I'm telling

Because I really want to finish what I start, and because I don't want any kind of bad karma, I will share what I saw at Urban Discovery.

The building in which it's located is really old. I used to have a pediatrician in that building and even when I was five-years-old I knew it was ancient. Also, it's directly across the street from Balboa Park, which along with being a good thing, does have it's element of sketchy characters and foot traffic.

Those are the things I was holding against it going in.

But the school is very secure. The only way in is through a front office with a giant glass window and the office people can see you coming from a good way away. Also, it was surprisingly clean and colorful.

The "thing" at UD is "the whole child," which means they treat all subjects with equal importance. But it's also about making education fun. And while that's something that would seem to be all talk, like a random idea they put on the brochure, it was pretty obvious when you walked into the classrooms that they mean it.

There are two kindergartens and instead of learning letters, they were learning "ap" words: tap, nap, cap, etc. They had lots of projects on the walls, including science explorations and pictures from a play they had put on.

We met both sets of K through 3rd grade teachers and they were all super enthusiastic and, though I didn't say this aloud, they all looked like Disney princesses. In a total, total good way - all smiles, stylish but not trendy, excited about their jobs.

If there's a downside I'd say it's that they don't have a physical playground. Instead they walk across the street for recess and PE. It's kind of weird to think of my little kid crossing a busy street, but they showed us how the kids link arms in sets of three. They walk to the crosswalk and then pick a spot directly in front of the school. They don't let the kids use the public bathroom, either. They said if a kid really has to go, they call the office and an adult runs over and brings the child back to campus.

Another thing that made it pretty desirable is that there's also a preschool. So if we did end up getting chosen, there's a good chance we'd use a preschool that's in the same building (and next door to a pediatrician's office).

That's it.

I think I'm done looking at charters.

Now I've got to concentrate on traditional public schools in my neighborhood. I've got to pick five schools and right now I'm only confident about two. . .

So I plan to look at Hearst, Green, Daillard and ? suggestions?