My daughter will be four next year. She is currently attending a community school and a Montessori based school. Why two? Because I can't choose between them! The community school is beautiful. It is tiny, and the parents are heavily involved. They teach her social and emotional intelligence, and each child is treasured for their individuality. She could go here until seventh grade. The Montessori based school doesn't fool around with social and emotional stuff, but they are teaching her how to read (she's been asking for a year now), play music, do math, find countries on a map, and other Montessori type things. I also teach her at home, mostly reading and math, but a good dose of science and art by the wayside as well. It sounds like we do nothing but school...but in actual fact, she's only gone from home for two days a week, and we spend maybe an hour a day on focused learning things. So she still has plenty of time for playing and driving me crazy.

Next year is what is called "kindy" in the Australian system. I suppose it's analogous to the American preschool. It's the beginning of "real school" here. And I feel like it's a critical time, where decisions that I make about school now will affect her for the next eight years at least(perhaps I'm being silly...but there it is.) Here are my options, as I see them:

1. Keep her in both the community school and the Montessori school, which means she'll be away from me four full days a week. Not a lot of time left for me to teach her anything. Or maybe I'm being silly.

2. Switch from the community school to the Montessori school, as many days or as few days as I would like (probably three?). The Montessori school ends at five years old, and she may not get back into the community school for the following year. However, her best friend is doing just that, so she would at least be in good company. He will be moving back to the US in a few years though, so he'll be attending the International School after kindy.

3. Switch to our local school. This is a very nice state school (public in the US language). However, it's not particularly advanced, and it doesn't have the capability of catering for a kid that is advanced. I could take up the slack at home easily. She could also go to the Montessori school at the same time, and I'd have time to teach her at home as well. I just worry that the standards are incredibly low, the parents aren't particularly involved, and the older kids are separated completely from the younger ones (my daughter thrives on interactions with older kids).

4. Give up, pack up the camper trailer, and go traveling for the next 14 years so that I don't have to make any more of these decisions.

I know...you guys can't make my decision for me. But my child is bright, social, enthusiastic, difficult, stubborn, and lots of fun. I want to keep her that way. And I want her to get the best start that she can possibly get. What did you do with your bright kids? Help me!