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December 2010 Moms
Cheekers2010
member
Is anyone else already thinking about school?
Cheekers2010
member
I can't believe I'm doing this, but I'm already thinking about where to send G when he starts school.
Part of it is that we will hopefully be selling and buying a new house in the next 6 months to a year so looking at the school districts will be part of the process. Part of it is that I am determined that G will go to a language immersion school. That seriously narrows things down.
Of course there are several private language schools in the area, but I can't see paying college tuition prices for him to go to elementary school. The idea just chaps my ass if you KWIM.
There are also several public language immersion schools but, unfortunately, none of them are really in the area that we're looking at houses. It's possible he'd be able to attend one anyway, but it would mean he'd have to get lucky in the school lottery. Blah!
There are also several very interesting charter schools, but only one is an immersion school and it's French. Don't get me wrong, I love French. I majored in it. However, it's not super useful in day to day life and I was hoping for him to take Spanish.
I have become seriously obsessed with trying to figure this out. How about you?
BFP2: 10/27/13(edd 7/10/14) "Speck" ~ M/C 12/5/13
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Is anyone else already thinking about school?
We are. There are two public elementary schools within a 3 mile radius of our house. The one we are currently zoned to (we rent) is ranked in the top 10% of performing elementary schools for our school district and is dual-language English/Spanish. The other one is ranked in the bottom 25% of elementary schools.
We're casually talking about buying a place, which makes my mother super excited. But she continues to send me house listings for homes in the other elementary school zone. It's driving me crazy.
BFP #2 5/27/12. EDD 2/1/13. m/c and D&C 6/21/12.
Wow! I think you need to give her a map with an outline. LOL
School districts around have have people on their staff that specifically investigate this. If you're found out, they pull your kid immediately and you have to pay "tuition" for all of the years that you attended falsely. Just something to think about.
Cheekers, just an argument to re-consider the French school - While Spanish may be more helpful in the US and obviously Spanish-speaking countries, there are many, many countries and job opportunities (UN for example) that use French as a primary or secondary language. So, it may open up an entirely different world for him, just not the obvious one. Besides, if you know French, you'll be able to converse with him. You didn't mention knowing Spanish, but if your DH or you do not, obviously it will be more difficult to give G nearly as much practice.
I guess I have a personal interest in this topic. I went to a German immersion school from 5th -10th grade. I then took several years in college. I learned so much, but my parents don't speak it, my brother did but hated it so wouldn't, and now my DH speaks very little. So, I lost so much of the language. I wanted to teach C but feel so inept. We very much want him to be in a German immersion program here but it is very costly. His DC is already the cost of college tuition and this would be a bit more so we'll have to see.
I've been thinking about it as well. Though we live in a rather wealthy area, the public schools in our town are nothing to write home about. I find that rather surprising, and it makes me think that many people here send their kids to one of the many private (and very expensive) schools. We can move to one of the neighboring towns with excellent public schools, but I really do love our town. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I have not ruled out private school. I am blown away by their curriculum and activities. I figure, it's still cheaper than what I'm paying the nanny!
ETA: I love the idea of a language immersion school. I would also lean towards Spanish for the reason you mentioned. DS is currently learning Spanish from his Columbian nanny and she said he is already understanding so much as he's been hearing it since he was 4 months old. Also, as we are in a suburb of NYC, there are SO many Spanish speakers in our town alone. You can literally go to any store or deli and have a chat in Spanish. I will be encouraging DS to do so as he gets older. My Spanish is minimal, but I do try to reinforce words to DS in both English & Spanish.
We got rezoned after the Census came out. There is no way in hell I am sending her to the school district we got zoned into. I would have never, ever, ever purchased a home in that district and I never thought we would be zoned into it because the way they drew the new lines they created this extremely funny shaped district that is long and skinny and we are on the far end of it, 25+ minutes from the school and we have to pass by at least 4 other public schools to get to it. I am so annoyed.
So yes, I am thinking about it. We could move, but our house value tanked even more with the rezoning. We would easily take a $50K hit for that. With that and the higher prices of houses in other districts, I just don't think we can swing it.
Instead we are looking at private school. The one I am favoring starts with Pre-K3, but she wouldn't be eligible until 2014 because of the birthday, the cutoff is you have to be 3 by Sept. 1. It's expensive, but not really any more than we already pay for daycare. Sigh.
Unless something major changes in our lives and we can eat the loss on the house, it's likely we will go with that.
BFP #2 4/13/10. Bridget born 12/28/10
BFP #3 Finn born 8/11/15
[url=http://www.thebump.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=UBB&utm_campaign=tickers][img]http://global.thebump.com/tickers/tt1cb8c4.aspx[/img][/url]
I'm not worried. My mom is very well-connected in the town and I'm currently an employee of that school system.
Good point. And, honestly, I'd rather he do language immersion of ANY kind rather than none at all. Obviously I love French and if thats the only choice I think it's great. I do also speak some Spanish though I'm more fluent in French and Italian (I've lost a lot of my fluency in all 3).
Hey, if you can swing private school, that's cool. I would have to go back to work ft to pay for it and I'd rather use the money for traveling, etc. That's probably a different choice then others would make.
Ow! That really bites. I'm sorry you were re-zoned like that.
Since we were TTC while hunting for our first home, we were thinking about schools even back then. Whenever a listing came up, I'd check it against the town's website for what school that street was assigned to. Our town is large & there's 4 grammar schools; some are deemed better than others. The school our street is assigned to is one of the good ones.
I went to private Catholic school, but we most likely won't be able to afford to send DS to the private school in our town. I am ok with that though, b/c I feel like both private & public have their pros & cons.
Also, since my ILs are Hispanic, my MIL has been casually teaching DS Spanish. There's a handful of words he knows/says already. So I guess this can fulfill his language immersion
Im jealous. I need to find G a Spanish speaking "auntie."
We haven't talked about it a lot, but we have discussed a little. Private school is not an option for us, but we live in one of the higher rated school districts and the school is only about a block away, so that's ok. I think we will enter the lottery for the language immersion magnet, but it's in high demand so I'm not hopeful we'd actually get selected.
We are also in agreement that we'll do the state-sponsored VPK when he turns four, but I'm not sure where we'd enroll him yet.