We have been on the waiting list for a certain Mothers Day Out in our area since October 2006. It is not that it is competitive like you hear of schools in New York or LA but no one ever leaves. They give first dibs to church members and siblings of current students and there are few spots left after that. It has been very frustrating as that is supposed to be the best program in our area and for Katherine to have gotten a spot, I would have had to registered her before she was born due to when registration happens!
So, in the past 2 years we have attended 2 other MDO programs and have been very happy. Still, I remained on the waiting list. It is one of the few programs that calls their older twos preschool and has a structured curriculum at Katherine's age.
Well, 2 weeks ago I finally got a call that a spot was open and we were next in line. So, I snatched it up. Katherine and I went up to the new school to fill out the registration forms and see her new class. Then I went home and stressed and did not feel at peace about moving her. We love where she is now. She has adjusted well, made friends and has two great teachers. Her class only has 8 kids and 2 teachers whereas the new one would have 14 kids and 2 teachers. I just was not sure how she would do with another big adjustment.
So, even though it is THE place to go in our area, I called back and told them that we wanted to stay on the waiting list next year but be skipped for now. They were so nice about it and agreed that it was probably the best for her to stay where she is. They can't guarantee that we will get a place for the next year because of the sibling and church member preference but we probably will. In the meantime, I plan to spend a day at each place in their three year old class to see which one not only has the "best" curricula but to see which one Katherine would fit into the best.
Why do I stress about this so much? It is preschool, not college.
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Scripture memory additions
I have two more scripture memory resources to add to your list. The first is a book that I have on my night table but had forgotten about. It is called the Well Versed Family and is by Caroline Boykin. I have begun but not finished this book. It gives a lot of practical suggestions on scripture memory.
The second resource is scripture memory cards made by an acquaintance of mine, Melanie. She has them listed for sale on Etsy. They are cute and look very durable and handy. I think they would be great to have in the diaper bag or car for those gaps of time where you have a teachable moment.
Now I have a lot of resources. I just need to be more disciplined about using them with Katherine.
The second resource is scripture memory cards made by an acquaintance of mine, Melanie. She has them listed for sale on Etsy. They are cute and look very durable and handy. I think they would be great to have in the diaper bag or car for those gaps of time where you have a teachable moment.
Now I have a lot of resources. I just need to be more disciplined about using them with Katherine.
Thoughts on Education - Part 2
Well, yesterday I attended the open house/tour at our neighborhood elementary school. People have asked me what I thought and my answer is, "I don't know". It is so hard to form an opinion based on a one hour event where they have planned for our visit. We began in the library where the principal told us about the school and how wonderful it is. The school is currently ranked among the best in our district. Most of the teachers (I think 80%) have been there at least 5 years and have Gifted and Talented certifications.
Then we took a tour of the school while our kids stayed in the library to do some crafts. All of the kids were neatly lined up in the hallways. The school was clean with examples of students' work hanging on the wall. The classes we visited were participating in fun activities. The kindergarten classes had been studying rhyming words and had read Green Eggs and Ham so they were ending the week by actually eating green eggs and ham. It has been awhile since I have been in a kindergarten classroom. I had forgotten how busy they are.
One thing I liked is that, for a public elementary school, it is small. There are 4 classes per grade level. In K, 1, 2 and 3 that includes one ESL class. There were no portable buildings. The principal said that enrollment has increased by about 60 kids in the last year and 100 kids in the last 2 years. This was mostly due to graduates of the area moving back and homeowners sending their kids to the school. This has contributed to more parental involvement and a strong PTA. The student body is diverse. From what I could tell it was about 1/3 each of White, African American and Hispanic.
So, it was a good visit. Certainly it did not answer our ultimate question of where our kids will go to school, but now we know what our public school option is like. I really liked Ashley's comment that I could volunteer once or twice a month in the school and that would help me to know what the school is like on a daily basis.
After the tour I went to playgroup where we had a great discussion about schools, specifically the need or trend of sending kids to preschool and mothers day out. Some of our observations were that it seems in our area almost everyone sends their kids to mothers day out or preschool at a young age. If you do not you are really in the minority. I know that friends in other parts of the country do not experience this trend. We were trying to figure out why it is that way here. My guess is that it started because there is a lot of disposable income and emphasis on education. A lot of people do not know how or want to try to educate their own kids so they send them to preschool. Then, over time it became the norm. I include myself in this since I started Katherine at mothers day out at 11 months. For me it was really because I wanted to have a day to get things done. I also knew that Katherine would benefit from the experience. Of course I also want her to learn and be challenged academically but obviously at her age I can do anything they are doing at school.
