kindergarten, here we come!

We finally have some questions answered about where the girls will attend kindergarten this fall. Our public school district has ten elementary schools which is what has made this process quite long and confusing. We had to apply at our “home” elementary school (which is based on where we live in the district), where we are guaranteed half-day kindergarten. We had to enter into a lottery for full-day kindergarten at this school because there is only one full-day kindergarten class. We were fortunate to be drawn in the lottery for this, so Olivia and Violet did get into the full-day kindergarten option there.

In the meantime, we entered into a separate lottery for two specialty schools in our district, one being Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion (RSI) school and the other a Science & Technology (STEAM) school. Both of these schools are VERY popular and therefore are very hard to get into. It comes down to the luck of the draw. There were over 320 lottery applicants for kindergarten for each school, for only about 50 spots at the RSI and about 25 spots at STEAM. We did not get drawn in the lottery for either school; however, we were automatically put on a waiting list for both schools based on where we were picked in the lottery. We were #8 on the waiting list for RSI and #149 at STEAM. So at that point we knew we had no chance at STEAM!!

Recently, the first round of lottery offerings had to be accepted or declined, and based on how many declined, the next round of offers was sent out to those next numbers on the waiting list. We were lucky enough to get an offer in this second round for RSI, because 11 people declined their spots, and we were #8 on the list. That was the good news!! The tough news was that we were only offered half-day kindergarten at RSI. So we had a tough choice to make, full-day at our regular school of half-day at RSI. There is on-site daycare at RSI, and they do have a “Kindergarten Component” for half-day kindergartners to attend for the other half of the school day. So it does help to know that they will have a learning curriculum the other half of the school day, which will hopefully be like a full-day kindergarten education. Thinking long-term, we decided that RSI will provide great benefits to Olivia and Violet. RSI is also ranked much higher in the state school rankings than our home school. So we have decided to send them to RSI. We are very excited about this opportunity! RSI goes through fifth grade, and it is a program where students learn Spanish as a second language through immersion. So, basically the teachers will speak Spanish to them from Day #1, and all classroom instruction is conducted in Spanish. That means Jamie and I will probably have to learn some Spanish too so they can’t talk to each other without us knowing what they are saying. :)

We attended an information night at RSI on April 29. We were able to tour the school, ride on a school bus, meet the kindergarten teachers, and spend some time in the kindergarten classrooms. I watched as one of the kindergarten teachers read "The Three Little Pigs" ("Los Tres Cerditos") in Spanish to a group of kids. It was interesting to see how the teacher could convey the meaning of the story through actions and facial expressions, even though the words were in Spanish. The kids also learned a song in Spanish about shapes; the girls loved it and did not want to leave! They are very excited to attend Spanish Immersion school this fall.