Our Little Mentor

This past Saturday Dane received his first acceptance letter in the mail! We are so excited and looking forward to next school year when he will attend Oakview Elementary as a mentor in the Pre-K classroom! He will enjoy school Monday through Friday 8:00am-2:30pm and the perks of a K-5 school...carpool line drop off, lunch in the big cafeteria, PE/music/art/etc., and a full curriculum that will prepare him for Kindergarten. Dane will go to the same school as Blake where 900 kids attend, so in addition to being exposed to a diverse population (something VERY important to Matt and I) and having the very important role of being a mentor, he will learn to navigate a "big boy" school and, in essence, have a real world experience. We have loved his current school where he has attended since before he turned one year old, but feel it is in his best interest to come out of that bubble and be exposed to much more.

The process of becoming a mentor was a bit more than I expected. I had to virtually stalk the Pre-K teacher each week since January asking if it was time to apply. They don't announce it to the public as it is purely word of mouth. The stalking proved to be beneficial as I was one of the first to apply in March to this particular classroom and was able to hand it directly to the teacher that same day. We waited and waited until two weeks ago when he was asked to attend school one day for a screening and to see if he was a good fit. This public school educated gal was a bit squeamish as it felt like we were trying to get him accepted into a private school...it felt so foreign. But, all turned out well as he was accepted! We are so proud of Dane and excited for him to have this experience, especially prior to starting Kindergarten in San Diego.