more networking in Somerville, though I am nervous about that. This is our community base and there may be other families who would like to stay in Somerville and who would want/could afford what we offer. 4/11/09 Outreach has gone pretty well. We have visited in the day care with 7 families of children who wanted to learn more about our program. Others have connected via e-mail, many have asked us to keep them posted for the following year, especially if we can get a school going. Liana and I are debating the wisdom of expansion, as we love what we do in family child care and with young ones and see a great need for child care. But, we love to try new things and will see how this year goes with more older kids, and decide as we go about 2010.
13. Continue shaping ideas by talking with people, writing this blog, reading, and exploring what other programs in the alternative realm are doing and how they got there. 4/11/09 – Blogging has gotten more personal. May shift to more about a school concept, but for now, I am enjoying going a bit deeper and thinking about universals in caring and raising children and in wondering what to think of those as we go forward, what is at the core, and how we can preserve the integrity of our values in any work we do with and on behalf of children and families.
14. Connect with the homeschooling community. Possibly join one of the Arlington homeschool meetings. 4/11/09 – Doing this one person at a time, rather than by joining a group . Seems to be working ok. Also reading some on the internet.
15. Talk with Marcia, a large family day care provider in Arlington who is homeschooling her 9 year old daughter and who has talked with our licensor about this. 4/11/09 talked with her briefly awhile back. Good resource if and when we need her. We are both very busy so phone calls are hard!
16. Figure out what my own kids will do for school next year!! One going into 7th grade and the other into 3rd, both considering options. Having this unresolved is contributing to my difficulty moving forward with the school age group in the day care. 4/11/9 – Looks like Isabel will be at school, Jonah likely to go onto the 7th grade at the Healey, though we have real reservations about both. We will see. Can’t really afford to have either/both kids homeschool full time, will also keep SVS as an option, as it is cheaper and doesn’t depend on a decision this spring or holding a place open for my kids.
