Schools

[lexus]

What kind of school do your school-aged kids attend? Are you happy with it? Do you do anything to supplement their education?

[lexus]

DD is six and in first grade at our neighborhood school. The school is an 8/10 on great schools. I’m a high school teacher in a neighboring district. I have qualms about traditional education (focused on compliance, memorization, five paragraph essays, etc) and have started to move away from it at the school I teach at. DD’s School is very traditional.

Ideally, I would love for her to go somewhere else with a project-based focus. We are privileged enough that we could make that happen but she would have to leave the district we live in and her chance of having neighborhood friends. Dh wants to keep her in the neighborhood school and supliment her education with Kiwi Co boxes and the like. I worry about her being so focused on pleasing the teacher that she loses the confidence she has in trying new things and solving problems herself.

[momin2013]

DS is 5 and in JK at a traditional neighbourhood school. We are very, very happy with his education so far, but I think this is partly due to him having an excellent teacher and ECE. As a (non-practicing) primary school teacher myself, I can tell that they're putting tons of effort into incorporating a lot of real-world experience as it applies to the curriculum, which is very important.

DS is thriving so far at school. At home we read, write, and we play games that involve things like math (I.e. adding up two dice, counting squares, etc.) and logic/problem-solving (through games like chess, advanced Lego, etc.).

One key for me is to always keep DS keeping "one step ahead". So if I know they're working on addition, for example, we'll try to incorporate real-world uses of adding, but also start adding in some subtracting too, so when he encounters the concept in school it won't be "new" to him, and will hopefully give him a bit of a boost in confidence.

[nicolewi]

We have very strong public schools, and that's what where my kids go. We don't do anything in particular to supplement their education, beyond basics like encouraging reading and playing games.

[penguingrrl]

My girls go to our local public schools and Drew will start K there in the fall. I’m very happy with their education. Lots of hands on project based learning, very little to no rote memorization or teaching that appears in any way geared towards standardized testing (and we have experience with a school that focused heavily on testing to the detriment of everything else to compare with on that).

I also love that both walk or bike to and from (the middle school is directly across from our house, so that doesn’t count for my 5th grader, but it’s a mile to elementary and my 3rd grader gets upset when I have to drive her due to weather) and are surrounded by kids who do, and by 3rd grade most are alone or with friends without parents accompanying them.

[jag01]

They go to a traditional public school. Grades 1&4. I would like to see smaller class sizes, but am happy with the quality of education they are getting. We read, DD struggles in math so I help her extra at home. We also do some creative writing together, play games, ect.

[erbear]

Hard to say. My kids attend my school and have since 18 months. It's a private (Quaker) school but Emilio Reggio so super play based, even through 3rd grade (where DD1 is).

I love the school. There are things I don't think they do great (math) but the kids who come out of my school are amazing humans and I can supplement the other stuff.

[expectantsteelerfan]

We are in a traditional neighborhood school, but our district is one of the best in the state. School district was our #1 concern when we moved to this area (we grew up in a neighboring district and were familiar with most of the suburban districts in the area through anecdotal evidence along with research. I have been beyond happy with our school so far (ds is in 3rd, dd in K, and I sub at the high school).
I have STRONG yet conflicting feelings about the disparity in levels of actual education that happens in schools in privileged areas vs. poorer areas. I am aware that people like me, whose kids are likely to succeed in whatever school they attend, but choose to move into an area with a stellar school system because I am privileged enough to be able to, which gives them more advantages over kids who were shortchanged to begin with, am part of the problem. But I don't see any clear solutions to this problem happening any time soon.

[cjcouple]

Traditonal neighborhood. Honestly, we are in a fairly low income town (74% free/reduced lunch enrollment) and they test poorly and they were rated fairly low on Greatschools for many years but in the past year or 2 their ratings have gone up. Currently Elem is a 6 and MS is a 7. (used to be 3-5 range) High school is still a 4. BUT we also have some fantastic tech schools that the kids can apply into. They must be acccepted so it is quite competitive.

I love our schools so far. Class sizes are smaller 18-20 per class which is nice. My boys are in 6th and 3rd and I have had great experiences. The Admin have been fantastic working with DS1 on his selective mutism. The teachers have all been so great, and he does quite well considering his SM renders him non-verbal in some situations. He has made Honor Roll a couple of times and even when he misses it, he still gets B's which I think is great. Anxiety can be so crippling and they really understand that and help him succeed. I do admit, in his case I have had to be more involved and supplement some things at home. Since he didnt speak until 3rd grade, we did a lot of comprehension worksheets, fluency reads and spent a lot of time on his times tables. But all of it was supplied by his teachers and under their guisdance. He was enrolled in small groups to help but he couldn't get the practice in class.

My 3rd grader is exceling. He entered K and didn't even know his letters despite having 2 years of PreK behind him. I was very, very worried and considered red shirting him before K but ultimately went ahead and they did wonders. The small class sizes - His K had 8 kids :-) and amazing teachers made sure to find ways for him to succeed. He was a mover and loved hands on, so they worked with him and allowed him the space to move when needed and encouraged him to do his best.

