It takes a village to answer this question, which school is right for my child when they graduate from Creative Minds? Should they go to private, public or charter school? What is transitional kindergarten?
A few of our parents are asking the above questions, and a few of our veteran parents have tried to share their personal stories. I am a complete believer in the collective wisdom of our parents.
Here are some personal stories. Feel free to email us your story to add to the conversation:
Discovery Charter School
From Heather in Blue Room
I work in education and child development research, so I became interested in charter schools like Discovery because they align with everything we know is right for child development and learning. Discovery, in particular, is interesting because the director simply looks at what the research overwhelmingly says is best for child development and learning and adopts that approach (no homework, year-round calendar, play-based kindergarten, child-directed learning, inquiry-based learning, positive discipline, etc). Putting it into practice is, of course, rougher than that, but I think overall it's a good option for parents who prefer a school that is focused on positive development and highly motivated learning, and want to avoid the testing and high-pressure academics of some of the local public schools. I don't have the first-hand experience of having a child in Discovery yet, but I've met a lot of parents who are pretty fanatical in their devotion to the school. I've heard that Discovery 2 is having some "growing pains" but it is their first year and that's expected. I'm pretty happy that, if we get a spot, Kaia will be in kindergarten in their second year — they'll still be working out some kinks next year and for kindergarten that's fine as long as they stick to their play-based/Reggio approach.
One of the reasons I like the parent participation approach of Discovery is because, unlike some families, we don't live in a good neighborhood for having a sense of community and kids to play with. I appreciate that Discovery builds community within the school. I don't know how it looks in daily practice at Discovery, but I know that the parent meetings that I've been to as a founder have been very well attended, with hundreds of people show up. The parents are certainly involved with the school and encouraged to be involved, and I guess from there it's up to the parents to build the community that they want. Likewise with connecting with the outside community — I see those efforts happening, but I assume it depends on the parents who are there to make it happen. They do a lot of field trips, parent education, and community outreach, and a lot of that is parent-led.
I don't know much about the YMCA aftercare program at Discovery. I'm a little concerned about that, because I've heard less than glowing reviews about YMCA aftercare programs on a national level. It's hard to say how that translates to the program at a particular school. It sounds like the aftercare program is fairly small at Discovery 2, and according to the director it follows the Discovery approach. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I feel a little better knowing that the director is paying attention to the aftercare. Still, it's something on my mind. I like that they spend a lot of time outside during the day and generally get to burn energy during the day, so it's not all dependent on after school to do that.
Our plan is to go to Discovery if we get a spot and see how it goes. Our neighborhood school gets mixed reviews, but I think it's a fine alternative if Discovery doesn't work out. We're also applying for a transfer to another school in our district just because it has an IB program and is a much smaller school.
Since Kaia's not in kindergarten yet, I don't have much direct experience to share! My experience as a founding parent has been that the parents at Discovery are extremely dedicated, and the director is phenomenal. As for how to look for quality schools, it's a difficult question. I think you have to figure out what your most important criteria are. For me, the teachers and director/principal are the most important factors, along with approach to learning.
Private School
From Satarupa in Blue Room
This is our first year in K-12 school with our older son Dhruv, and also our first year of school in the US! We are very much in the learning process ourselves. I'm not married to anything yet -- public, private or charter.
Our neighborhood public school does not offer the opportunity to build a community since many of our neighbors' kids don't go there. The kids in our neighborhood play and get together anyway since we live in a townhome community and there are common areas where everyone comes out and plays. Luckily we don't miss out on that by going with private school.
The big positives for us in the private school we chose are its all-around curriculum with a strong language-arts program. The kids' music teacher is a local musician. They have music every day in kindergarten. The art teacher is phenomenal. He makes the kids who would otherwise draw a 5-year-old's line drawings produce works of art and think outside the box while they're at it. The same teachers offer after-school classes and the kids love it. There is no significant transition between school day and after school.
In general, by design, private schools end up picking students who will be suited to their particular environment (and there is a range of private school philosophies out there). As a result the teacher (who may actually be less qualified than a public school teacher) is able to focus more of her energy on teaching as opposed to maintaining class discipline, at least in the lower grades. What I'm observing is that while the method of teaching may not match what I personally could do if I home schooled for example, the class is moving at a fast pace because all the kids are able to keep up and are interested. All the kids are challenged. I don't think any kid is bored or way ahead of the class. There's no pressure from the parents. As we move to the older grades, I am going to look more closely at the quality of teaching itself, i.e teaching concepts rather than fact sheets, encouraging original work.
Public School
From Teacher Aimee
When my oldest, Fiona, was ready to transition from preschool to kindergarten, we checked out our neighborhood public school, Oak Ridge Elementary School, our school district's alternative k-8 program called The Indigo Program, and private school at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. All three were very different, but each had aspects my husband and I liked.
Our neighborhood school is within walking distance and is ranked a 7 out of 10 on greatschools.org. The Indigo Program has a similar philosophy to Creative Minds and has a lot of parent involvement. Holy Spirit had small class size and a nice campus. After going on tours at all three sites, doing some research, and much weighing of pros and cons, we went with our neighborhood school (with the thought that if we weren't happy after kindergarten, we would transfer to The Indigo Program for first grade).
Four years later we are still at Oak Ridge. Fiona is now in third grade and Katie is in kindergarten. So far so good! I think Oak Ridge works for our family because we love being part of the neighborhood community, walking to and from school and playing on the weekends with school friends. I volunteer in the girls' classes on Fridays and am active with fundraisers, field trips, and class parties. Their teachers are great! With the money we saved in tuition, both girls are able to participate in music lessons, gymnastics, swim lessons, and summer camps. We have tried to stay active with the church with Catechism and mass.
This is just a quick synopsis of my family's quest to find a school for our children that works best for all of us. Each family's quest will be different based on your priorities, resources, location, and children's personalities.
Thanks to parents for sharing their stories!
Richa
