What may be a sensitive question about afterschooling

[BlueTaelon]

Looks like I may have to send my youngest to public school for 1st while I work full time and honestly public school seems to be nothing more then daycare the children learn so little (and its a small class! 18 kids in a grade 1-2 combo class, were used to 30-35 kids to a class so 18 is small). I actually went to the school and looked at the materials and was shocked, their 1st grade program is literally less then what the K12 VA covered for Kindergarten. So I went and looked at 2nd grade, in order for her to start learning new stuff she would have to go to their 3rd grade they are so far behind. They are literally taking over a year to do 1 semester worth of work imo and I didn't like any of what I saw (seriously, history was learning about your community like police, fire dept, library ect and the LA and science was preschool/kindy level stuff). I'm hoping I can figure this all out and keep HS'ing but is the childcare issue more or less why you ended up putting your child in B&M school and after schooling?

[Crimson Wife]

Looks like I may have to send my youngest to public school for 1st while I work full time and honestly public school seems to be nothing more then daycare the children learn so little (and its a small class! 18 kids in a grade 1-2 combo class, were used to 30-35 kids to a class so 18 is small). I actually went to the school and looked at the materials and was shocked, their 1st grade program is literally less then what the K12 VA covered for Kindergarten. So I went and looked at 2nd grade, in order for her to start learning new stuff she would have to go to their 3rd grade they are so far behind. They are literally taking over a year to do 1 semester worth of work imo and I didn't like any of what I saw (seriously, history was learning about your community like police, fire dept, library ect and the LA and science was preschool/kindy level stuff). I'm hoping I can figure this all out and keep HS'ing but is the childcare issue more or less why you ended up putting your child in B&M school and after schooling?

 

If we wind up putting our kids into PS this fall, yes. Makes me sick to even think about it, but sometimes life requires us to make tough choices. I'm hoping that if my kids do wind up in PS that I'll be able to convince TPTB to allow them to do EPGY math in lieu of the standard math.

[EKS]

Private school is no different. At least my older son's private school isn't. He started there at the beginning of the second semester this past year.

 

In the second semester of 10th grade, they read two short novels in English. That's it! And they wrote two papers. One two pages and the other four.

 

The history class was a total joke. No reading. No papers. "Quizzes". And then everyone got an A.

 

The biology class was the best of the lot, but they only did a few topics.

 

And don't get me started on math. The teacher is awful. My son is the best student (by far) and he doesn't understand what she's saying. I have to reteach everything.

 

And yes, I'm sending my younger son there. Go figure.

Edited July 22, 2012 by EKS

[jennynd]

Yep, DS was in a small private school and he was accelerate 2 grades, and he was so bored. This coming school year, we decide to put him in public school. We figure, if he gonna be bored, there is no different public or private, why are we paying for it? School for us is daycare, they learning start after they get home

[Melinda in VT]

Looks like I may have to send my youngest to public school for 1st while I work full time and honestly public school seems to be nothing more then daycare the children learn so little (and its a small class! 18 kids in a grade 1-2 combo class, were used to 30-35 kids to a class so 18 is small). I actually went to the school and looked at the materials and was shocked, their 1st grade program is literally less then what the K12 VA covered for Kindergarten. So I went and looked at 2nd grade, in order for her to start learning new stuff she would have to go to their 3rd grade they are so far behind. They are literally taking over a year to do 1 semester worth of work imo and I didn't like any of what I saw (seriously, history was learning about your community like police, fire dept, library ect and the LA and science was preschool/kindy level stuff). I'm hoping I can figure this all out and keep HS'ing but is the childcare issue more or less why you ended up putting your child in B&M school and after schooling?

 

No, child care is not the reason I put my kids in school.

 

We put our kids in school because we deemed that the advantages of public school outweighed the advantages of home schooling for our kids. I'm greedy, and sometimes I wish I could have all of the advantages of homeschooling and all of the advantages of public schooling, but overall I am happy with my choice.

