Kids and School

This morning I took my son to tour Graland Country Day School here in Denver. He is entering Middle School next year and initially he said he wasn't interested. He thought the kids would be too different, and he had been influenced by his high school sisters viewpoint on what a Country Day school meant to herself, and her too-cool-for-school classmates.
I went to a Country Day School when I was in High school and am not only an advocate for private education, but I always think it' a good idea for kids to see their options and make their own decisions.
I have been struggling with the choices that were made for Maddi and want to make the right decisions for Saunders, acknowledging the fact that they are very different children and students.
I knew he would be enticed by the amazing athletic facilities and the student labs (science/ computer). Saunders is a natural athlete and a bit of a techie. He enjoys high-end technology and the benefits of the enviroment that Graland would offer.
That said, he has not been the best student in elementary, and it is hard to keep his attention.
I rode the fence between thinking, perhaps he is just not going to be an outstanding student, and/or maybe he is the genius I think he is, but hasn't found his niche yet.
This morning he was sucked into the Graland campus like an NCAA athlete into the NFL. He just walked around taking everything in, with the biggest smile on his face.
He pulled me over twice to tell me he loved it, and this was his number one choice.
When the Director of Admissions asked him if he had any questions, he just smiled and said, he liked the school very much.
As we left the campus, he told me how much he loved the Invention Lab and the idea of having the full park across the street to play sports. How he wanted to play sports in fall, winter and spring. I explained that he would have to work hard - that these benefits come with hard work and focus, but that I had hoped that we could find an environment that would inspire him academically, and that would nurture his own success.

I then asked what he thought about the dress code policy and wearing a collared shirt everyday and he said, he wanted to start wearing collared shirts everyday to prepare himself for the school.
I tried to cover all bases, good and bad, but he was so excited over the hour on campus, that he wore his name tag back to his own school for the rest of the day.
Now...tuition.