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Classical private school (part time)


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Some of you may remember a couple of months ago I asked some opinions about putting ds into a local Catholic school. Reasons were mostly increased socialization, having to practice discipline in meeting expectations of others besides dh and myself, being in a more structured learning environment.

 

However, he has asthma, and the main reason we pulled him from ps 1.5 years ago was due to excessive absences caused by illness. Any introduction into school like that meant a risk of having his asthma kick back up again.

 

That said, I am happy to say I think we have found a happy medium. We found a christian classical part-time school, that has classes two days a week. So, we still have ds for hs'ing the other days, and the teacher partners with the family to set up where the child should be in the curriculum and work load.

 

We think it will be a very good fit. We visited today, and ds fell in immediately with his class and teacher.

 

I'm wondering if anyone else has had experience with this model of education, and if so, what did you like/ dislike about it? :bigear:

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We started a hybrid school like that last year and we had an amazing first year!

 

Likes:

-no lesson planning

-external assessment with professional educator (never wondering am I on the right track?)

-accountability--we get so much more done

-my kids learn math from someone who LOVES math

-truly is the best parts of homeschool with the best parts of traditional school

-i LOVE my five days home with my kids and i LOVE my two days away from them!

 

dislikes:

loss of curricula control

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We did this with youngest dd for 1 1/2 years, and it was wonderful! Our school was strong academically and has been around for awhile, so it was a stable situation. We moved on after that time in order to help dd achieve her goals, but it wasn't for disliking the part-time model!

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I posted yesterday asking about a similar situation (except the school we are considering is once a week), so search for my thread for more opinions. Right now it sounds like a good idea. I realize I am giving up control of almost all of dd's curriculum, but I don't mind that at this point and I agree with the curriculum the school uses for the most part. I think it would be a good fit for my dd (who also has asthma, by the way- one of the main reasons we began homeschooling). Good luck in your decision.

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I'm very curious as how these kinds of schools work, as I am looking at possibly doing something similar. Does the school assign work to be done at home?

 

Yes, the school teaches classes once or twice a week and then assigns work to be done at home the rest of the week. The school we are looking into does all subjects except math, penmanship, and spelling. And if you are in the program, you have to use all of their curriculum; you can't pick and choose classes. The only choice you have is that you can choose art instead of grammar on the day you attend school, but you are still required to do their chosen grammar curriculum at home and return the work/ tests to the school for grading But other schools may work differently.

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We did this for 5 years and absolutely loved it. It's the best of both worlds, or at least it was for us. The first year was in a cooperative school and the next four were in a classical Christian school operating on a university schedule, 3 half days there 2 at home. In middle school in went to 3 full days.

 

In both schools, they did the "main" teaching and reinforcement was done at home in lesson form (they provided a schedule/list of assignments), and there was regular homework as well. In the cooperative school for 4th grade we had to buy the books. The classical school (5th-8th) was a regular school and books were part of tuition.

 

I liked that ds got the best parts of "regular" school with classmates, field trips, class parties, play/gym time and special stuff like history and science fairs, yet he also had the best parts of homeschooling. He got plenty of mom/dad time, extra attention where he needed it, flexibility in our scheduling on home days, school in pjs if he wanted, etc. Mom and dad are by necessity still very involved and in tune with what is going on day to day. There will also be more communication with the teacher than you would normally have, again by necessity. I liked being much more atuned to what was going on because problems were dealt with immediately and not allowed to grow.

 

Curriculum choice wasn't an issue for us in 5th-8th because they used the Veritas Press curriculum which is exactly what we would have used.

 

Every school is different. Make sure you understand exactly what the school will be responsible for and what your responsibilities will be in detail. Make sure you are clear on the rules, etc. If they have been doing this for awhile they will probably have their act down, a good thing for you.

Edited by My3Boys
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