Making a good impression at a private school open house
We are in the midst of looking at private schools now, which is a process that requires some time, effort and an ability to make a good impression. On Saturday, we went to BBNS -- one of the most prestigious local private schools (also one of the most expensive and one of the most convenient for us location-wise -- as you can tell, these factors are pulling in different directions).
We dressed with some care (jeans, because it was for an open house, not an interview, but nice jeans and nice tops), we prepared our kids and told them to be on good behavior and we tried to look dignified in the midst of a crowd of people and an orde of kids looking like they were all there for a Hannah Anderson catalog photoshoot, and in the end, I'm sure we made a lasting impression and won't be forgotten for quite some time: we managed to lose our son.
Here's what happened: he was playing on one of the lower school's playgrounds and asked to go to the second one. I told him "fine, but you only have time to slide on the slides there and then you have to come back here." He's actually fairly reliable like that -- I wasn't worried about letting him go even though we couldn't immediately see the playground from where we were standing. But then Igor suggested we all move to that playground, because our little one would have more fun there. We walked over, I spotted G., we chatted between ourselves, then I chatted with a couple nearby, and the next thing I knew was Igor coming to me and saying that he couldn't find G. At the other playground? No, not there, either.
I wasn't panicking, because I know he wouldn't have gone very far; he'd sit down and start crying very loudly -- but there were no cries to be heard. Igor and I tried to split up -- him running back to the gym, where we registered, me scouting the playgrounds again; but that's when we saw the director of admissions leading G. to the playground.
Apparently what happened was that G. cried, someone spotted him, led him to one of the BBNS people, who then passed him onto the director of admissions, who asked him his name and his parents' names and sent her assistant try to figure out our cell phone numbers from that information (G. had calmed down and answered her questions, although he only told her our first names). Fortunately, we were found before they had to call us, but still, I'm sure it's not every day that prospective parents manage to lose a prospective student right during the school open house. How's that for the first impression? Think we should even bother wasting the application fee?
We dressed with some care (jeans, because it was for an open house, not an interview, but nice jeans and nice tops), we prepared our kids and told them to be on good behavior and we tried to look dignified in the midst of a crowd of people and an orde of kids looking like they were all there for a Hannah Anderson catalog photoshoot, and in the end, I'm sure we made a lasting impression and won't be forgotten for quite some time: we managed to lose our son.
Here's what happened: he was playing on one of the lower school's playgrounds and asked to go to the second one. I told him "fine, but you only have time to slide on the slides there and then you have to come back here." He's actually fairly reliable like that -- I wasn't worried about letting him go even though we couldn't immediately see the playground from where we were standing. But then Igor suggested we all move to that playground, because our little one would have more fun there. We walked over, I spotted G., we chatted between ourselves, then I chatted with a couple nearby, and the next thing I knew was Igor coming to me and saying that he couldn't find G. At the other playground? No, not there, either.
I wasn't panicking, because I know he wouldn't have gone very far; he'd sit down and start crying very loudly -- but there were no cries to be heard. Igor and I tried to split up -- him running back to the gym, where we registered, me scouting the playgrounds again; but that's when we saw the director of admissions leading G. to the playground.
Apparently what happened was that G. cried, someone spotted him, led him to one of the BBNS people, who then passed him onto the director of admissions, who asked him his name and his parents' names and sent her assistant try to figure out our cell phone numbers from that information (G. had calmed down and answered her questions, although he only told her our first names). Fortunately, we were found before they had to call us, but still, I'm sure it's not every day that prospective parents manage to lose a prospective student right during the school open house. How's that for the first impression? Think we should even bother wasting the application fee?