Peabody has been an incredible school, for both of our girls. The community that surrounds the teachers is warm and welcoming, the girls were getting a wonderful education, and they were being matched with teachers that complemented their needs each and every year! The staff members are passionate about their work and it reflects beautifully on the lessons our kids bring home every day.
Abby is our social butterfly who absolutely adores all things school...and is incredibly smart to boot...thrived in this environment. Elizabeth, on the other hand, just sort of coasted through it. She is also bright but because of her struggles with epilepsy, has experienced some difficulties in language arts. Even still, Peabody was equipped to give her the support that she needed and Elizabeth made her way on through the elementary years.
About half way through Elizabeth's 5th grade year, as we started learning more about middle school preparations, we started to think outside of the box. We started wondering if we were content at Peabody because it was all we knew, it was comfortable and it was two blocks away, need I say more? The same goes for our neighborhood middle school.
We were gearing up to send our daughter to a school of 750 kids spanning three grades, simply because it was the natural progression. And what's worse? We were planning to send her to high school that enrolls 2,300 students.
How could these educators possibly know their students? In a time of great mental and physical change, how could any of these educators recognize any one student in their biggest time of need. How does a child's mental health and education stand a chance in such a large pool of hormonal adolescence?
Needless to say, location became far lower on our list of priorities and we started "shopping" around. We looked at other middle schools in our district. And then we started considering private school.
And this week, we sent our freckle-faced, first-born, sporty-spice off to middle school! She walked through the doors at Denver Christian School in the morning and came home that afternoon with a big smile on her face. What's more, we ultimately let Elizabeth make this decision on her own. We told her that if she wanted to continue on with the friends she knew for the past six years and attend the local middle school, we would support her decision. We also told her that if she wanted to attend a private school, we would have the same response--very well knowing that choice comes along with huge financial obligations.
When you sit down to weight your options in regards to your child's well being, things like money and location (it's a 30 minute drive one way) don't matter. I can't stand the thought of my girls getting lost in a sea of students at a time in their lives when they are most vulnerable.
So, instead, we gave Elizabeth the tools she's needed to make her decision and thank God, she made a choice that fully aligned with where Nate and I stood on the subject.
We are now one week in, Elizabeth is thriving so far and we are so very eager to see what the future holds for our bright, young, beautiful little girl!
