BoardingPOV

Michelle started working on the SSAT in September – almost right after 8th grade started.  Most boarding schools will take the ISEE exams, but they seem to prefer the SSAT.  And the local school options where we live accepted the SSAT, so we decided early on to go that way.  There were a couple of [...]

Mom & Dad: It was late September/ early October – time to start getting applications, and deciding where to apply.  As we indicated on an earlier post, we were struggling with the idea of applying to boarding school.  For Mom, it was tantamount to packing her bags to send her daughter off, but for Dad, [...]

Michelle: Through the fall of 8th grade, my motivation to apply to boarding schools stayed strong. The head of school where I went for the summer program had told me that if I’d enjoyed the summer program I was going to LOVE high school.  Of course, my parents wanted me to apply to the two [...]

Mom & Dad:  She DID start 8th grade with a new level of focus – we saw it. Even her 8th grade teachers commented on the change.  Motivation, yeah – that’s what we like!  Of course, we had to put up with a bit of annoying “I wish I were back (there)!”  But she settled [...]

Mom & Dad:  Michelle may not have realized it, but from a parents perspective this was a test.  In hindsight – after the summer – we could see that the work done was very challenging.  We even found out that there were occasions that she skipped one of the fun weekend excursions on Sunday to [...]

Michelle:
It was the fall of Seventh Grade. I really, really loved what I saw at high school night. And boarding was the most interesting of all – to me. Boarding school seemed like an interesting adventure. I was so excited, and we talked so much, that I was surprised when my parents said “why don’t [...]

Dad:
Our daughter, Michelle, is going to Boarding School.  No one in our extended family ever has even considered it. We are from the central part of the country – where boarding is not the norm, for most a foreign concept and as you’ll hear later, a somewhat suspect option.  But, from the moment the middle [...]