Last night I was talking with another friend and we talked about how a private Christian school would be great but that it is hard for us to justify the money. We feel like we would be choosing between paying for K-12 education or paying for college. When I think of it like that I realize that a private school may not be the right answer when the kids can get an education for free in public school. Once you go to college, it does not matter if you came from a private or a public school as long as you are prepared for the work. So then the question is how well will each of those options prepare my kids?
Another option that I forgot to mention in my previous post is the idea of a school that meets 2 days a week and then the kids are with mom for school the other 3 days a week. There is one school in our area that does it this way that provides a classical Christian education. Julie also sent me information on the University Model School which is similar but there are none close to us right now. That idea is kind of a best of both worlds between private school and home school. Plus it costs less than a other private schools because they are only there 2 days. The school that is in our area starts at pre-K.
So much to think about. Obviously I have no concrete answers. This is just a collection of my thoughts.
Then we took a tour of the school while our kids stayed in the library to do some crafts. All of the kids were neatly lined up in the hallways. The school was clean with examples of students' work hanging on the wall. The classes we visited were participating in fun activities. The kindergarten classes had been studying rhyming words and had read Green Eggs and Ham so they were ending the week by actually eating green eggs and ham. It has been awhile since I have been in a kindergarten classroom. I had forgotten how busy they are.
One thing I liked is that, for a public elementary school, it is small. There are 4 classes per grade level. In K, 1, 2 and 3 that includes one ESL class. There were no portable buildings. The principal said that enrollment has increased by about 60 kids in the last year and 100 kids in the last 2 years. This was mostly due to graduates of the area moving back and homeowners sending their kids to the school. This has contributed to more parental involvement and a strong PTA. The student body is diverse. From what I could tell it was about 1/3 each of White, African American and Hispanic.
So, it was a good visit. Certainly it did not answer our ultimate question of where our kids will go to school, but now we know what our public school option is like. I really liked Ashley's comment that I could volunteer once or twice a month in the school and that would help me to know what the school is like on a daily basis.
After the tour I went to playgroup where we had a great discussion about schools, specifically the need or trend of sending kids to preschool and mothers day out. Some of our observations were that it seems in our area almost everyone sends their kids to mothers day out or preschool at a young age. If you do not you are really in the minority. I know that friends in other parts of the country do not experience this trend. We were trying to figure out why it is that way here. My guess is that it started because there is a lot of disposable income and emphasis on education. A lot of people do not know how or want to try to educate their own kids so they send them to preschool. Then, over time it became the norm. I include myself in this since I started Katherine at mothers day out at 11 months. For me it was really because I wanted to have a day to get things done. I also knew that Katherine would benefit from the experience. Of course I also want her to learn and be challenged academically but obviously at her age I can do anything they are doing at school.
Last night I was talking with another friend and we talked about how a private Christian school would be great but that it is hard for us to justify the money. We feel like we would be choosing between paying for K-12 education or paying for college. When I think of it like that I realize that a private school may not be the right answer when the kids can get an education for free in public school. Once you go to college, it does not matter if you came from a private or a public school as long as you are prepared for the work. So then the question is how well will each of those options prepare my kids?
Another option that I forgot to mention in my previous post is the idea of a school that meets 2 days a week and then the kids are with mom for school the other 3 days a week. There is one school in our area that does it this way that provides a classical Christian education. Julie also sent me information on the University Model School which is similar but there are none close to us right now. That idea is kind of a best of both worlds between private school and home school. Plus it costs less than a other private schools because they are only there 2 days. The school that is in our area starts at pre-K.
So much to think about. Obviously I have no concrete answers. This is just a collection of my thoughts.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Thoughts on Education - part 1
This is a long post that is kind of my journal of sorts regarding the future education of our kids. I would love to hear from other parents on what you all are thinking in this area.
As mentioned before, Katherine started "school" a few weeks ago. It is technically Mother's Day Out but we call it school and treat it as such. Actually we got lucky and she was moved up a class because she is so smart (that is how I choose to explain it at least :). Don't all mom's think their kids are "gifted"? By her age she is about 4 months younger than most in her class but the younger class had kids that were a full year younger so we all thought she would do better in the older class. She has done great. The director of the school commented that Katherine may be small in size but she plays big. She was running around with all the big kids on the playground, holding her own.
