GTKY: School Plans

katykatykaty · October 2015

Do you plan on sending your kids to public or private school? Or something else? I am a big advocate of public school, but school shootings always make me question our kids' education plans.

gracefulruby33 · October 2015

The public schools in my area are some of the best in the state, so we're going the public route.

KyllieThomson · October 2015

Crappy school system in my area, only one elementary (k-5) and one high school (5-12)... Homeschool looks like the way we will be going!

yogahh · October 2015

Public. DH is a public school teacher so we need to support the cause! Hoping we are out of the city by then though as our schools are pretty abysmal. I went to Catholic school 1-8 and public for HS - having 1st hand of both options, public is a better choice IMO. More exposure to other cultures and ways of thinking.

chottomotto · October 2015

Public school because our assigned schools are great. We will be supplementing at home too.

egriffithrn · October 2015

I was a product of homeschooling and my children will be too. My husband teaches for one of the best public schools around here, but nonetheless we are choosing to homeschool our kids. More time for different opportunities, trips and travel.

gorgeousariel · October 2015

Public. We specifically looked at the schools when we bought our house.

nsouplynn · October 2015

Public school. When we decided to purchase our new home, we did a lot of research about the school district.

schicksal · October 2015

Public. You can apply for charter schools and they're pretty good here. IMO home life is more important anyway, and how much parents actually care and participate.

Jesse835235 · October 2015

Public for elementary, unsure for high school at this point. I'll wait another 10 years for that decision.

dsmith211 · October 2015

Public. The schools that our house are zoned for are some of the best in our area. That was one of our main criteria back when we were looking to buy our new home.

soralette · October 2015

My firstborn is gifted -- we're gonna be getting him a private IQ test next year to see just HOW gifted. If the test says "normal gifted", then he can go with the public gifted magnet school because that should be enough to meet a normal gifted kid's needs. If it says "profoundly gifted", we'll be looking into private school options (which require the private IQ test anyway)... and how much financial aid they can offer. O_x The private gifted school I like near us is like $23k/yr, which is wayyy too rich for my blood, ha, but they do offer financial aid, so it's still worth checking out.

Husband and I both had a lot of negative experiences growing up and being in classes with teachers who didn't want to be teaching gifted kids, so we want to avoid that for our kid(s) for whom such things are applicable.

The kid I'm pregnant with now, dunno -- depends on if he ends up in the gifted category, too, and, if so, we'll do the same "test and see where he should go" process. If he's more normal, then regular public school is fine.

Jparke2 · October 2015

DH and I both went to private school kindergarten all the way through high school. We would really like to go that route, but unfortunately I don't think its something we'll be able to afford just yet, especially with the private schools in our area. I have no idea how my parents afforded my schools! The problem is, the public schools in our area aren't great either. We would have moved somewhere with better schools (one county over, where we both work, has some of the best public schools in the country), but again, we aren't upper class so that wasn't happening lol. Guess we'll just have to wait and see :-??

thismakes4 · October 2015

I'm really enjoying the public charter schools they offer in my area. My son just started kindergarten this year and he's learning so much already. Basically the parents have to donate and volunteer your time but it's totally worth it.

mrstmoose · October 2015

Public. We both grew up in public schools, our best friends are people we grew up with. And quite frankly, in our area, the public schools are better than private. And lastly, we don't have that kind of money to send our kids to private schools.

doozer1345 · October 2015

Public until middle school then private.

asunna · October 2015

if i still lived in canada i would say public
but now that we live in america, private.

cortney626 · October 2015

Public. My daughter is in 3rd grade. I love her school!

nerdymama15 · October 2015

I'm thinking maybe public for elementary and then home schooling for middle and high school. I think elementary will teach some social skills with other children.

laurenmdrn16 · October 2015

@soralette maybe I should PM this, but how old is your child? When did you test him?

I ask because my son just turned 2 and our pediatrician was very shocked at his vocabulary and math skills. She said he had the vocab of a 4yr old and he can do simple addition and subtraction. He can read simple words and can follow written music. He also can play a sung pitch on the piano. I didn't realize how weird it was until I saw his pedi's face because I just assumed our friends were just being nice. I am wondering if she would refer us for testing or if that is something we persue on our own. I don't want to push it, but I also don't want to do him a disservice.

saladflambe · October 2015

Public

lalala2004 · October 2015

Definitely public school unless there is a specific reason not to (like a special need).

That's said, we will definitely move to a specific area before our kids are school age. If for some reason we can't, I'd send them to a charter school.

kmd0501 · October 2015

I am very strongly for catholic schools. My stepsons mother just transferred him to public this year and he is struggling and not doing well. He went from a class of 24 kids to being a number in one of 4 third grades. There is less activities for him to be apart of and overall my husband and I are not happy with what the district has to offer. They also have consistently dropped their standardized tests scores over the last 5 years.

I have always went to catholic school and felt like I had much more of an advantage when it came to college. But I also know many many people who attended public schools and are very successful as well. DH and I are just comfortable with catholic education and appreciate that it incorporates our faith with standard curriculum.

I also don't like not knowing all the families in stepsons new school. Before, we knew every family and each of their children. There were many opportunities for involvement and family interactions and the public school desperately lacks all of that. So we will go back to catholic school with our child.

Spylon · October 2015

French public school. French is my first language, but DH doesn't speak it, so our children will learn English at home but will go to full French school. The French public school in my town is new, and I have heard nothing but good.

Bluejay3030 · October 2015

I guess it depends where we live when the kids are school age. I'm all for public schools if we're in a decent district. H is all for private school since he went to private school K - 12. There are some pretty fantastic public schools in our area, just not in our immediate vicinity. So, we will wait and see I guess.

mariaalene · October 2015

Wish we could do private. But I don't think it's in the budget. So public

mcvgal · October 2015

Catholic school. DS1 will start at the catholic preschool next year.

