All About Nathan

With everything going on with Audrey it seems I haven't spent much time blogging about Nathan. He grew up a lot while I was in Jacksonville most of that had to do with spending time with other families. He had quite the social schedule while I was away. On Mondays he spent the days with the Hatch family (from church) with two of his best friends Drew and Nick. Nathan claims that they are his brothers! Tuesdays he went to the home of the Jarrets (from school)- this is where he spends time with Sam, Jake and Alex, what's one more boy in the crowd, right? Wednesdays he was over at another school friends house, Tommy Pinner - they had a lot of outdoor play, including once falling into a pond and then warming up in the hot tub! Thursdays he was at the Eicksons (from church) they have a little girl, Gracie that Nathan gets a long with very well. And Fridays he would spend at Aunt Sandy's.



Nathan is happy to have me home but he really enjoyed playing at different houses while I was away. I have been back for nearly three weeks and he has since been over to Tommy's once just to play and today he went to visit Drew and Nick while Audrey had a blood transfusion.





For the past few months Ryan and I have been discussing Nathan's plan for next year. Last year at this time we decided to look for a private kindergarten to put Nathan in because the public kindergartens are full day and we didn't think he would be able to handle it. We researched schools and found one that worked perfectly for us. We are so glad that we chose the school he is currently in. In our decisions for next year we have been discussing whether he should attend the full day kindergarten or if he is ready for first grade. The birthday cut-off is August 31st and he barely makes it in. I have polled half the kids/parents in his class to see what they are deciding to do with their children.

So far we know of three kids going to first grade (one private school the other two public) and three kids going into kindergarten again (two private and one public). One of the moms I was talking to said that they had decided their daughter would be going to public first grade - they too had been trying very hard to decide what to do when they talked to some friends that have children a few years older. Their friends suggested going the public school route and getting a tutor as it is much less expensive than private school and your child gets the benefits of one on one coaching. It is very important to Ryan and I that Nathan at least have the opportunity to perform at the top of his class. Once I talked with this mom I suddenly felt like we had the answer. I called Ryan immediately and discussed this with him and we are both very happy with the decision to send Nathan to first grade and get a tutor. The trick with the tutor is to do it now so that he thinks it is perfectly normal. In fact, we want him to continue to progress over the summer so we are going to look into getting a tutor for two hours per week during the summer. The tutor isn't to "catch" Nathan up or anything like that, in fact we are very happy with his academic progress this year we just know how much can be lost over the summer - I think Nathan will learn better from someone other than myself, I am definitely not the homeschooling type, unfortunately I have little patience and homework is about all I can handle.