4 years: Open Enrollment

Last month we had to fill out the forms for your school open enrollment for kindergarten next year.  In Boulder, if you want to go to a school that is not your neighborhood school, you enter a lottery process and rank your top 3 schools.  I like the school you go to this year, but because it's a school that has been sanctioned in the past, it seems to be very test and achievement (in their terms) focused which I don't like.  During the open enrollment period, the schools go all out and have open houses and tours and parents nights to get you to pick their school.  We were busy having Salma when most of these events were taking place so instead we just researched the schools (all 34 of them) online and picked our 3 favorite schools for you. 

We got an email with your kindergarten school decision today and we got our first choice!  If we stay in Boulder next year you're going to attend the Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies, your hippiest school yet!

 This is the school's vision:

The Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies (BCSIS) provides a rich aesthetic environment in which artistic expression, active involvement, and academic excellence provide a foundation for the learning experience. A holistic approach addresses the head, heart, and hand of each child. Rhythm and sensitivity to unique developmental ages assure that students are held in a secure place where, through exposure to multicultural activities and creative projects, they emerge as self-defined, competent, and compassionate individuals.

Teachers strive to present a view in which the world is introduced through imagination and authentic experiences. Rather than superimposing artistic activity over curriculum content, the innate beauty and artistic elements of each subject are honored through each encounter with the materials. Our intention is to present the world as a beautiful and wonder-filled place where anything is possible. Math IS music, science IS art, and the totality of the way the world works IS poetry. <--my favorite part

The educational process is like a superb weaving. The threads of content areas pass each other, blend and spiral back again to create a unified whole. The teacher winds the warp--carefully laying in the colors. She/he allows the children to ride through the stands on the shuttle bringing the well-planned elements together into a cohesive finished product. With careful watch the teacher makes sure that no thread is dropped, that only luminous colors are selected for use and that the finished cloth contains all the elements necessary to make it functional and beautiful. This is a cloth held together by the very weaving process and is a product that is useful, beautiful and constructed with care and joy.

Hahaha, I love it!!  I wasn't sure your Dad would go for it, but he also chose it as number one.

Yay, puppetry!

From the kindergarten page (after this quote from Maya: "Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives."--Maya Angelou):

In kindergarten, the young child experiences a beautiful, warm environment and can engage in creative work and play. The child is immersed in "life activities" that support the child's physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. Activities may include: creative play, watercolor painting, sewing, letter and number writing, math manipulatives, woodworking, nature walks, singing, poems and movement, storytelling, play-acting, and puppetry.

When I read this, I was completely sold, it's like Hampshire College for 5 year olds!  I can't get too excited because we might not be in Boulder after Daddy graduates, but if so, I can't wait for you to learn how to sew.