We have been spending a lot of time trying to decide where to send Widget for kindergarten next year. We aren’t thrilled with our local school district, primarily because they are continually changing which schools kids go to and our neighborhood school has been a low performer on standardized testing. Also, they are only doing full day kindergarten and I’m just not sure that Widget is ready for that (or me, having her gone that much).
Right now, we are comparing two local charter schools, her current school (the local Catholic school) and possibly a neighboring public school district as we would be as close to them as we are to the other schools we are considering.
The first charter school uses a Montessori approach for kindergarten and when we visited, I loved the simplicity of the room. But I’m not sure about the Montessori approach and Widget. I could see her focusing on just one area and neglecting the others, though I do know that the teacher guides them. Plus I was not that excited about the organization of the rooms for grades 1-3. Only one of the teachers we met seemed very organized and all the rooms felt like they were trying to cram too much into too small of a space, especially with the idea of putting 21 children in the room as well.
The other charter school we looked at earlier this year, considering switching Widget into their Readiness Kindergarten program to guarantee her a place there next year. But I was not impressed with those classrooms. They were overwhelming and busy with WAY too much focus on academics for children who are mostly barely five-years-old. I knew right away that we were keeping her in the pre-K preschool program she is currently in and were going to take our chances with getting in next year. The kindergarten rooms seemed a little bit better organized but I do think there is a stronger focus on academics with this school, which is important but I also feel strongly that kindergarteners are young and need to experience much of their learning through play.
Our current school is, honestly, really where I want to send her because it just feels like the right place to be. The kindergarten class room reminded me of my own kindergarten class as a child- academics but with room to play. I have no qualms about her learning and gaining through her experiences with the Catholic faith in school, so that isn’t even something we are worried about. What I’m worried about is the finance of sending her to a private school, especially as we aren’t Catholic (though we are considering trying the Catholic church in our current search for a new church home). Tuition is more than double our current tuition for preschool and then the next year, it would almost double again for the rest of the years. And obviously when we have more than one child in school, we would have to pay the tuition twice over.
Lastly, there is the neighboring public school, which I haven’t actually visited but our friends’ neighbors send their kids there and they love it. The only drawback to kindergarten there is that it is on a funny schedule of two full days one week and three the next week. It seems to me that would be hard for a child to not have a totally consistent school schedule from week to week, especially with school holidays.
We find out if we are chosen for either of the charter schools next month. They both have a lottery system for open spaces because of state laws on charter schools, so we may or may not get in despite having applied. I know that we can get into her current school and I know we able to enroll at the neighboring public school because I received a letter confirming our slot in their open enrollment program but I have to let them know ASAP once I find out about the charter schools next month.
I never thought this would be so hard! When I was little, there was no choice really. Either we went to the neighborhood public school- low scores or not, or we went to a private school (in my hometown, also a Catholic school).
