I have a question...

It is Monday again and time to answer the questions I often get asked when people find out (A) What my husband does. (B) What our crazy life entails.

"What do you do for school with your kids?"

Good question.  We are just discovering the craziness of the hockey life vs. school for our children.  My daughter is in 1st grade, and my son is now in preschool...so we are really just having to deal with the challenges of educating our children while on the move twice a year.

Once upon a time, when my children were young(er)...and I was thinner...ahem, excuse me, I got side-tracked.  We never worried about moving so much.  Sure it was hard to pack up and relocate over and over again, as I explained here.  But schools were never a worry in my head.  I would take my children to visit my family for a full month in September, while my husband was in training camp.  We would take off during All-Star break in February without a worry in the world.  When Hockey season ended, we would pack up our things and head for the cottage to begin our (non-playoff) long summers.  Life was good!

Ahhh, vacation!

Then my daughter turned five and it was time for kindergarten.  She began her kindergarten year a little late, because we spend our summers at the cottage.  She began school about 3 weeks after the first day of the school year.  But my daughter has an AMAZING ability to go with the flow.  She made friends, rode the school bus, and loved her teacher.  I purchased $50.00 worth of school supplies...and three weeks later we checked her out of Kindergarten to move to a new city.  She had known this would happen, as I gave her the choice to attend school in our previous city or wait for the move.

First day of the first Kindergarten class!

We enrolled our daughter in school in our new city, and within one day she had made friends and made a place for herself.  I am so thankful to have such an amazing "hockey daughter"!  My daughter loved her school and enjoyed the seven months there.  When the hockey season ended, there still was over two months of the school year remaining.  We checked my daughter out of school and took her to the cottage.  We never enrolled her in  a new school there, as kindergarten was not required for graduation into first grade (weird, I know) for the following year.  It was an early and long summer for our daughter.

The same school, finally!!

We returned to the same city this year, and my daughter even made it for the first day of school!  (It was her first time!).  Although she is in a new school (they closed her old school), she is with the same kids from the year before. (Another first!)  However, here comes the big but (no, not BUTT, we are not talking about me right now)...My daughter knows that we will be headed back to the cottage, and she will finish her first grade year there.  She is okay with that, because our cottage is the only "home" my kids know because we always return each summer.  She has many friends there, and since it is a small town, they will all be in her same class.  She is actually excited to finish school with them...she says she has the "best of both worlds!"

So yes, we move A LOT...Our kids will see many cities, and many different schools along the way.  But I truly believe that it is not the school, but the HOME that makes your child who they are.  I have known many acquaintances who grew up in the same home and went to the same schools their whole  adolescent life....and they turned out quite messed up.  If I make our home (where ever it may be) a loving and safe place for our children...they will turn out just fine!

How about you?  Did you stay in the same school district, or did you move around growing up.  What are your thoughts on this?

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