October

We are entering the beginning of school decisions. Which in some places is incredibly easy. There is a school. You send your child to it. This isn't the way it is in Denver, especially with the choice system that is place. Parents apply at schools (including their HOME SCHOOL) and then get put into a lottery system if there are more applicants than spots. (Usually the case around our house.) This isn't the case for the older grades (first and up) but is the case for the preschool programs that our boys could go to.
I am now at a place where I know nothing about a job I might have (because I don't have it yet!) and the hours and such. Plus, the logistics of two kids at different places makes it difficult to figure out, and of course the money question.
My friends have their kids mainly at two schools, near our house.

We are starting school tours next week, and I have enlisted George to see this all through his eyes so that we can make the best plan for our family and the boys.

I have re-written this post four times. It is a tricky subject and so personal, and maybe I'll change my mind about all this in a year or two. It's hard to know which of my opinions will stick after I've been through the process of a school year. I do know that whatever I choose, Rowan and Milo are robust learners, and they will be fine, so I'm shooting for being reasonable, and not too reactionary as you may have known me to be... ;)

I have tried my best to give these kids space for free play, and materials to help them explore the world. I think that unscheduled time is increasingly what we are missing as a society, and I have tried to resist organized sports and organized everything for these guys at least for a few years. Yet, at what point does it matter to make space for spontaneous play when noone else is, and when all reunions with others are scheduled weeks in advance? Part of what almost everyone remembers about being a kid is having unstructured time with OTHER KIDS and when every child is in sports, art, music, at whatever activity, and in school, it is hard to know what is better for our boys-- Adult-directed activities, or solo activities.
I write this as Rowan and Milo are role playing and building in a fort on the couch, and constructing some other world where "oh no!" and other exclamations are emanating from the play.

It just keeps snowing, there is so much of it! we're probably at two feet now. Happy snow day!