Help! Which School Should I Send My Children To?
You’ve dreamed up this intimate learning environment for your children to learn and grow, one that includes relationships with families that you’ve cultivated over the years. Your friends’ children attend this school and you know the families well, so there is some level of comfort in being with them, and in having your children around them. Your children all seem to enjoy each other’s company as well (that’s huge, I know, for me too!). There is alignment with your core values of the school and your overall vision for the ideal learning environment for your child.
And yet, there are some disconnections (possibly with certain teachers or a few students), which feel quite disturbing (and potentially unsafe) for the emotional or physical wellbeing for you and your children.
So what can you do?
Consider the following possibilities:
- Cultivate your own growth/healing via coaching, in order to serve as the emotional vessel for the communication between yourself and those teachers.
Healing your own triggers will allow you to get into an authentic conversation with those teachers, and to act as emotional support for challenges that arise during the conversation. This support will help center them and help them to keep the core values of the learning environment front and center. If this isn’t something you’re quite ready for, however consider…
- Create an opportunity for your children (and perhaps with the parents of the children that you feel more aligned with) in a different setting. Explore a home environment. Alternate days and activities on when to get the children together.
To gain more clarity on whether this possibility is one you want to consider, use the below graphic to ask yourself each of these questions one at a time:
- Would I/(my partner/spouse) be okay with this arrangement if we set a time period for when the children could be together? If so, how do I feel? If not, how do I feel?
- I have to __________ (problem, for example; spend some of my time inside my house to rest/work/get away from allergens.) The other moms don’t. How does this feel for me?
- If I enjoy this arrangement, how would it feel for me to have a conversation and create an agreement with the other moms that could work for all of us? For example, if I allow my home to be used as the “setting”, could they provide the physical support that the children need?
- Identify and then find an existing learning environment that meets your core values, your needs, and the needs of your children. For example, your core values or ideal learning environment for your children could look like:
- a love-based education center
- within nature
- enables children to follow their own interests
- empowers autonomy
- teaches accountability and responsibility
What is your core need? For example:
- to have time to yourself
- to have time with your baby/spouse/children
- both
How else can you network to find this setting?
Use this inquiry to help you decide what is perfect for your journey right now. I’m here if you have additional questions.
If you find that these sorts of prompts are helping you work through your thoughts and feelings, you might be interested in getting a monthly membership to The Path to Conscious Parenting. There, you will have access to an entire resource library designed to help you connect with your emotions.
