The clock continues to move forward, but I’m not ready for the date that is circled on next year’s calendar.  Kelley and I are having to make decisions now about kindergarten for Butterfly for the upcoming summer.  The toughest part of the decision making process is that no matter what we choose, my daughter will be in the hands of someone else for large chunks of her day.  And that’s tough.

Kelley recently penned some thoughts regarding our school choices.  She and I grew up as products of public school systems and show few negative effects from the process.  (Doctors indicate that my issues are due more to my adverse personality.)  However, in our current location, the public school system has some deep, inherent problems.  Granted, the elementary schools receive rave reviews, but the middle and high schools have as many controversies as they do graduates.  With things in the shape that they are in now, there’s no way I’ll send my daughter to the public middle or high school.  Partly because of the system and partly because I’m over-protective.  Our choice then comes to either choose one of the many private schools in the area or to move into a different school district.  Both of these have their pros and cons.  And, since we’re fine with the local elementary school, this is a decision that can wait for another 5 years.  Which seems like an eternity until I stop to consider that our little cooing baby just turned five years old.  Wow…it’s not that far from here.

Over these past five years, we have loved Butterfly, babied her, taught her, disciplined her, marveled at her, and watched her grow into the wonderful young girl that she is now.  It is a very difficult reality to face that someone else will be handling a part of these duties for the next couple of decades.  We’ll evaluate and make the best decision for kindergarten.  Then we’ll look at schools and decide what is best for elementary and eventually middle and high.  I am confident that we’ll make the right decision regarding our girls and their school.  It most certainly won’t be an easy one, though.  It’s tough to give them wings.