Off to Oz!

I posted last week about how sending my daughter off to take a class at the local public school was sort of like sending Dorothy to Oz (...or maybe prison!), and my reservations about our decision.  The public school is a culture of its own, and most of it isn't representative of real life. Dd was coming in with a completely different perspective from the other students.

Today was the day...dd's first day of classes at a public school.  I must say, after nearly ten years of homeschooling, it felt a bit strange seeing her walk up to the school building.

So, how did the first day go?  It went just fine!  The teacher was expecting her as a new student and introduced her to another student, who then got her settled and introduced her to the others, as soon as dd walked in.  Her class (choir) is all girls.

The only slightly awkward moment was when the others asked, "Where are you from?" and my dd replied with the name of our hometown.  Of course, this was a reasonable answer in any other circumstance, but the the other girls, who spend more of their waking hours in a school building than at home, were really inquiring what school she attended previously.  When she answered that she was homeschooled, there were none of the negative responses she has occasionally experienced in the past from public schooled kids.

Overall, stepping into a public school classroom has so far been a pretty smooth transition. I'll be sure to share occasionally for the benefit of anyone else deciding to give this a try.  Later this week, I'll also share our personal reasons for our shift from our homeschooling norm to "go to the dark side".