Bear23 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 After six years of teaching we put our three children in school and they are all excelling with high marks and one is on the Honor Roll. The Honor Roll child is paying a price of now having to live a 15 hour day. DD12 is up at 0500 to be on the bus @ 0610 and school starts @ 0730. Her school is out at 1410 and she gets home at 1530 or 1545. If bad weather happens it has taken until 1600-1630 to get home. We have been at this school for one semester but after having Spring Break she wants to be home now and not wait 8 more weeks. I have to agree with her. She is so tired all the time. She has lost her fun ways and gets snippy with her siblings and us. The school is decent but not sure it's worth the price to my daughter's well being. I think a hour to and from is a bit far for a middle schooler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 That would be way too long of a day for anyone, even an adult, IMHO. The school my dd14 will be attending is under 10 mins. away so I'll be driving her. School runs from 8:30ish to 3:30ish. I seriously cannot imagine any school being so good that I would allow my child to be on a bus for an hour each way. Sleep times vary, obviously, but allowing for 8 hours, the child would have to be asleep by 9:00pm which could mean an even earlier bedtime to allow for bedtime procedures. It sounds like she's at home to eat, sleep and do homework. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellydon Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 IF our kids went to the private school of our choice, it is a 12 minute drive. Our children would never attend public school or ride the bus, so I don't know the answer to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I think a hour to and from is a bit far for a middle schooler. I agree. If you're willing to hs her, I'd let her stay home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 DD13's school is 15 minutes away during school hours. I carpool with another family. I do mornings, the other mom does afternoons. DD5s school is 15 minutes away, the opposite way. She goes with my husband. When ds17 was in 9th grade, he was on a swim team that was a 30-45minute drive away, 5 days a week. Between his acedmics and swimming, he had a few hours on Wednesday night (he didn't swim on Wednesdays) and 1/2 a day on Sunday that wasn't scheduled. He lasted about one year, and then dropped the swimming. It was too much and he was getting lost in the chaos. Is there anyway you can drive her for the rest of the year? I would hate to see someone quit s close to the end, but if that is what you need to do, I guess you know the answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear23 Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 She wanted to give public school a try so I gave in and now I regret it but won't tell DH because he was so happy to see her in school. We are talking tonight because this community is all about use the schools they are good. I feel bad for a few of the younger kids who do this same commute because their teacher parents want them near them while at work and not a hour away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Peach Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Our Ps is 5 minutes away. My kids will go next year and I'll drive them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I guess the other thought is....what is she doing on the bus for 2 1/2 hours a day? Is she hanging out with friends and having fun? Is she getting her homework done so she doesn't have to do it at home? or is she stressed, by herself and lonely? The bus ride could be a strain on her....or it may not be....just depends on the kid and the circumstances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasia Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I have three in public school this year, but their school is about a 3 minute drive (15 minute walk) from our house. Dh drops them off on his way to work and either I pick them up after school, or they walk. I can't imagine why she'd need to be on a bus for more than 2 1/2 hours per day. Even the kids who get the bus here spend less than an hour on the bus each day. Is the school that far away? Or is it just a long bus route? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Public elementary .9 miles. Oldest attended for K. I vowed none of my dc would go there again until the principal changed (she's retiring this year, but I do know it could be worse) Public middle 1 mile. Oldest did not attend. Environment would have been awful for him. Any middle school would have been awful for him. dd does attend. She is in advanced classes and is challenged. The social environment has not been bad for her. She is very open with me about what is going on in her life and gives me observations about school that we talk about all the time. Oldest does not process social cues and I believe he would have been severely bullied. dd has had opportunities to stand up for bullied kids. We've discussed the consequences she could face doing this. She thinks it's important to stand up and is not afraid (makes me proud). Youngest has an obvious disability would be in sp ed and I don't know if I'll send him there. dd walks both ways. Public High School 1.1 mile. oldest ds attends and dd will attend next year. Good school. Yes, every year there is at least one teacher my ds cannot "click" with. and that tends to be disasterous for that class. However, overall the faculty is great and very flexible in dealing ds's quirky behavior and serious executive function deficits. I could not have homeschooled him all the way through and challenged him academically the way this school has. My area has a decent selection of homeschool high school co op classes, but these classes are not at the level my ds had at the local high school (Freshmen year he started with algebra 2 honors and French 4-- French teacher has made electives for ds so he could continue all the way through) and he's young--duel enrollment would not have been available to him until the second half of junior year (plus with his executive function problems I don't think he was ready for duel enrollment). The main problem with the high school is class starts at 7:15 am. dh drive ds in the morning and ds walks home. We tried a private school. 