First Week of School

Friday. We are just about through the first week of school. It was a little rocky in the beginning. Getting out the door, even when school is a five minute walk from home, is still getting out the door! Showers, lunch boxes, and forms to turn in...we are not strangers to this routine. Getting lap tops and power cords packed and transported was a new event. But we did it and my three kids and the other 20 kids who make up the Oh Institute (oh-Institute.org) were all present for the 8 am meeting.

The school is on the second story of a beautiful West Indies style building in the center of town. The interior used to be an architect's office and it is as cool as you would expect. There are five main areas in the space. One "side" is for the middle school (about 10 kids) and two more not quite middle schoolers who slipped in with siblings. The other side is for the high schoolers, about 8 total. The perimeter of the room is lined with a desk-height counter top, beautiful wooden counter top with a clean modern look. The kids have office chairs, the cool black mesh ones you see in the CEO's office. The space has window along one side that look out onto the town hall and the little post office. The rest of the room is lined with clean simple white shelves that are home to globes and really really groovy graphic art.

The middle school and the high school are separated by long heavy white curtains hung on cool modern metal wire rods, think Ikea. The other areas are a kitchen, a small library and language room, a conference room and a lounge. The lounge has sleek modern couches and a very high- tech white board. This is where they hold morning meeting. The white board allows them to view any necessary or interesting media from anywhere in the world..like professors from colleges at Duke or their regular classroom teacher who might be at home or in Central America that day.

Needless to say, its not like school when we were kids! All the kids work all day either alone with their lap tops or in small groups with a teacher. The groups mix all ages and include everything from technology training to role playing social skills. Field trips are also on the agenda...some the kids will ride bikes to and some will require a passport!

I love it for the education and the unique experience but I also love it because everyday I can make the kids lunch at 11:45am and when the town hall liberty bell strokes high noon, I am sitting outside on a beautiful patio having lunch with my kids, their entire school, and several other parents. Pinch me!