THIS girl

Have I raved about this girl lately? If so, it hasn't been nearly enough. Despite the obvious entering of her preteen years, she's also helpful, kind, and considerate. She puts up with A LOT from Ava, and still willingly watches her for me. And brushes her hair. 

Here she is with Ava and Merritt, another little girl that Alina watches. We were at a kid bowling party, and Abby could be rented out as a party helper!

She's also really struggling on a school decision for next year. There's a new (as of last year) Charter School option that she could go to next year instead. It has a strange location (in a strip mall!), has only four teachers (which they call coaches) and it's somewhat self-directed, especially for math which is all online. They get an iPad the moment they start, and it's all wireless so they can project at any time and present in front of the class (without it really being "presenting"). They talk about the 16 recognized career clusters and give them exposure to all 16 through field trips and guest speakers and by their senior year they pick one to focus on, giving them a better idea of what they might want to be when they grow up. They also integrate the subjects into capstones. For example, in groups they made a prosthetic limb, studying the implications to people in Social Studies, writing about it in English, using math and science to create it. I love that it makes them think past the test they have to take. She would start out the school day at her regular school for electives for the first two hours of the day, and then go to charter school for the rest of the day, and then back to regular school for after school activities or the bus home.

She's worried that she won't have a "regular" school experience. That she'll miss out on high school. That she won't have enough people choose from to date (yikes!). That she'll lose touch with her friends. That after school activities will be awkward.

I don't think there's a wrong choice here. She was supposed to make the choice on Thursday, but I've requested to go watch a class on Monday just to see it in action, so will need to make a decision then. I think it will drive her crazy by then!