 

However, I will say that I don't recognize my public school in your description of your public school. That isn't to say that there aren't parts of it I recognize (history being replaced by "social studies" in the elementary grades below 5th, for example), but while there are subjects I think I teach better, there are also subjects where the school provides a stronger education than I would at home.

 

I do work full-time now (although I didn't when we made the decision to return to public school), but I work from home, as does my husband. We could home school and keep our jobs, although the quality of our homeschooling would be less than it would be if I didn't work.

[Roadrunner]

We have only gone through K and 1st grade. K was a complete waste of our time. We were lucky to have an exceptional teacher in the first grade. She did an excellent job teaching writing. She has a masters in science and her class had a big emphasis on science, which worked out really well for us and let us focus on history at home. Having said that, math was an absolute waste of time. Reading assignments were terrible. We ignored them and read real literature at home instead. There is no instructional differentiation, but there is differentiation in homework, which I didn't like. I wanted to be left alone at home to focus on our materials. I am hoping things pick up as kids get older.

[Berta]

We use the public school as daycare for our youngest. She started in the middle of 1st grade last year and will go to 2nd grade this year at the PS. I have to work full time for now. But, I work in a daycare center around the corner from the PS. My work buses her from my job to the PS, and from PS to the daycare center and she gets her homework, and a lot of her homeschool work done there.

 

Our PS is very behind too. She started in the middle of the 1st grade year and everything she brought home was stuff she already knew. I had a few clashes with her teacher at PS because she had my daughter reading what my daughter called "baby books". After sending her with her own reading materials the teacher had the librarian test her on the computer. She tested out of the baby books and into the "fluent" readers. At that point she was allowed to check out fluent readers from the school library.

 

The other thing that we clash on is handwriting. My daughter can write beautifully in cursive, and her teacher refused to let her write any of her work in cursive. She will have the same teacher again for 2nd grade (she is looping up to 2nd grade) and this year I'm not going to back down. I want my daughter to be able to write in cursive since it comes much easier to her then manuscript.

 

All in all, I have been happy with her PS experience. We continue with our homeschool work as a condition of her going. She loves going to school, she gets to be with her friends every day and so far there have been no issues with bullies or violence. If there is, she will be pulled immediately. My older daughter is still homeschooled, but i would prefer to not leave the two of them home all day while I need to work.

[jenbrdsly]

We are lucky enough to live in a really well performing school district. I know that I can send my kids into a school where the teachers are really experts in the field of education. They are also able to teach my son things that I haven't been successful at teaching him, like handwriting, labeling his answers in math, etc. (We often have a battle of the wills going on.)

Another good think about brick and mortar schooling is that kids get used to meeting the objectives of different people besides their parents. Homeschoolers get that too I'm sure, but not in the same way.

Finally, I love my husband and it is fun to boss him around sometimes, but it wouldn't be very good for our marriage if we were together 24/7, running a business together, and I was his boss. Ditto with my son. It's fun to teach my son algebra and ancient history on the side, but I would not want to be his full-time teacher. That would be really rough on our relationship. Homeschooling my daughter would probably work out; but not my son.

[Uff Da!]

nm.

[Laura Corin]

Calvin reached the stage where he needed input from more people, both teachers and other pupils. Hobbes would have been miserable on his own at home - he's very social.

 

We've been very happy with the school.

 

Laura

[ChristineW]

No, child care is not the reason I put my kids in school.

 

We put our kids in school because we deemed that the advantages of public school outweighed the advantages of home schooling for our kids. I'm greedy, and sometimes I wish I could have all of the advantages of homeschooling and all of the advantages of public schooling, but overall I am happy with my choice.

 

However, I will say that I don't recognize my public school in your description of your public school. That isn't to say that there aren't parts of it I recognize (history being replaced by "social studies" in the elementary grades below 5th, for example), but while there are subjects I think I teach better, there are also subjects where the school provides a stronger education than I would at home.

