Well, our little girl is now 4 years old.  I’ve had a few people ask me if she’s going to preschool, or 4K.  Shane and I talked about it, and are of the opinion that we’d rather send her to a Waldorf or possibly a Montessori school rather than standard public school.  When we knew we were moving to the Hudson area, I immediately started looking to see what would be available in our new area.

Unfortunately the nearest Waldorf schools where in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and other cities across the river from Hudson.  Then I looked at the Montessori schools, there is one in River Falls, but it’s a private school (as are the ones in Minnesota) rather than charter schools.  What’s the difference?  Well the private schools are quite expensive and charter schools are actually public schools and paid for by taxes which mean they don’t require extra tuition costs.

Shane and I talked about the tuition costs for the Montessori school in River Falls, and while it probably isn’t out of line, it is more than we felt we could afford.  It also meant that we’d have to drive her to her school every day, a bit more than we wanted to take on.  Instead we decided that for this year, we are going to find activities for Allyssa and I’ll work on teaching or homeschooling her this year.  We’re also looking to homeschooling groups and such in the area as addition places Allyssa can make friends.

So last night we were looking over the Woodbury Parks and Rec booklet, and decided to sign Allyssa up for their Wish Upon a Ballet and Fascinating Fitness programs.  ”Wish Upon a Ballet is a dance program for children that incorporates popular children’s stores as well as ballet stores to create a dance class that is more than ballet steps.  Using musical instruments, parachutes and scarves we will create a complete fairy tale experience while we skip, leap, jump and spin.  Children will learn an appreciation of dance and music while developing strength and flexibility.”  The class is 45 minutes in length.

The booklet also talks about Fascinating Fitness and says, “This class will be packed with high energy warm ups, games and fitness routines.  We will not only get our bodies moving but learn about healthy eating and exercise.  there is no doubt that being healthy starts when you are young.  Help your children be fascinated about fitness today so that they can be fascinated about fitness for life!”  This class is 30 minutes in length.

Part of the reason we decided to go with both of these is that they are one after the other in the same location which is only a couple of miles from home.  There is a 15 minute break between the two so plenty of time for Allyssa to have some water and a quick healthy snack if she wishes.  But not so long as need us to find other things to do between them.

Another part of our activities has been going to Storytime at Hudson Library every Thursday.  This has worked fairly well.  We drive in with Shane in the morning, spend time at the library as well as other places in Hudson, and then do our grocery shopping before coming home.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted here. Lately I’ve been using FaceBook more than anything to keep thing up-to-date. There are to things that doesn’t help with though the few people who are not on FaceBook don’t receive the updates, and I actually don’t say much on FaceBook either. Now that could be because I don’t feel I have much to say, or that I don’t want to post in on everyones walls. I’m not exactly sure which some days.

But in the interests of posting about new happenings, I need to mention a few things. I see that Shane as posted about his new job so go ahead and take a look at that as well. Unfortunately the sublease we thought we had all lined up didn’t work out.

Instead we found a woman in Woodbury who leases an apartment attached to her home out as corporate housing. She wanted someone who would stay through the entire winter so we have a lease here until the end of April. This way we don’t have to look for something and move in the winter again. Those who have moved in the winter know how unpleasant that can be.

The apartment is fully furnished with two bedrooms, 1 1/2 bath, den/mediation room, open office/second living area, living room and kitchen. One main floor bathroom has a stackable washer/dryer unit, and the upstairs bathroom doesn’t actually have a tub, but the shower is quite large.

Besides being fully furnished, it also includes all the utilities, DirectTV and internet.  On the down side the internet is only about a 256K download and upload, which isn’t fast enough for Shane to do his schooling online.  We will be seeing if it’s possible to increase the internet connection or we may have to supply our own connection so that Shane can continue his degree.