YouGoGlenCoco31 · October 2015

Public. We moved to our current town specifically for the excellent schools.

2.red.heads · October 2015

Public. We're big supporters of public schools (3 of our 4 parents are public school teachers) but there are a lot of great schools around. We couldn't afford a private school anyway.

helleebellee · October 2015

The public school system here is beyond awful. The district is full of antiquated teachers who should have retired decades ago. I have home schooled until this year. A new charter school came in and I really love it. The people who brought it in are wonderful and are on the same page I am. My oldest didn't get in (lottery based admission), so I gave her two options. She could be home schooled as usual, or she could go to middle school with her friends. She chose to go to middle school. We're two months in and she cries every day about how much she hates it and wants to be home. I'm on the fence on what to do because I told her that whatever she chose would be it for the year, and there would be no backing out. BUT, she has a couple teachers who are just old bitties. Her math teacher will dock her points if she doesn't solve the math problems her way. She'll bring home quizzes and tests that have 100% on them, but she'll only get half of that grade because her teacher doesn't like the way it's been solved. She doesn't understand the way the teacher explains the work, though. My dd is beyond frustrated with this and I feel stuck. The principal is worse than the teacher and it feels like nothing can be done. Sorry for the rant. Whatever kids do not get into the charter school will be home schooled from now on. No more choices.

katykatykaty · October 2015

@SweetBriarBee I'm sorry she's having such a hard time. I grew up with a math-teacher mom, and from her I know that in math, the method is just as important as the actual answer, so you might have that same experience with other teachers as well.

ProfessorMommy · October 2015

Public but in a very small town. We know everyone. His dad is former chief of police, his grandmother is the former magistrate. He's a police officer. The kids' teachers are either HS or college friends. Our kids get away with nothing.... but both of us are actively involved to include volunteer coaching etc.

soralette · October 2015

laurenmdrn16 said:

@soralette maybe I should PM this, but how old is your child? When did you test him? I ask because my son just turned 2 and our pediatrician was very shocked at his vocabulary and math skills. She said he had the vocab of a 4yr old and he can do simple addition and subtraction. He can read simple words and can follow written music. He also can play a sung pitch on the piano. I didn't realize how weird it was until I saw his pedi's face because I just assumed our friends were just being nice. I am wondering if she would refer us for testing or if that is something we persue on our own. I don't want to push it, but I also don't want to do him a disservice.

@laurenmdrn16 --

My son is 3.5; we're planning on having him tested next year, because IQ scores start to stabilize at 4 to 4.5, and we need to decide where he's going to kindergarten before he turns 5.

It definitely sounds like your son will need some form of gifted education, too -- definitely look into it when he gets near school age; gifted kids in regular classrooms can actually do worse than normal kids because they get bored. They can also experience social problems, because they think differently from their age-peers. whee!

I don't remember exactly where my son was at just-turned-two; I know he was reading a large selection of simple words before two and a half, talking very fluently (never just "no", always "I don't want that!", or whatever), and such, though it sounds like your son's a bit further along in the math and music departments.

Nowadays, he's reading at about a first to second grade level with spelling and math at about kindergarten to first grade. He taught himself how to count to ten in Spanish about a month ago (after having about 6hrs of exposure to a toy that could do so), lol, and now can count up into the 30s and has a smattering of nouns and such in Spanish and has been begging for additional vocabulary, lol.

NinnyJean · October 2015

We'll be sending ours to public school. Thankfully we live in town that continually ranks best in state and one of the best in the country every year

bookelf221 · October 2015

We'll be either doing public school or homeschooling/online schooling. It depends on their personality. I did fine in public school but my hubby is ridiculously smart and was bored out of his mind so got in a lot of trouble.

laurenmdrn16 · October 2015

Thank you @soralette . We will look into testing in the next few years. It is a little stressful to try to make sure I am giving my son every opportunity he needs to keep stimulated.

soralette · October 2015

@laurenmdrn16 I know what you mean! I'm sure you'll figure out what works for all of you.

ceeesprof · October 2015

The tentative plan is to send our kids to public school-- that's why we picked the house we did! But DD seems to be ahead of the curve especially with reading and writing, so I'm afraid she'll be bored. She's the type of kid who will act out behaviorally when that happens, so we'll see. Her preschool does have a kindergarten that we could send her to, but I'm not sure we could swing the tuition. We'll be having kindergarten readiness meetings soon, so we'll be sure to take into consideration her teachers' thoughts and opinions.

katie1782 · October 2015

Definitely public school for us. DH is a public school teacher (although not in the district our children would attend). We have a very strong public school system in our area overall and we built our house in a good school district.

lmarie2009 · October 2015

We will send our children to public school. I am a teacher and many of my relatives are also teachers in public schools. Our school district is very good and offers various programs to support educational needs. We even have vocational choices and college offerings for our high school students. However, I have taught in private schools as well and I love the community feeling. There are also less behavioral and learning issues in private schools (students on IEPs and 504) in my area. I have friends that have home-schooled and seen the benefits of that as well. Lots of freedom to learn at an appropriate level and take educational trips. Its all about what is best for each family.

Bltbear82 · October 2015

We are lucky that our neighborhood has amazing public schools, but the public schools run on a lottery (maybe not all but perhaps just in certain neighborhoods?) so there's no guarantee. We've already applied for preschool at a private school that goes to 8th grade, so will hopefully just go there. But they use a lottery system too, so just hoping we get into the 2s and continue on up.

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