 

I do work full-time now (although I didn't when we made the decision to return to public school), but I work from home, as does my husband. We could home school and keep our jobs, although the quality of our homeschooling would be less than it would be if I didn't work.

 

 

I agree. Ds6 is only starting first so I can't address long term, but we're really happy with our experience of the school. Last year he had art, PE, music (real music with real instruments) and the stereotypical kindy experiences such as making apple cider, Thanksgiving Feast, hatching chicks, watching silkworms' metamorphosis, etc. DS also needs to be with other boys.

 

He did complain that school was too easy but that is why we afterschool--I can't expect them to put a 6 year old in 3rd grade math.

[Crimson Wife]

Last year he had art, PE, music (real music with real instruments) and the stereotypical kindy experiences such as making apple cider, Thanksgiving Feast, hatching chicks, watching silkworms' metamorphosis, etc.

 

I'm so jealous. Because of budget cuts, our district eliminated all elementary art, music, and PE a few years back. :thumbdown:

[RosesAreRed]

Dd could homeschool, but she loves her gifted program and friends. It is public school but the program is very creative and she has a lot of experiences. School is a good experience for her.

 

Afterschooling allows her to go into more depth. Often we call friends from her class and we take day trips together for projects so it's extra fun.

[lovinmomma]

Uhhh.... yes. :D Definitely for childcare. If I didn't have to work full time I would keep them home. No doubt about it.

[trinchick]

We have had a great experience with DD's public school. She'll be starting second grade in the fall, so our experience is limited to two years (K and 1st). However, I think she's had good teachers who have focused on the fundamentals, which is important to me. She is reading well (about 4th grade level) and her math skills are solid (despite the school's use of the oft-derided Everyday Math curriculum).

 

I am afterschooling DD because I consider it my job as a parent to provide her with opportunities for enrichment. I believe that education is a lifelong process. Even if I were homeschooling her, we wouldn't stop learning at the end of our official school day.

 

In some instances, I'm reinforcing what she learns in the classroom (e.g. using Math Mammoth to practice the fact families). In other instances, I'm providing her information on topics they haven't covered yet (such as ancient history via Story of the World).

 

I don't feel like I am making up for a lack of education in the classroom. Instead, I am trying to instill in her the understanding that what goes on in the classroom will have real-life applications and shouldn't be "turned off" when she leaves school at the end of the day.

 

Let's face it - no teacher can provide 100% personalized, custom instruction to a classroom of 20 students, all with different backgrounds and capabilities. They can provide the fundamentals, and we can then support that and expand upon it at home.

[Carrie75]

I could have written what trinchick did. Luckily out PS is a good school with good teachers. I afterschool just to expand on what was taught in the classroom.

[Create Your Ritual]

We are also entering the realm of PS again alongside afterschooling. I realized all the same things that I have read here about the why of putting them back in. My dd11 will be in 6th grade (beginning in a new middle school) and they have decided to move her into the 7th grade pre-alg class. We are working through MM6A this summer and will start AoPS Pre-Alg for afterschooling.

 

I also want to keep WWS and will hopefully be beta-testing WWS2 this fall with both my students.

 

My ds9 will be doing math a grade ahead, but I am not so in love with either math program to think that just because they are at the right level they will be receiving the right instruction in math.

 

Anyway, I realized that dd11 needed more competition to really start to push her. She has a few smart kids in the class that I know will push her. ds9 needed more of a push in a different way. He works slowly, and I am hoping the idea of missing recess, etc. with his friends will get him to rev up the pace a bit. Other than that, I honestly just needed the break. I have a DH that is turning 40 this year, it's our 15 year anniv. and I want to spend some time nurturing him for a change. ;-) AND .. there is ds4.5 .. a wild man. It's his turn for my attention and he is going to be learning how to read this year! We'll see how it goes, but I definitely plan to continue with -

 

WWS

AoPS Pre Alg for dd11

MM4 for ds9

Sentence Composing

Caesar's English 2

Practice Voyage

McHenry Science

 

I am considering a grammar curriculum too, but can't quite decide yet .. so for now we will stick with the above. My only concern is trying to figure out how to fit it all in. We won't be playing sports to begin with so that we can find a schedule that works for us. I can't foresee lowering my expectations with regards to their education just because I am sending them back to PS, so we will have to make time to afterschool.

