Last Saturday, Rachel and I dropped the kids off at her mother's and headed out for a day on the town to go to the public school fair put on by the SF Unified School District. Normally, kids go to the closest school and that's that, right? Well, here in San Francisco, we don't do things normally. You put in your application listing the seven schools you like the most and then sit and wait with your fingers crossed to find out if your kid got into any of them.

So we went to the school fair to see what schools we should put on the list. The local school -- just a couple of blocks away -- would be first, no doubt. Some of the parents at Jared's preschool, however, were raving about another school a little farther away. We checked them both out, naturally. We were less than impressed with the principal at the local school and extremely impressed with the other. The more we looked at the other school, the better it seemed.

Now we have a dilemma. Do we send Jared to the local school that would be extremely convenient, has some great teachers, is the school his cousin attends, and is where he has expected to go his whole life? Or, do we try for the other school which would not be anywhere near as convenient, but is likely the better school? At the nearby school, my sister-in-law could pick him up when she picks up my nephew; at the other school he would have to go to the afterschool program.

Which one do we put first on the list? I'm sure he'll do fine at either one, but which would be best for him, all things considered. Anyone have any advice?