Time To Worry About High School?

The other night my daughter's school had a high school fair. Granted she's only in the 7th grade and she still has another year to figure out where she's going to high school. However, everyone kept telling us how important it is to start looking now. Okay right so here we go. First off my daughter usually wears a uniform to school but for the fair she could wear whatever she wanted and I told her to look nice. She comes down the stairs sporting a cute skirt and and sweater her grandmother got her from Abercrombie & Finch. It's her favorite store. Actually I think it's everyone in her classes favorite store. Personally I think they're a little pricey and always head to the back of the store where the clearance racks are. Anyway she looked beautiful and all grown up. Realization was seriously settling in on the fact that she will soon be heading off the high school. I took a deep breath and we headed out to the fair.

We entered the school's gym and there were about 15 schools set up. It was so overwhelming. She saw her friends and immediately went to them and her father and I had to follow behind. She had no idea which school she wanted to check out first so we kind of randomly picked. A few we skipped because they were all boys so clearly there was no need to check them out. The first school we looked at she had heard about and it's not too far away. When we got to the booth my daughter just stood there having no idea what to ask the girls that were there anything about the school so I stepped in and started asking questions. The girl was very sweet and you could tell she enjoyed going to this school. It offered many things that my daughter wanted and they were giving out free pens and a cute little mirror compact so she thought they were great. Moving on the next school was the one I attended in High School and well it's a really wonderful school, but it's also almost an hour away and would be quite a drive. Again she didn't really know what to ask, but soon found herself getting more into it. She's so shy I worry about her going to a bigger school for high school. The one she's in now is small and she's been there since nursery school. Needless to say she is very comfortable there. She's also very bright and has a lot to offer any school she attends. I have no doubt she will succeed wherever she chooses to go. Okay back to the high schools. There were a few others we check out and asked questions and everything seemed to be so crazy. What was more important the proximity of the school, AP classes, Clubs, or sports. My head was spinning. My daughter really enjoys track and drama so whichever school she chooses they must have that to offer, but she excels in math so we want a really great math program. It's just so hard you want to make the right choice for your child. Not to mention private schools are so expensive. How will we pay for college once we get through paying for high school? I guess this is why they tell you to start early so you can weed out the schools you have absolutely no interest in going to. One mom asked me if we could please go back to nursery school. I looked over at my daughter who looked so grown up talking with her friends and I really wish we could go back because I'm not ready for my little girl to go to high school.