[Roadrunner]

SaDonaa, I hope you share your experience. I am interested if you find the workload doable. I am also very curious how PS writing instruction in middle school differs/compares to WWS.

[Create Your Ritual]

I will be happy to share. ;-) I suspect the writing there will be based on more of a 5 paragraph essay style, but I know 8th graders who have yet to learn how to write an appropriate thesis or develop an argument. I think most of the kids in dd11s class are still learning how to summarize a book, or write a short narrative including 3 things about a subject which they break up by paragraph.

 

WWS this past year was an absolute breath of fresh air for me. dd11 was writing 8-9 paragraph narratives about Marie Antoinette, or the life cycle of an octopus. lol. This summer she is just finishing up her own choice of writing a sequence of natural events about chimpanzees. She interjected a desc of place (Gombi reserve I think) and desc. of a person (Jane Goodall) and chose aspects about her to write about .. her achievements, what others thought of her, etc. in the paragraph. I know for a fact they won't teach writing in PS as good as SWB has written WWS.

[Create Your Ritual]

I am not sure how many weeks the beta testers will be given of WWS2 though, and the release date is set for sometime next spring so we may find ourselves writing narratives as we did in WWS1 at home during our after schooling. I am anxious to see WWS2 though!

 

SC & CE don't take us very long but I have found them both to be so unique and really worth the time.

 

Math is there because I have zero faith in the teacher or the curriculum (Math Connects) so we need to take it a step further.

 

Science is just plain fun .. McHenry makes it fun! I think we will also be listening to SOTW audio tapes and anything we watch on tv usually has a science or history spin on it .. Nova, History Channel, etc. It's just a matter of setting the priorities. dd11 wants to ride her horses a lot as well, and I can't factor in afterschooling, 2 hours of volleyball practice M-F AND horse riding .. so we will just do afterschooling and horse riding to start off.

[Caroline]

This got REALLY long. Sorry. I just wanted to explain that I understand your frustration. I also think things can be done to help.

 

I think a lot of this is going to depend on your school and on your teachers. I teach high school in a rough school. One of the perks of teaching in my county is that you can send your child to any school in your feeder pattern. My kids go to our neighborhood schools. If I sent them to my feeder schools, then it would probably be more like child care. Not because the teachers aren't good, but because some days it comes down to the kid who didn't get dinner last night and had the gun pulled on him on the way home from school needs more attention than the compliant kid who has none of those issues. It is unfortunate that there are places like that in this world. But there are, and there always will be.

 

I am the mom of gifted children, not just gifted in the get into the public school program gifted sense, gifted in the hg/pg sense. However, my kids do not have any of the sensory issues that often go with giftedness, which helps. (Well, I am thinking something is going on with the youngest's speech, but the doctor assures me I am being over sensitive. However, she did write the referral to the speech clinic for me because she trusts my mommy instinct. We are waiting on that appointment.) My kids have always gone to public school. We could afford for me to homeschool them or send them to one of the elite private schools in the area. We chose not to. I was a stay at home mom for many years, but am now teaching high school. College is approaching for my oldest, and we want to make sure our kids are debt free when they leave college. That is extremely important to us.

