Did I ever mention we put our younger dk2 into private school kindergarten? Well we did. It costs $15k for the year and they offered us a spot for our dk1 in second for $8k but we didn't take it.
Why?
Well having just moved we decided we would try the public school for her and its been an adjustment. We are guessing she will qualify for the gifted program next year, we vouldn't do a direct transfer in because she had only done a partial testing in kindergarten. The school district she was in does full testing in 2nd grade for 3rd unlike.e the district we moved to that does 1st for 2nd. So we decided we would try to make friends and then see how the testing goes in November. If she doesn't get in we could always move her to private or stay pug.
For our dk2 I worried it seemed unfair to pay for private school. But the truth is she's on the birthday cusp of turning 5 and immature for her age. So fair isn't equal for kids. We are doing this because academically she's ready for kindergarten but we aren't sure emotionally. Plus we decided if she has to repeat kindergarten. She could do it in public school and no knew will be the wiser.
Private school has been honestly really great so far. The class size is 12 kids and 2 teachers. Dk1Had 19 kids and 1 teacher in public. She also had no homework or in school extracurricular. Dk2 has gymnastic they walked to school next door, karate with teacher who comes in, art 3x a week while public school has it once a month, zumba, Japanese and Spanish. DDDk2had none of this.
That being said it is $15k. But it turns out to be about equal for the kids financiapreschool. DDk2had 3 years of preschool with us paying $4850, $7250, $7250 because we lived in a higher cola. But dk2 preschool was $1800 and $3000 p.us this one year of private school. So it actually balanced out financially.
Trust me i never thought we would pay or could afford private school. And right now I am considering private for both. But its a really big financial investment. But I guess we will take it year by year and situation by situation.
your thoughts and experiences?
Private school so far
October 7th, 2017 at 04:13 pm
October 7th, 2017 at 06:01 pm 1507399300
Money will buy any extracurricular activities DD shows interest and predilection expanding what is offered in a school setting. Private School in the USA grew primarily as a result of school integration legislation. Are you concerned that DD 1 will likely encounter children from other ethnicities? Do you get a discount on municipal school taxes or an IRS deduction to offset tuition costs?
I totally agree DD2 needs to be emotionally ready and mature enough for elementary school. When do they schedule readiness tests? If accelerated too soon, there is potential for feelings of isolation and social disadvantage in the cruel reality of the school playground. Interestingly, children who are slightly older always seem to rise to class leadership roles.
…just my .02 cent
October 7th, 2017 at 06:16 pm 1507400162
October 7th, 2017 at 07:41 pm 1507405269
My two cents is this...have you visited both schools? I know you can always look and see how the public school rates, but I think visiting more than once and seeing the culture is more important. Plus, and as a retired teacher, just because someone has a master's or beyond, does not make them an excellent teacher.
October 13th, 2017 at 04:37 pm 1507912658
No I just think a smaller school helps her from feeling overwhelmed. I don't care about income or nationalities. We are "other" nationalities. I love how diverse her current and past public schools have been with 30% and 50% non-white. It's way better than where we lived before (different state and one reason we moved) and culture of the schools are fantastic. But I do worry about her getting bullied and making friends.
So because of that I started a girl scouts troop for her. We moved and couldn't get in so I agreed to be troop leader. I also volunteer a lot at school to make friends with other parents and coordinate playdates to help her try to make connections. She's been invited to a halloween party and I'm so nervous.
My DH and I were both part of small groups of friends but DK1 hasn't quite formed that yet. We think she'll be like that. A small private school might help foster it but if it's too small it would be bad if she didn't fit. So I see the pros and cons.
I would love to homeschool her but she's very resistant to doing homework with me and I refuse to hurt our relationship by forcing her to do it. So no homeschooling. Plus my DH wants her to work on her social skills.
We are also searching now for a therapist to help with the anxiety. She has a lot of fears and anxieties which contribute to the sleep and behavior issues. I guess you know your kid. And the public school we targeted I picked because of size and feel. When looking for houses we had about 3 public schools I thought would work because of size and it has been better than the previous school.