The teachers are so sweet and really try to get creative and make these kids interested in school. It is not all written work, memorization and tests. Lots of hands on learning and projects (even in 6th - they are doing an Olympics right now based on academics, good deeds). Being in a low income town does have it's perks because we get a bunch of grants and local programs/companies really try to help the kids. The school staff/PTO really do their best to make sure the kids have what they need. Free backpacks and supplies at the start of the year, project supplies, field trip money etc. It's a great little community. State test scores only tell so much. DS1's scores are consistently grade level or slightly above. DS2 will have his first ones this year but I expect he will do very well. He is very inquisive and absorbs material.

Sorry that was long.

[gastro]

DS1 is in first and goes to our neighborhood traditional public school. Our school is extremely well funded and each child gets $10,000 more than the state average (we live in a coastal/tourist town where many houses are 2nd homes of people without school aged children so the school is almost 99% funded by local property taxes).
With the extra funding the school is able to take on a holistic approach employing top quality teachers for music, art, science, Spanish, garden, well-being and character (they have a dedicated teacher for this!), computers, an on-site garden with greenhouse and outdoor oven, ocean stewardship....
The locals in town really are involved with the school so the PTA is super active and well funded as well (we are surplus $40,000 this year alone- we are using the money to put in flashing crosswalks at the intersections near the school). Teachers are happy as they are all supported (small classes - DS1 is in a class with 16 students), an aide that works in the classroom about 60% of the time. All supplies for kids are fully funded by the PTA and teachers are given more than they need for classroom supplies.
PTA also provides 1 hour long classes after school like chess, lego, drama, claymation, dance, printmaking, drawing, Mandarin classes, etc. These have a small fee (about $80 per semester for a weekly class).

Things we do at home: Again school provides access to many subscription based learning tools that kids can access at home (like Imagine learning) so we do some of this.
We do kiwi crate type stuff but because DS1 likes it.
We’ve done science classes at the local Rec center but again because DS1 enjoys it not because I feel I need to supplement.
We read and play lots of math based games.

I’d like to supplement more Spanish because as a first grader DS1 only gets Spanish class once a week. I don’t speak Spanish so I’d like to figure something out for this.

Most of our after school activities for DS1 are swimming and gymnastics and not to supplement education.

[waverly]

Traditional neighborhood school. We moved from the city due to price of housing and daycare, but the local city schools were also good. Not through the whole city but in the neighborhood we happened to move from.

I don't do formal classes to supplement education but we do library programs, read lots of books and I have tried teaching them a little Spanish. It's not really frequent enough though for the Spanish.

DS is hard of hearing and his school offers sign language curriculum in 3rd grade.

We do rotary club and Boy Scouts as character building. And sports and therapies because DS has vestibular dysfunction.

[divanerd]

Son's school has 10-12 in class, attends a private.

[auroraloo]

FYI, charter and magnet schools are not the same thing. I work at a magnet school that is part of the public school district. A Charter school is public, but not part of a school district like a neighborhood school/magnet school is.

[lexus]

Feb 23, 2018 19:57:53 GMT -5 auroraloo said:

FYI, charter and magnet schools are not the same thing. I work at a magnet school that is part of the public school district. A Charter school is public, but not part of a school district like a neighborhood school/magnet school is.

Good point! We are considering magnet schools not charter.

[court26]

My kids go to a neighborhood public school in the suburbs. I work 20 minutes away in a city school district. I am always intrigued that the 2 schools follow very different sets of curriculum initiates. There is/was a strong push for my school to follow the common core and my kids have never seen the math I am teaching my kindergartners. They have never heard of a hidden partner or a number bond. Where we live in upstate/central NY, there aren't the options I realize other people have! We have 1 catholic school option or our neighborhood school. I could bring them to work with me, but I wouldn't. My bff lives in Florida and the lottery that goes on for the different learning styles blows my mind. Her 12 year old is doing half of her schooling online to account for the fact that they haven't found any local schools very accommodating with her IEP and dyslexia.

[dizzycooks]

We live in a large, well rated school district. We have neighborhood school and can apply to any of 6 magnet schools in the district. There are plenty of private schools and charter schools nearby as well.
We chose to apply for a magnet school in the district for several reasons.
1. Diversity - more languages, different cultures, a variety of SES, it’s a magnet due to the districts need to “integrate” the student population due to isolation. I want my kids to be around people who are not mirror images of us so this was a big benefit.
2. Hours - if I return to work we won’t need after care because it’s a late start school and dd1 doesn’t get home until after 4pm
3. Bussing - we are planning to move and the district will bus from anywhere in the district if you attend a magnet. Dd1 won’t need to change schools when we move.
4. Programming - they use all district curriculum, but focus on developing leaderships skills and science/engineering concepts. I am by a science person so I know the focus will be something I can’t supplement or provide at home.
5. Class size - this is the one school in the district that is actually not over capacity so classes are smaller and rooms are bigger.

[dizzycooks]

Oops and to answer your question...I am happy with it. I don’t do anything in particular to supplement her education. However, I dont think PE twice a week is enough and as a family we are very active. The kids all take swim lessons weekly and we prioritize things like biking, going to the park, skiing or sledding, visiting the zoo or children’s museum and playing together over screen time and movies.

[auroraloo]

Dizzy, is it CP?

[dizzycooks]

Mar 5, 2018 13:00:34 GMT -5 auroraloo said:

Dizzy, is it CP?

No. We decided it was way too crowded after touring and looking around a bit more. EP. Similar concepts but in Burn. So farther from home, but hey they bus!