 

So how does public school work for us? My kids' teachers have always been willling to let them read the same history and science topics in above grade level books. My kids do the school's math, and then pull out their Singapore Math or Life of Fred book to work on. We buy their independent reading books. I petitioned the elementary school to let my kids use Kindles at school, and the principal was more than happy to accomodate them. (It helps that she is good friends with my principal who loves me.) So yes, there is some busy work for my elementary aged kids. However, I don't think it hurts them to practice math problems that are below their level. I don't think it hurts them to reinforce science fundamentals. Their teachers expect their writing to be above and beyond what is expected of grade-level students. (Sometimes that is hard with my rising fifth grader because he would rather be on the soccer field than rewriting his paper comparing Lincoln and Davis.) They also tend to be BFFs with kids on their level. Each only has a couple kids like that, but they stick. My kids also converse with adults at school a lot.

 

My oldest will be a senior in high school this year. He is taking multivariable calculus through distance learning at Georgia Tech. He is taking AP Physics C, AP Econ (self-study, paid for by the school district), AP Government, AP English Lit, AP Spanish (with a trip to Spain for 10 days), and Model UN. (On top of that, he is the keeper for the soccer team, volunteer coaching a U6 soccer team, and coaching on the weekends for his soccer club in exchange for free league play.) It isn't a shabby schedule. It sure ain't day care. Now I am not saying that if he had been homeschooled all the way, we wouldn't be further, we wouldn't have done better history, etc. Maybe we would have done more. Maybe we would have gone further in math. But I think he is fine, well-rounded, and enjoying life. He will have to work hard at Georgia Tech, but he will be fine.

[Roadrunner]

I am not sure how many weeks the beta testers will be given of WWS2 though, and the release date is set for sometime next spring so we may find ourselves writing narratives as we did in WWS1 at home during our after schooling. I am anxious to see WWS2 though!

 

SC & CE don't take us very long but I have found them both to be so unique and really worth the time.

 

Math is there because I have zero faith in the teacher or the curriculum (Math Connects) so we need to take it a step further.

 

Science is just plain fun .. McHenry makes it fun! I think we will also be listening to SOTW audio tapes and anything we watch on tv usually has a science or history spin on it .. Nova, History Channel, etc. It's just a matter of setting the priorities. dd11 wants to ride her horses a lot as well, and I can't factor in afterschooling, 2 hours of volleyball practice M-F AND horse riding .. so we will just do afterschooling and horse riding to start off.

 

My kids are young, but I looked at samples of WWS. The sample looks fabulous. I am hoping the school will teach them those skills, but maybe not. MCT is also wonderful. We are certainly enjoying it.

 

 

Carline, I think it's great your elementary school is so accommodating.

Overall we find lot more positives than negatives in our school. Arts, music, PE, science lab.... I do wish there was more differentiation, but reading some experiences I know we are truly lucky.

[Create Your Ritual]

It really is a great program. By the end of it you are just pulling all the different sections of WWS together and they are writing. We could honestly spend the entire year practicing just the skills we have learned.

 

We loved MCT as well. Finished all of Island and Town, and this year I am going to have to pick through the Voyage level to see what we can get to besides CE2 and Practice Voyage.

 

My question is how much to focus on grammar beyond what we have already done with MCT, SC, AAL. I have thought about adding something in, but it would have to be something quick or oral we could all sit down and run through together.

[Caroline]

My kids are young, but I looked at samples of WWS. The sample looks fabulous. I am hoping the school will teach them those skills, but maybe not. MCT is also wonderful. We are certainly enjoying it.

 

 

Caroline, I think it's great your elementary school is so accommodating.

Overall we find lot more positives than negatives in our school. Arts, music, PE, science lab.... I do wish there was more differentiation, but reading some experiences I know we are truly lucky.

 

I know I am very lucky with our elementary school. I tend to be an apologize after kind of person. I just send the resources my kids need with them, and no one blinks an eye. I don't ask, I just do. I also don't ask for extra from the teacher, I just provide. We also have amazing teachers in our gifted program that love my kids and are willing to help me with resources for my kids. (In return I do the not so wonderful volunteer jobs like cutting and pasting and typing and googling resources. I don't need or want to be the room mom in the classroom all the time.)

