We have a school!! Woohoo!

Tuesday finally produced some great results in the school area...we got Madelyn registered for kindergarten! YAY! It wasn't without drama, though. I took her to Bellview Elementary at 8:45, in anticipation of registration beginning at 9. Of course, there were already parents there ahead of me and working away like busy little beavers registering their children, but not too many. I brought M with me figuring she might help a bit by showing her cuteness and wowing the receptionist and any other staff in attendance with her manners, winning smile, etc. ;-) I was feeling a bit desperate, and anything was worth giving a try! What I had sort of forgotten about was that Maddie has really never been in an elementary school before. So while we've been talking about school starting, going to K, etc., actually stepping into that elementary school was quite a shock for her. I saw her just looking around with big wide eyes while he headed for the office, and when we settled into the cafeteria to fill our forms she just looked around and said to me, "THIS is where all the kids eat lunch?" The sheer size of it all compared to her 9-child private pre-k school and classroom was pretty overwhelming at first!

After Maddie waited fairly patiently while I filled out about a million forms, we turned them in and then had to basically get "processed" by the receptionist. Here's where the fun began... they weren't happy with my proofs of residency, of which they require two...didn't seem to understand that no, we don't have a rental agreement OR utility bills because those are being paid directly by Unilever, etc. They wanted an actual social security card, not just her number...we lost that back in Chicago somewhere, and frankly - who the heck asks for an actual card anymore when you have the number, a birth certificate, a passport, and the actual child sitting right there in front of you? Maddie started to get impatient at this point (understandably!), but fortunately there was another very sweet woman working in the office who kindly volunteered to take Maddie to the kindergarten wing for a little tour. The receptionist and I finished up, and in the end she told me that we needed to come back with a copy of the district's approval or transfer letter, but that other than that - we were good to go and should come back the day before school starts at 4 PM to find out what teacher she has, followed by an ice cream social. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

We left, and Maddie was adorable on the way out. She only spent about 10 minutes touring with the office assistant, but as we walked out she showed me all of the rooms she had seen, told me about the music room, the art room, etc., and really seemed to be excited about starting. When we got in the car, she asked me, "So? Are they going to let me go to this school, Mom?"

Well...I thought the answer was yes, though I was a bit tentative. So I wasn't all that surprised when I got a call from the district office (vs. the school office) several hours later telling me that they had heard from the school, knew we had registered at Bellview - as we should have - but that we would have to wait until August 1st to find out where she would be accepted to school. This is because while we are living in the Bellview area now in our temporary house, when we move to our permanent address she will be a district transfer. And they only had a few spaces left in the K classes, which they wanted to reserve for actual district students. Sigh.

Long story short, we went back and forth on the subject, and the district office really seemed conflicted about what to do about her situation. After several phone calls within the district that went all the way to the school principal and then the district superintendent, the district office called me back late in the day to say they had decided to accept Madelyn into Bellview Elementary. Yahoo!! This is the best elementary school in the state, so I'm very happy with this; not to mention the fact that she will be a "car rider" since she resides out of district, but this elementary school is very close to our new house. So...with her K school supply list in hand and an actual school to set sights on, Maddie and I are both looking forward to spending Friday afternoon together having lunch and going back to school shopping. I always loved going with my mom before school started each year, and I think Maddie is excited too!