The First of Many Life Decisions
How do you decide what school to put your kindergartner in? Did you research different schools and programs? Did you just go to the closest one without much thought?
I know I am a little late in the game. Mr. A will start K next month *EEK*! He is already enrolled at one of our local elementary schools. The one that’s closest to us. I didn’t give it much thought.
But then DH was talking about a Charter School that is on the Indian Reservation that he works at. He said his work friends kids would be going there. A charter school never even occurred to me, much less one on “the rez.” But I was looking at it online and began thinking….
Scary!
On this website (Great Schools) you can compare schools. There I saw the information for our Ramona Community School that offers home school and Montessori based programs.
Well, the Community Schools test scores are MUCH higher than the other 2 schools (the Charter school was the lowest) and had really high marks at this Great School website. (8/10 when the other 2 were 5/10. Parental ratings were all 4/5 for all 3).
I had looked into the Community School last year when for 10 minutes I thought about home schooling. That quickly passed because I decided I wasn’t up for it. I don’t trust myself with the schooling. But I hadn’t really thought of the in-class Montessori program until now.
Mr. A is extremely smart and very social.
My head is spinning, but now I am thinking of the Community School even though he’s already enrolled at the local elementary. Oh, the Comm School isn’t that much further away….so that’s not a factor and the Charter school would only be convenient if DH’s work schedule can coordinate with school times. But again, low test scores so I’m not really considering it anymore.
ANYHOW, I guess my real question is….HOW DID YOU DECIDE? My head is spinning!! I don’t want him to be at any disadvantage because I screwed up and didn’t put him in the right school.
We honestly didn’t have a choice. The nearest private school was 1 hour away where we lived before, there was no way in hell we’d all survive homeschooling, so the local public schools it was. There were no other options.
Where we live now, you don’t get much choice in school either. We lucked out and got a good one. I haven’t even looked at the private schools as we haven’t had a need, but I have a feeling we’d have to drive a fair distance to get to a decent one anyway.
Our decision was easy. We have ONE choice! I would go with your gut and check out the test scores.
I’m right there with you. Mine is starting school next month too, and I’m still debating local public school or homeschool. I keep trying to put it off because it makes me so anxious to even think about.
OH NO! School? You mean they are supposed to go to school? OK, begin breathing again. I have a few more years to go before I have to truly panic about this but I’m watching to see what all the others say.
When Haley was going to Kindergarten, I visited all of the schools and talked with some of the teachers to get a feel for them. We live in a small town but we have 5 elementary schools. I picked the school that I felt the most comfortable with. I was lucky the school I picked was the one we were zoned for until this year. I had to get her out of zone this year because I wanted her in a certain school this year. It is a very hard decision. I hope you make the choice that is right for your son.
My son is still too young for kinder, but I work in the public school system. I know it will be a difficult choice–but yu may want to check and see if the charter is still accepting applications. I think for the charters in my district, you have to apply by a certain deadline (like April or something). I would also call and see if you can tour the charter–that way you can see it in person. Sometimes test scores aren’t all they are cracked up to be, so I wouldn’t give TOO much weight to that. Just my 2 cents
[...] had spent a lot of time trying to decide what school to put him in. I was so happy that after only 2 days on the waiting list, he had a spot at the [...]