[msk]

No, child care is not the reason I put my kids in school.

 

We put our kids in school because we deemed that the advantages of public school outweighed the advantages of home schooling for our kids. I'm greedy, and sometimes I wish I could have all of the advantages of homeschooling and all of the advantages of public schooling, but overall I am happy with my choice.

 

This is our family, too. We are lucky-- our school district still has real art, music, and PE, decent math and reading programs, lots of fun field trips, etc. Our kids don't have characteristics that make learning in a class of 20 difficult for them, our school-age kid loves her school, and my husband and I really love our jobs. I sometimes wish our kids had the level of personalized attention and curriculum choices homeschooling allows, but we think public school with some supplementing at home is a better choice for our situation.

 

Is there any way for you (the OP) to send your kids to a different school? I'd be trying everything I could to move to a different district in your situation, but I realize not everyone can do that. You'll probably never find a school that's perfect (especially if homeschooling is a big part of your identity), but it makes me really sad that so many people are stuck with terrible schools. :(

[Crimson Wife]

Is there any way for you (the OP) to send your kids to a different school? I'd be trying everything I could to move to a different district in your situation, but I realize not everyone can do that. You'll probably never find a school that's perfect (especially if homeschooling is a big part of your identity), but it makes me really sad that so many people are stuck with terrible schools. :(

 

Not the OP, but where I live in CA, moving to a place with better public schools would require being able to afford the mortgage or rent (which in this red-hot rental market would be about the same) on a $1M+ house. If we had that kind of disposable cash, then there would be no problem continuing to HS. :(

[Roadrunner]

Not the OP, but where I live in CA, moving to a place with better public schools would require being able to afford the mortgage or rent (which in this red-hot rental market would be about the same) on a $1M+ house. If we had that kind of disposable cash, then there would be no problem continuing to HS. :(

 

SF is insane. I was once told that living in the good district in the city doesn't guarantee your kid will go to the neighborhood "good" school. Apparantly they randomly assign schools for diversity reason. I don't know if that's true, but I have never heard anything like that anywhere else.

I hope you get to continue homeschooling.

[Crimson Wife]

SF is insane. I was once told that living in the good district in the city doesn't guarantee your kid will go to the neighborhood "good" school. Apparantly they randomly assign schools for diversity reason. I don't know if that's true, but I have never heard anything like that anywhere else.

I hope you get to continue homeschooling.

 

Yes, the city of S.F. doesn't have neighborhood schools but rather a very confusing assignment plan. I don't know the details as we're in the 'burbs. Our zoned school isn't horrible but it isn't very good, either. 32 kids in the elementary school classes. No elementary art, music, or PE. No GATE or even any honors classes before 11th grade.

[mchel210]

When my girls went into PS I had to have them tested prior privately for gifted. The school created an IEP and by their reading of the rules on that IEP ...they are not allowed to teach my child anything she has mastered. They have to keep moving forward. If your child is gifted it is a MUST for PS. Before I learned the actual meaning of that rule on it...both had been in advanced materials that the rest of the class didnt use. I think the teachers I had had been willing to work with me a little. WIth my little one in K I had her doing harder HW or more writing then was asked for. With my 2nd grader, I just had her writing longer essays following IEW format and her own math. So if you have to do PS you can always just add on and make your childs HW more challenging in small ways. My youngest never complained of being bored. She loved it no matter what they did...my middle one complained a TON in private school of being bored all the time!

 

Switching to Private school was a huge mistake for us and they didnt offer the same high levels that public offered. The first year my 3rd grader was allowed to bring her own Abeka math and use it and sometimes even in place of her regular book. She did all her own essays far above the rest of the class. The 2nd year...the teacher wanted nothing to do with me and kept me out of understanding anything beyond what my dd brought home for HW. Oh well. This is going to be our first year back in the public school and the kids really jumped up in their work per grade level...so Im sure if they would have stayed doing that basic work in public school they level out in 2 or 3rd grade. It is the only way I can see it.

