Here We Go Again - Update

After Mommy dropped off Parker at Angels this morning she went up to the church office at First Hudson to find out if they had made any decisions about the VPK program. Unfortunately, the church is going to have to close the VPK program too. The church staff and Angels board are understandably very sad and upset about the situation, much as we were last year at Faith about Noah's.

So Mommy set off this morning to see about finding a new place for Parker. Pasco County doesn't do VPK at elementary schools, only Head Start which we don't qualify for. There are no other Methodist Churches around that do VPK (the other one in New Port Richey shut down on Monday). But fortunately Mommy got a lead on one center from a staff person at First Hudson. The youth directors there are going to be sending their son, who was in Parker's class, to Kids At The Point. Kids at the Point is located on the premises of the Regional Medical Center of Bayonet Point and is primarily a daycare center for children of hospital employees. However they have two VPK classes and four empty spots not filled up by employees' children. This means that the spots can be filled by kids from the community. After meeting with the assistant director and getting a tour, Mommy put Parker's name on a list for spot. Then she went to check out another center in Hudson - La Petite Academy. They have three VPK classes and six empty spaces right now. Both places were very nice and clean and all the people were friendly. So Mommy wanted Daddy to check them out and see what he thought.

We decided to go pick up Parker from Angels as a family and take him out for a treat - lunch at Burger King and we sat inside (Parker hates getting to-go; he prefers to eat inside restaurants). At lunch we told him that Angels was closing and explained about going to check out the two new centers. He was very upset and cried plenty of tears - he does NOT want Angels to close. His idea was to move it all back to our church and setup another daycare. We wish!

So we toured around this afternoon and Mommy and Daddy have decided to send Parker to Kids At The Point, mainly because of the vibe we got, teacher ratios and classroom setups. Parker just needs a little convincing. The tears flowed off and on all day as Parker processed what was going on. Fortunately he got a little playtime with Aydenn at church tonight during the Finance Committee meeting and that greatly helped to improve his outlook.

Now our big decision is how long to leave him at Angels. The last day for VPK there is October 16, which means he could finish out this week and go for two more. But from our own experience at Noah's, we know that the numbers of kids will dwindle out as they find other placements and the staff will be preoccupied looking for other jobs. We're not sure how much teaching will actually be getting done and we don't want Parker to fall behind. So if we can get all of our paperwork finished up and transferred over today and tomorrow, Parker will possibly start at the new center on Monday. We'll just have to see how it goes and continue to pray and trust.