Anyway, school is a huge topic around these parts lately. The upcoming school decisions stress me out a bit. Will we go to our local public school, private school or will I homeschool? We have three years until Katherine enters kindergarten so you would think that is a long time to decide but I already have a list of about 6 schools whose open houses I want to attend this fall. Tomorrow I will be attending the open house for our public school to check out that option.
Why? Well, a few of the private schools actually start with a 3 year old preschool. That would be next year.
If I want her to attend private christian school "A" for kindergarten, shouldn't she begin there in preschool for the sake of continuity? On the other hand, if we decide on private christian school "B" or to our public school, which does not start until kindergarten, would we want her to go to preschool at private christian school "A" and then switch or just stay at Mother's Day Out? From my observations the preschools at Mother's Day Out locations are not as "rigorous" as those which are at schools that continue on to elementary. Then it cracks me up that I am even considering the "rigor" of a preschool. We are just talking about kindergarten readiness. Of course I have no fear that Katherine will be ready for kindergarten. According to friends who used to teach kindergarten she is almost ready from an academic standpoint just because we read so much at home. Of course socially she is not close, but she knows and recognizes her alphabet and most numbers, her colors and shapes.
My first choice would be to send our girls to a Christian school, specifically the one that I attended. There are two main reasons we would not do this. The first is the fact that the cost is prohibitive at this point unless I were to want to go back to teaching. I am not sure that is a choice we are ready to make right now. The second factor is distance. To go to the school that I attended we would probably need to move. There are other Christian school that are closer but they are also expensive.
Another choice would be to go to our public school. Since I attended private schools for my entire k-12 education, my only public school experience was one year as a teacher and it was not a good one. I was not impressed. Now, to be fair, I taught in a different district than where we live. Also, to be fair, I have never set foot on the campus of our neighborhood school. Like I said, tomorrow I will be attending the open house so I can give an update then. When we moved to our neighborhood 5 years ago, not a single child on our street attended our public school. They all either attended private schools or they went to the public magnet school. Now, there are about 20-30 kids on our street attending our public elementary school. Apparently over the last 5 years a lot more of the homeowners have been sending their kids to the school and have become very involved in the PTA and the school has improved a lot. In fact, it is the highest ranking school in the district (according to the state tests). This year there is a new principal who is a Christian as are a lot of the teachers. There is a early childhood PTA for our area and they organize playgroups for each elementary school. This year we plan to attend as many of these as we can so that we can be on the campus and meet more families.
My main concern with a public school at the elementary level is not the academics but the influences that my children will be around. I want to protect them as long as I can but yet I know it is not wise to keep them in a bubble. There is such a balance between taking the time to nurture and train up my own kids versus being a light to a lost world. Ideally I want them to be a light but don't know how much opportunity there is for a kindergartner to be a witness in their class. I am more apt to think that will happen in later elementary and up.
Our final option is homeschooling. Having an education degree and being a teacher for 9 years I certainly know that I am qualified and feel comfortable with homeschooling (not to imply that those are requirements as I know many people who homeschool well whom were not teachers). There are a lot of things about homeschooling that appeal to me. You get to choose the best curricula for your kids. You can spend extra time on areas where they are interested and go quicker through areas that they have already mastered. You can plan all kinds of cool field trips and activities that correlate with activities. You can travel as a part of your study. School and education are just a part of life. However, I just don't feel fired up about the idea of homeschooling. I know that it is selfish, but I feel like I need "my time". I had Katherine in MDO one day a week at 11 months and will do the same with Caroline I am sure. Once they are school age, there are no MDO programs so you are with your kids all the time. I also feel like I will have a hard time staying home and getting it all done. I seem to be good at planning and bad at follow through.
So, those are my thoughts on education right now. Luckily I know that it does not have to be decided right now. I also know that I don't have to decide in kindergarten where the girls will go for all 13 years. We can change schools. Also, Katherine and Caroline don't have to do the same thing.
Tune in for part 2 of "Thoughts on Education"
By the way, this is my 400th blog post!
