I got up this morning and put on a pair of pants that zipped (hooray for me!) and went to tour YET ANOTHER school. This time, I was looking for Charlie, and because I was visiting a Catholic school, I felt like I couldn’t wear jeans (doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that Thou Shalt Not Wear Jeans on the Campus of a Catholic School, Excepting the First Friday of Each Month? I swear I remember that). Anyway, I found a nice pair of velvety corduroys and a modest turtleneck sweater and off I went.

The principal was a lovely woman, about my age, with a son in kindergarden, at this very school! What good advertising! She was warm and welcoming, and she said, ‘We can talk a little about the school and then I will show you around.’ I was trying to remember what exactly I wanted to ask her about–art, music, language classes, recess–when she said, ‘Let’s start with a prayer.’ Which threw me a little, as we are not let’s-pray-before-we-chat people here at Friday Playdate, but it is a CATHOLIC school after all, and I don’t know what else I expected. So we prayed, and I was reminded of how terrible I am at the whole prayer thing when I kept thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve had so much coffee this morning that I can’t hold my eyelids still! I hope she doesn’t notice. Wait, she’s praying, she probably has her eyes closed! Or at least she probably isn’t looking at me. Amen!’ So, yeah, not so much with the praying. Good first impression!

Then she told me all about this lovely school, with 20 kids in a class and music and art for the pre-k kids and Spanish starting in kindergarden and computers in first grade. When I told her that we’re not Catholic, she wasn’t thrown by that; she talked about how this is a CATHOLIC school, so they emphasize helping each child form a relationship with Jesus, but that nearly 15% of the students were from non-Catholic families and they were good with that and even had a system where, during Mass, the non-Catholic kids went up with everyone else during communion to recieve a blessing instead of the host so no one felt left out. And how they had sports for the kids, starting in kindergarden, and intramural sports starting in fourth grade. And Cub Scouts, too!

When she got to the Cub Scouts, I got a little weepy. No, not because scouting makes me cry (although the idea of sleeping outside in a tent does) but because, in all of the schools I have looked at for Henry, particularly this year, I’ve never had the luxury of thinking about scouting and basketball. Our concerns for Henry have focused so much on finding a community that could meet his specific needs–very small class size, teachers familiar with ASDs, access to OTs and PTs and tutors–that, until that moment, I hadn’t thought about things like sports and scouting as part of a school experience. And when I realized that this is what MOST parents think about when they look for schools, this idea that their child will fit in and participate and belong, I started to cry and the nice principal had to give me a tissue. Again, excellent first impression.

The principal took me around the school and showed me the classrooms, and everywhere we went polite children said ‘hello!’ and ‘good morning!’ to her. She knew all their names and they were all delighted to see her. When I asked about class size, she said, ‘We do everything we can to keep each class at no more than twenty, but sometimes we have to adjust. When the hurricane evacuees came from New Orleans, of couse, we took them in, and our kindergarden class was a little big for a while. But we did what we had to do.’ I wanted to hug her. But I wasn’t sure that would make a good impression, particularly after the poor praying and the crying, and I really really wanted her to like me.

As I drove away, I had this huge sense of relief. All this school touring has been stressful, to say the least, and I’m ready for it to be over. For the first time since we started looking at schools, I feel like we’ve found what we need, for both kids. I always swore that the boys would go to the same school, dammit, because I wasn’t driving all over town all day, but ha ha! that’s exactly what I will be doing. We’ve found a great school for Henry, one that specializes in kids with learning differences. In some ways, it’s a lot like the school I looked at today; it’s an Episcopal school, so Henry will also be building a relationship with Jesus, albeit with a more liberal Jesus. Both boys will wear uniforms, which makes me happier than you can imagine, as my kids stink at dressing themselves. Both schools are located on the same major road, within a few minutes of our house and each other, so I won’t really be driving around ALL the time. And each school offers exactly what my sons need.

Now just cross your fingers and hope they get in, because if they don’t both go to school full time next year, I cannot begin to describe the bad things that will happen. Really.