Emily has always been "ahead". At birth she came in 2 hours- as I yelled she is coming- the nurses laughed and said "Oh, these 1st time moms- they always think it's that fast", a few minutes later I had a new baby girl. At age 3, she picked up her first book and started reading, and discovered her love for science. When we decided to put Emily in school at age 4, it was because she lacked social skills. She would hang on to my leg and never say a word to anyone. If you got a "hi" out of Emily- it was a pretty big deal. (She is still pretty shy.)
How We Found Faith North
I began my search for a school that Emily would fit in at. I researched local schools and realized how crowded our school system was. A class with 30-40 students- I couldn't imagine Emily here since she rarely spoke to anyone. During my search I must have sat in at least 10 schools before I found it- Faith North Montessori, http://phxschools.org/faith_north/ a little school downtown. As I walked in I could see this was a different enviornment- the first thing I noticed was the garden. Plants, animals, vegetable gardens, all taken care of by the children. As I walked towards the classroom the teacher explained to me that this was not your "typical" school. Every class room had a few grades in it; preschool and kindergarten; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd; 4th 5th and 6th; and last 7th and 8th. The reason they did this was to accommodate every child's need so if you have a 1st grader that can do 3rd grade work he just sits in on those lessons and doesn't feel like an "outcast" because he is among his classmates, or if he needs to work on something a little longer he can do so without feeling bad for being "behind". Last but not least- every class only had about 6 kids of the same grade in the class. This was perfect for Emily! A place where she wouldn't get lost, and be able to be herself!
A New Search
After 6 years my Emily has changed. She has found a love for music, which her school offers very little of. She can pick up pretty much any instrument and understand it. She is currently playing the clarinet, piano, and most recently guitar- and let's not forget her love of singing! At Faith North they offer very little in terms of music education so we made the very hard decision that it was time to start a new search.
One of the first schools that came up on my search was Arizona School For The Arts http://goasa.org/ (which I will now refer to as ASA). It is a school (grades 5-12) that pretty much takes out all other electives and focuses primarily on the arts (dance, voice, music, theater). Rated one of the top schools in Arizona and no tuition make it one of the hardest schools to get in to. The admission process goes as follows; wait list 1 year, application, interview, test, audition, and finally if you are able to jump through all of these hoops you are fortunate enough to get into -the lottery! The lottery is the final step and is pretty much a 50-50 chance.
Emily's Chance-
Upon arrival we noticed that there were already about 500 people there, my first thought- I'm going to be here ALL day! Thank God, I was wrong. The process was very organized. They took all of the soon to be 5th graders and separated them by last name alphabetically and divided them into separate classrooms. We, the parents were instructed to leave our children and return in 3 hours. I arrived back a little early which was a good thing since Emily was just walking out. We then went on to the next room where she would have her audition. We were very nervous because Emily's clarinet had decided to malfunction the night before- some notes would stick, the keys were hard to push down on, and it took twice the amount of breath to get any sound out of the thing. As we walked into the room I was surprised to see very few kids waiting. (I later learned that this was because Emily was early) I asked if they had another clarinet she could borrow and they said sorry we do not but we will see how she does with this one. We sat and waited and could hear the other auditions, I felt bad for the children who were coming out- I heard one say "Mom, I'm sorry, I was so nervous I couldn't stop squeaking!" And then from the hall I heard, "Emily Sanderson"- it was her turn, as she walked in I felt nervous for her. I began to pray that God would be with her and her instrument and that He would give her favor. As she began to do her scales she would stop and say- "I'm sorry that's where it sticks". The teacher then asked her to play her favorite piece she played Morning by Griege, then she said now do another this time she did Ode to Joy. As she walked out the teacher said "Emily, If you can make a broken instrument sound that good I can't wait to see what you can do with one that is not broken. I really hope you get into this school, I will cross my fingers for you." At this moment I noticed something about Emily that hasn't changed, that uncontainable and undeniable look of accomplishment on her face. I love that proud face that Emily walked out with, it will be in my heart forever. "How do you feel about today?" I asked on the way home. Emily answered "Mom, I know I am supposed to be humble, but I am really proud of myself". I told her I was pretty proud of her too and that it's ok to feel good about yourself.
Waiting Game
As we wait for the lottery I know that either way I will be happy with the out come. On one hand we still love Faith North, I actually have Jacob and Hannah scheduled to start there in the fall. (If you are interested in this school sign up soon, there is now a 3 year wait list!) On the other hand, I know ASA is where Emily and her love of music belong. So for now we wait, and know that it is in God's hands and He will do what is best for her! :)
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