As mentioned before, Katherine started "school" a few weeks ago. It is technically Mother's Day Out but we call it school and treat it as such. Actually we got lucky and she was moved up a class because she is so smart (that is how I choose to explain it at least :). Don't all mom's think their kids are "gifted"? By her age she is about 4 months younger than most in her class but the younger class had kids that were a full year younger so we all thought she would do better in the older class. She has done great. The director of the school commented that Katherine may be small in size but she plays big. She was running around with all the big kids on the playground, holding her own.
Anyway, school is a huge topic around these parts lately. The upcoming school decisions stress me out a bit. Will we go to our local public school, private school or will I homeschool? We have three years until Katherine enters kindergarten so you would think that is a long time to decide but I already have a list of about 6 schools whose open houses I want to attend this fall. Tomorrow I will be attending the open house for our public school to check out that option.
Why? Well, a few of the private schools actually start with a 3 year old preschool. That would be next year.
If I want her to attend private christian school "A" for kindergarten, shouldn't she begin there in preschool for the sake of continuity? On the other hand, if we decide on private christian school "B" or to our public school, which does not start until kindergarten, would we want her to go to preschool at private christian school "A" and then switch or just stay at Mother's Day Out? From my observations the preschools at Mother's Day Out locations are not as "rigorous" as those which are at schools that continue on to elementary. Then it cracks me up that I am even considering the "rigor" of a preschool. We are just talking about kindergarten readiness. Of course I have no fear that Katherine will be ready for kindergarten. According to friends who used to teach kindergarten she is almost ready from an academic standpoint just because we read so much at home. Of course socially she is not close, but she knows and recognizes her alphabet and most numbers, her colors and shapes.
My first choice would be to send our girls to a Christian school, specifically the one that I attended. There are two main reasons we would not do this. The first is the fact that the cost is prohibitive at this point unless I were to want to go back to teaching. I am not sure that is a choice we are ready to make right now. The second factor is distance. To go to the school that I attended we would probably need to move. There are other Christian school that are closer but they are also expensive.
Another choice would be to go to our public school. Since I attended private schools for my entire k-12 education, my only public school experience was one year as a teacher and it was not a good one. I was not impressed. Now, to be fair, I taught in a different district than where we live. Also, to be fair, I have never set foot on the campus of our neighborhood school. Like I said, tomorrow I will be attending the open house so I can give an update then. When we moved to our neighborhood 5 years ago, not a single child on our street attended our public school. They all either attended private schools or they went to the public magnet school. Now, there are about 20-30 kids on our street attending our public elementary school. Apparently over the last 5 years a lot more of the homeowners have been sending their kids to the school and have become very involved in the PTA and the school has improved a lot. In fact, it is the highest ranking school in the district (according to the state tests). This year there is a new principal who is a Christian as are a lot of the teachers. There is a early childhood PTA for our area and they organize playgroups for each elementary school. This year we plan to attend as many of these as we can so that we can be on the campus and meet more families.
My main concern with a public school at the elementary level is not the academics but the influences that my children will be around. I want to protect them as long as I can but yet I know it is not wise to keep them in a bubble. There is such a balance between taking the time to nurture and train up my own kids versus being a light to a lost world. Ideally I want them to be a light but don't know how much opportunity there is for a kindergartner to be a witness in their class. I am more apt to think that will happen in later elementary and up.
Our final option is homeschooling. Having an education degree and being a teacher for 9 years I certainly know that I am qualified and feel comfortable with homeschooling (not to imply that those are requirements as I know many people who homeschool well whom were not teachers). There are a lot of things about homeschooling that appeal to me. You get to choose the best curricula for your kids. You can spend extra time on areas where they are interested and go quicker through areas that they have already mastered. You can plan all kinds of cool field trips and activities that correlate with activities. You can travel as a part of your study. School and education are just a part of life. However, I just don't feel fired up about the idea of homeschooling. I know that it is selfish, but I feel like I need "my time". I had Katherine in MDO one day a week at 11 months and will do the same with Caroline I am sure. Once they are school age, there are no MDO programs so you are with your kids all the time. I also feel like I will have a hard time staying home and getting it all done. I seem to be good at planning and bad at follow through.
So, those are my thoughts on education right now. Luckily I know that it does not have to be decided right now. I also know that I don't have to decide in kindergarten where the girls will go for all 13 years. We can change schools. Also, Katherine and Caroline don't have to do the same thing.
Tune in for part 2 of "Thoughts on Education"
By the way, this is my 400th blog post!
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