SOMSD busing question

spontaneous said:

Her hesitation on moving the older child is that she has been at her current school for a few years now and has made friends. I understand that sometimes kids have to go to a new such, maybe because of a move or some other reason, but she doesn't want to disrupt her older child if at all possible. 

It's tough.  If they are older elementary students, that weighs pretty heavily.  In my memory, through about 3rd grade at least, my kids' friendships were pretty well tied to who was in their class.  Not that they completely dropped other friends, but changing schools would not have been much different that the impact of starting a new year with new teacher and classmates at that stage.  But every child is different, also.  I'm sure it is a difficult decision.

Back to my situation, though it is still too early to make any real judgement, so far we're loving Seth Boyden.  If it continues to be as good as these first two days seem to suggest, I'll probably send my other two there also when they're old enough instead of to our zoned school.

spontaneous said:

Back to my situation, though it is still too early to make any real judgement, so far we're loving Seth Boyden.  If it continues to be as good as these first two days seem to suggest, I'll probably send my other two there also when they're old enough instead of to our zoned school.

Good to hear.  Are you busing? How is the experience for the little one?

Yes, he takes the bus.  The stop is about two blocks from our home, so the same walking distance as if he went to our neighborhood school.  First day he got sick when he came home (a one day stomach bug was going around his grandparent's house last week and he apparently caught it) and he was super nervous when he came home and said he didn't like school, the kids are too rowdy, the cafeteria food didn't taste good, the school is too big, he doesn't like the bus, etc.  I talked to him at length, and convinced him to give it another go, and I said that I would drive him as long as he needed to feel comfortable.  I explained that even though he didn't "feel" sick until the end of the day, since he was sick it would color his perception of what went on that entire day.  He said he didn't think that was it at all, but agreed to "try" again.  This morning he woke up, looking forward to going in, and announced he didn't want me to drive him, he wanted to take the bus.  After school he came home happy as a clam, no complaints about rowdy students, cafeteria food was good, etc, etc. He is psyched to go back tomorrow, and is looking forward to taking the bus every day.

spontaneous said:

Back to my situation, though it is still too early to make any real judgement, so far we're loving Seth Boyden.  If it continues to be as good as these first two days seem to suggest, I'll probably send my other two there also when they're old enough instead of to our zoned school.

We loved Seth Boyden!  I hope you continue to have a good experience there also.