4 mile commute. Academics were decent and class size small. However, my ds was bullied there and school did not think being hit and kicked daily was a big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 How far away the school is is different than how long the bus ride is. Our nearest private school (that I know of) would probably be a 30 minute drive for us. I don't know if they offer busing, but if they do, it would naturally be a much longer ride. When I was in school (private school), a friend of mine who attended with me had arrangements with the public school and the Catholic school down the road to ride on their buses. She and her brothers were the first on the bus and the last off each day. It was at least 1 hr one way on the bus for them (they changed buses at the Catholic school and their bus brought them the rest of the way to our school). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 We could walk to our zoned school, but the district magnet school (which we were not able to use for our older 2 because we moved to the district after they were too old to get put on the waitlist) would be a 15 minute drive each way, and the Montessori charter school (which our lottery number was too low to win a slot) is a 20 minute drive each way. Private school would depend on which specific school we chose, from 5 minutes each way to 30+ minutes each way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 That's a long day. My dd goes to a school that's about 2 miles away. Everyone is bussed, but I don't make her take the morning bus. She gets to sleep an extra 20 that way. Can't you just drive her? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 The PS my DD is zoned into is literally across the street from our house, so she'd have to cross a road with a crossing guard, and walk maybe a 1/2 block to get from the edge of the school playground to the front door. Commute time very obviously didn't figure into our decision to homeschool, at least not for K-5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaniceO Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 That's a long day! I wouldn't like that for my child. My 3 boys are in PS this year. My oldest goes to Jr. High. It's about a 15 minute drive from here. My younger boys go to Elementary School and it's about a 5 minute drive. If they had a 1+ hour commute, I'd be tempted to drive them myself or home school them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Ours is less than a mile. I would never drive an hour for school. Yikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 My ds's attend a private school 30 mins away. It's a university-model school so at first ds1 only attended 3 days a week. Ds2 still goes only 3x/week but ds1 now goes 5x/week. The bonus is that he can now drive himself to school so I don't have to get myself and dd ready to make the drive there and back twice each day. :party: I attended a private school from 7th-12th and my days were about like your dd's. In 7th-8th grade I was able to ride the school bus which picked up at 6:30. School was from 7:45-2:55 and I was home around 4. By the time I got to high school we'd moved and I had to catch the city bus at 6:10 and it was about an hour's ride to school, which started at 7:45. (I had to go so early because I had to take the city bus to the school's bus terminal and then catch that bus up to campus.) School ended at 3:05 and by the time I got home on the city bus it was anywhere from 4:30 (if I got lucky and the bus actually stopped to let me on during the extremely busy bus-rush-hour) to 5. If there was Math Club then I didn't get home until 5:30. The long days didn't really bother me, though. If your dd's long days are negatively affecting your dd as well as the rest of your family then maybe it is time for a change. I guess it depends on how bad it really is on all of you. If it's manageable for now then I might just stick it out for the rest of the year. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelaNYC Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Dd(15) has about a 60-minute commute to high school. It's 1 bus and 2 trains, but I usually drive her to the first train. The school is only about 6 miles away, but public transportation is the fastest way to get to Manhattan in the morning. On the other hand, the local elementary school is a 3 block walk. Dd's old elementary school was a 10 minute drive. Oldest dd's high school was a 20-minute drive or 1 hour on 2 buses. Thank goodness NYC kids get free metrocards! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissad2 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 If my kids were to go to PS the elementary school is about 10 miles away, middle school is about 15 miles away and the high school is about 12 miles away. It is one of the big reasons I decide to homeschool besides the fact that the middle/high school are located in a not so good part of town. I could not afford gas to drive them daily and I cannot put my 5yo on a bus for 2 hrs a day! There are some evenings that the has goes by our house at 5:30! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 My older two are going to high school in the fall. The school is about 1.5 miles away, about a 5 min. drive, and I will be driving them. The school day goes from 7:30 am to 1:55 pm. I went to a Catholic high school in another town - it was about 30 min. away. I think the school day went from 8:30-2:30. I think my kids will be leaving the house earlier than I did - but they'll also get home way earlier. I used to wait for my mom in the town library (where the bus left me) every afternoon after school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 My kids go to private schools that are 10 minutes by car, and about 20 -30 minutes by city bus. My guess is that it so depends where you live, just like work commutes. But of course it is okay to decide what works and what doesn't for your family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CLBMom Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Public schools we are zoned for are elementary 1 hour 15 min bus ride (20 miles away) middle school 1 hour (16 miles) high 1 hour 30 min (18 miles) We live in a rural area so houses are so far apart it takes forever to pick everyone up. My kids will never go to PS. The private school