Courtesy of Jill Duggar/Instagram
‘Counting On’ Alum Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard’s Son Israel Will Start Kindergarten in Public School
The Dillards have a big boy on their hands! Former Counting On star Jill Dillard (née Duggar) took to Instagram on Saturday, February 22, to announce some exciting news: her son Israel Dillard is set to start kindergarten this September in a public school! The former TLC star documented the process of registering her 4-year-old in a video on YouTube titled, “Israel Kindergarten Registration – Feb. 2020.”
“So, I am getting the boys some breakfast right now and in just a little bit, we’re going to head over to the school because today and tomorrow, they have kindergarten registration. So Israel is gonna get registered for kindergarten!” Jill, 28, said as she prepared breakfast for Israel and her youngest son, Samuel.
Once the boys were all loaded up and buckled safely in the car, Jill headed out with her sons. She explained that her husband, Derick Dillard, was leaving in a separate car just in case he would have to leave the registration day early to go to class. “You guys ready? You excited?” she asked her boys before driving off. “Yeah!” Israel exclaimed.
When they arrived at the school, Israel held on sweetly to little brother Sam’s hand as they walked safely across the parking lot to meet daddy Derick. Once they got closer to the school, Israel seemed to get more and more excited and he let go of the 2-year-old’s hand, looked both ways, then crossed the street and ran ahead of his family.
Inside, the Dillard family was the first in line to register that morning. Since they arrived before the 9 a.m. start time, Derick, 30, played with his sons in the entrance of the school to pass the time.
After the doors opened, the family entered the office where they completed the first step of the registration process, which included verifying their home address. After that, they walked through what appeared to be the cafeteria to the third step, which was titled “kinder screening.”
There, a teacher wrote Israel’s name on a dry erase board and he posed for an adorable photo holding it in front of him before his turn. “We’re excited! They just took Israel back for his little screening and we’re waiting out here,” Jill said and panned the camera to her youngest son. “Sam’s a little jealous that he can’t go too,” Derick said.
A few moments later, Israel returned and Jill was happy to report the results. “Yay! He did good on his screening!” she said. “He’s ready for kindergarten,” Derick added.
Jill first announced the big news in an Instagram post and fans flooded the comments to praise the mom of two for choosing to allow her son to go to a public elementary school — especially since Jill and her 18 siblings were homeschooled. In a post on her now-defunct TLC blog, mom Michelle Duggar explained that she and her husband, Jim Bob Duggar, made the decision to keep their children out of public schools “to do a Christian-based curriculum — one in which there’s a lot of character emphasis, character building like responsibility, honest, self-control.”
“Great choice [folded hands emoji]. Public school outside the home!” one fan wrote. “I think this is a very positive choice. Good for you guys. And if down the road you wish to homeschool, you can… [thumbs up emoji],” another wrote. We can’t wait for little Israel’s first day of school!
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