 

My 6th grader is going back into PS now doing prealgebra and 8th grade english with all honors classes.

Edited July 25, 2012 by mchel210

[jenbrdsly]

Not the OP, but where I live in CA, moving to a place with better public schools would require being able to afford the mortgage or rent (which in this red-hot rental market would be about the same) on a $1M+ house. If we had that kind of disposable cash, then there would be no problem continuing to HS. :(

 

 

You could move to WA! ;)

[mathwonk]

This is a universal problem. I feel I have told this story before, but our son had a December birthday but was skipped into second grade in public school in the Fall while still 6 years old. When we moved to a private school the next year, they insisted on moving him back to second grade again, since they opposed placement by mental age over chronological age.

 

Since this was a highly regarded private school, I was nervous and before he started the first day I made sure he knew his multiplication tables up to 12x12. When he got home I asked if he had felt adequately prepared. He asked what I meant and I said in mathematics.

 

He started laughing uncontrollably and finally calmed down enough to explain that at the new school they did only one times table per month, and the first month they did the zeroes case! This school cost thousands of dollars a year. I wonder how much we paid for him to learn that 0xA = 0, over and over that first month. You may not believe me but this is literally true.

Edited August 5, 2012 by mathwonk

[Roadrunner]

This is a universal problem. I feel I have told this story before, but our son had a December birthday but was skipped into second grade in public school in the Fall while still 6 years old. When we moved to a private school the next year, they insisted on moving him back to second grade again, since they opposed placement by mental age over chronological age.

 

Since this was a highly regarded private school, I was nervous and before he started the first day I made sure he knew his multiplication tables up to 12x12. When he got home I asked if he had felt adequately prepared. He asked what I meant and I said in mathematics.

 

He started laughing uncontrollably and finally calmed down enough to explain that at the new school they did only one times table per month, and the first month they did the zeroes case! This school cost thousands of dollars a year. I wonder how much we paid for him to learn that 0xA = 0, over and over that first month. You may not believe me but this is literally true.

 

Oh, but I do believe you. I have a private school down the road that costs about $20K a year. Walking into the building and watching kids in beautiful uniforms in wonderful library pouring over their books just melts your heart. I have several friends who fork out so much money every year to send their kids there and let me tell you, they are behind our PS in math. Their English program is about the same and just like PS they learn Social Studies. If I had a lot of money to throw away, I would certainly take my boys there because overall environment is nice (small school, uniforms, less noise), but I wouldn't be fooling myself about academics. It's interesting that my friends would have been afterschooling their kids and complaining about academics if their kids were in PS, but just because they are paying $20K a year, they think they don't need to do anything and trully believe their kids are ahead of some race.

[mathwonk]

The frustrating part for me was that the (lack of) peer pressure at the school made my sons rebel against my efforts to home school (after school) to supplement what they were not getting at the school. So eventually I gave in and resigned myself to the fact that the English and history programs excelled what I could provide. But in math not so much. There were other kids at the school that did want my help in math and I tutored some of those. I said to myself I would help those kids and maybe someone else would help mine. I didn't feel it happened but maybe I am too negative. They turned out well.

Edited August 6, 2012 by mathwonk

[sle22]

I pulled my son out of school in the 3rd grade (last year). We did homeschool and I fell in love with Classical Education however......for our family and his future PS will have to do. I do plan on afterschooling with SOTW, Saxon Math, Latin, and Science on the weekends. I also plan to use IEW with him and his writing. I would love to hear more advice on how this is done. When he was in school he was in the Gifted and Talented and he stayed board (he also had a not so good teacher). His homework only takes him about 15 minutes to complete so I figure if we get started at 3:30 and afterschool till 5:00ish that would work. I will also read SOTW to him at night and he will read his literature that goes along side of it. Anymore suggestions would be great :):confused::)