they are in now is 30 miles from our home. It was only a few miles from my job so we rode together and I dropped them off. My parents live 2 miles from the school so they would pick them up till I got off work. It worked pretty well till I got hurt and stopped working. Dh works in the town past the one the school is in 45 miles from home. This year my kids have had to get up at 430, sleep the 45 min ride to my parents. They go back to sleep there then up at 7 and my Dad drives them to school at 750. They get out at 3 except on Wednesday when they get out at 2 (K4 gets out at noon). My parents pick them up and keep them till dh gets off work (time varies from 430 to 6) Thank God for them or I don't know what I would have done this year. I would take them and pick them up so they could get more sleep and more time at home, but it is extremely hard for me to drive anymore then 20 min at a time. Also with the price of gas we can't afford for both of us to being doing all that driving everyday. Needless to say it's been a rough year for us all. This is one of the 3 main reasons we are hsing in the fall. It's too much for everyone involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellers Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I only have one in public school. She goes from 8 am to 3:10 pm. I do all the driving, it's about seven miles into town to her high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeidiKC Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 About 6 minutes! Yikes, is there any way to let her get up 30-40 minutes later?! My kids eat and are dressed in 35 minutes. Can't imagine it taking 70 minutes. If they let the kids take food on the bus, I'd even consider sending her breakfast on the bus (muffin, fruit, cheese, whatever is easy to hold) since she has over an hour. Then she could get up at 5:50 or so. I know you didn't ask about the morning schedule, but this is the first thing that jumped out at me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear23 Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 Is the school that far away? Or is it just a long bus route? We live one hour away from the middle school. It's a DoDs school because we are in Japan. She was on the bus twice now forever due to traffic due to weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear23 Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 Is there anyway you can drive her for the rest of the year? I would hate to see someone quit s close to the end, but if that is what you need to do, I guess you know the answer[/b]. I would have to drive the hour as well because I am not paying tolls to get there which can be up to $20 one way. Plus I have two in the school across from my house. There be no one to watch them while I took her. Plus she's only been in school for 1/3 of the second and all of the 3rd. She is still trying to figure out her math and how some other stuff is done because it's so different than how we have done stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Ours would be about 20-25 min (depending on time of day) just for drive time one way. It is one of the many reasons we hs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I drive my boys to school as there isn't a sensible bus solution. They get up at 7:15, we leave home at 8 and they are at school by about 8:20. After dropping bags/greeting friends, school starts at 8:30. School ends at 4:10 but they stay for after-school activities most days (debating, football, choir, creative writing, swimming, etc.). I pick them up at 5:30. Then it's home, homework, food and bed. It's a pretty full schedule and they get tired. They are both very happy at school though and have no desire to home ed again. Their terms are shorter than the state (public in US terms) schools though, so they get longer to rest. They are both on holiday at the moment - the state schools got two weeks off and they get over three. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 10 min walk to K-8 12 min walk to the second best highschool in the country. Very tempting! If I were to drive, it would take about 2 minutes because there are no stop lights; it is just through the neighborhood. Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassy Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 The school DS12 attends (and DS11 will in September), is a 10 minute walk away for us, but many, many children who go there travel long distances of an hour or more each way. Again, it is an excellent school, the best in our county, so people seem to think the journey is worth it. I guess that they adjust their schedules to accommodate the early mornings. DS12 says one of his friends says she sleeps during the journey. It is a selective school, admission depending on passing verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests, and if the boys hadn't passed, then the nearest decent school is twelve miles away, again involving a journey of an hour each way (because the school bus has to divert to many villages to pick up on the way), and I really, really didn't want the boys to have to do that, so I do understand your concerns. Cassy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 The bus ride to our local elementary school takes about 40-45 minutes, plus we were supposed to be at the bus stop (over a mile away) about 15 minutes early, just in case. And that was starting in K, which has gone to full time since ds was enrolled. So about a 9 hour day for a 5yo. :001_huh: The middle and high schools are a few miles further down the road from the elementary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Public high school 20 miles away ( 1 school in county). Ds on bus at 6:15 for 7:30 start. Gets up at 5:30, walks to bus stop at 6:05. He gets home at 4:00. Kids who live even further out in the sticks have an even longer ride. If your dd wants to stay home I'd let her. It makes a long day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 It takes a couple of minutes to drive to our school or about 5 to walk there. The kids walk when the weather is nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I agree that an hour is a long commute. My high schooler walks to school; it's about 10 minutes away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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