Catholic Schools Week!

It's Catholic Schools Week here in my diocese, and Hank is all excited about all of the special activities they have planned for each day. He also loves that they only have to wear their uniforms today and can dress down the rest of the week.

But really, he doesn't complain about the uniforms, he just loves it when they do get a dress down day once per month (usually, with a $1 donation to a local charity). I, on the other hand, LOVE the uniforms. Mornings are infinitely easier: he knows exactly what to put on and can do it all himself, he just picks either a white shirt or light blue. Sweet.

It's been an interesting year for us with Henry in a Catholic school for the first time. I never went to Catholic school, just public schools my whole life. Mike went to a Catholic school for a few years in elementary school and actually loved it. We're planning to re-enroll Henry again for second grade in his current school. If you were to ask him where he wants to go to school next year, he'd tell you that he wants to go back to the public school. But he really can't articulate why. One time he told me that he liked art better there, I think, so pretty inconsequential stuff.

I think it's a "grass is always greener" phenomena. He's in first grade, so we're now at the "other kids tease and make inappropriate jokes" age, unfortunately. But that's going to be the case anywhere. And if he were to go back to the public school, we'd have to go through the trauma of him not knowing anybody and being all anxious about it again, since the public school is MUCH larger and has multiple classes for each grade. Even though he went there for kindergarten, he certainly wouldn't know at least half of his classmates. They had 4 kindergarten classes when he went there, but I know they also laid teachers off, so likely they are down to 3 classes, which means larger classes. In his Catholic school, he definitely gets a TON more attention, with a smaller class. He even gets papers sent home with nice notes from the principal if he does a good job on something. There's definitely a "homey" feel to this school. Plus, I love that he gets his sacramental preparation right in school, and we don't have to do CCD one night per week.

Mike and I haven't even really talked about it in depth, we're both just of the mindset that he should stay at his Catholic school for next year. Henry is a bit shy, and so I worry about him making friends and being happy. But he's always happy in the mornings going to school, he's not hesitant in any way. And for that reason too I think it would be a bad idea to switch him again. He's not gushing with enthusiasm about school, but I think he just prefers to be home.

So, all in all, it's been an informative year. I feel like it's money well spent.