Anyone considering Ideaventions Academy for middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are young but we are looking to move in the near future. Just wondering what others thought of the idea of a small middle school for gifted middle school students.

http://www.ideaventionsacademy.org/

Nice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is that a checkbook you have? Yes, your child is gifted!!!

Oakton has plenty of good public schools with resources for smart kids. I don't get why people pay for these silly private gifted schools.

So our children don't have to go to school with yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is someone did not like the middle school choice for AAP of Luther Jackson.

PP: And just to be clear, my DD is a 7th grader at LJ, and we are happy. Plus, this may be the only time in her life that she spends time (PE mostly) with people not in the upper middle class.

I thought that public school parents with money sent their kids to middle school to Flint Hill to avoid LJ. They put them in Oakton HS after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought advertisements were discouraged on these threads.

Go peddle your stupid school idea somewhere else, OP.

OP here. I am not advertising. My kids are age 5 and under and looking into various neighborhoods in VA. We live in Alexandria and ok with elementary schools until middle school. There seem to be a ton of great private high schools but very limited middle schools.

Nysmith is an excellent choice. Our son goes there.

[Anonymous]

We have looked into it for our 2E daughter (dyslexia). We decided it would not be a good fit for her combination of talents/challenges. For one thing, I felt like there was too much of an emphasis and reward system for “fast” and “competition” — not meeting each child individually and moving them forward but putting them against one another in a friendly (if it works for you) or frantic (if it does not) environment. Also, they did not have generally accepted dyslexia-friendly foreign language options like American Sign Language. So I felt DD would be more hamstrung by her challenges than set free to explore her math/science strengths, if that makes sense. I do love tons of what they do, and I really like them as individuals, and I am rooting for them, but even though I keep trying to go back and give it another chance, I keep walking away thinking, “Yeah, that’s right, that is why I thought it wasn’t right last time too.” But I feel like I am like a fan girl or something because I do really really want to like them so much!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought advertisements were discouraged on these threads.

Go peddle your stupid school idea somewhere else, OP.

OP here. I am not advertising. My kids are age 5 and under and looking into various neighborhoods in VA. We live in Alexandria and ok with elementary schools until middle school. There seem to be a ton of great private high schools but very limited middle schools.

Nysmith is an excellent choice. Our son goes there.

Nysmith only goes up to 8th grade ... There is no high school. Ideaventions Academy will go up to 12th grade in their Upper School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have looked into it for our 2E daughter (dyslexia). We decided it would not be a good fit for her combination of talents/challenges. For one thing, I felt like there was too much of an emphasis and reward system for “fast” and “competition” — not meeting each child individually and moving them forward but putting them against one another in a friendly (if it works for you) or frantic (if it does not) environment. Also, they did not have generally accepted dyslexia-friendly foreign language options like American Sign Language. So I felt DD would be more hamstrung by her challenges than set free to explore her math/science strengths, if that makes sense. I do love tons of what they do, and I really like them as individuals, and I am rooting for them, but even though I keep trying to go back and give it another chance, I keep walking away thinking, “Yeah, that’s right, that is why I thought it wasn’t right last time too.” But I feel like I am like a fan girl or something because I do really really want to like them so much!!

Trust your gut...there is a reason you are feeling off about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes!!! This is the only private school that we are considering. Our son has been going to ideaventions camps for years and we have been thoroughly impressed. Before you drink the Kool-Aid, send your child to a camp to see if he/she would enjoy the experience.

Our son was accepted and he will be attending Ideaventions in the fall. Regarding the admissions process, our child had to take an administered IQ test, provide recommendation letters, and “participate” in class (it was virtual).

I do not understand the vitriol that some people have towards the school and it’s founders. Everybody that we have interacted with at the school has been lovely; I am especially impressed by the founders who care about providing the best education and experience for each child.

Again, I recommend that if this is a school that you are considering, enroll your child in a camp or two to see if it would be a good fit and talk to other parents.

[Anonymous]

IDV parent responding... things have changed over the years. While it was a good school before, it gets better every year. They're growing, now 2nd-12th. They are accredited through Cognia. And the high school students score really well on the SATs. They're really nice kids too, which as a parent, is even more important than the great academics. We've been here for four years and are so glad we changed private schools. My kids took a winter break camp one year and came home and literally said, "We want to go to school there next year." So we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes!!! This is the only private school that we are considering. Our son has been going to ideaventions camps for years and we have been thoroughly impressed. Before you drink the Kool-Aid, send your child to a camp to see if he/she would enjoy the experience.

Our son was accepted and he will be attending Ideaventions in the fall. Regarding the admissions process, our child had to take an administered IQ test, provide recommendation letters, and “participate” in class (it was virtual).

I do not understand the vitriol that some people have towards the school and it’s founders. Everybody that we have interacted with at the school has been lovely; I am especially impressed by the founders who care about providing the best education and experience for each child.

Again, I recommend that if this is a school that you are considering, enroll your child in a camp or two to see if it would be a good fit and talk to other parents.

*should be its. Do they teach grammar at this place?

[Anonymous]

Post of the year

Anonymous wrote:I draw the line at portmanteaus as a school name.

[Anonymous]

Looking for more info about this school. Is it too small at high school level? How are they for lab science and not STEM subjects?

[Anonymous]

We looked at it but as they would not provide basic accommodations like extra time for gifted (as shown through testing) kids with even mild learning differences, and were not interested in entertaining the idea that such students might succeed at the school, it was a non-starter. I can only hope that has changed in the last few years since we considered applying.

[Anonymous]

I don't know anything about this school, bit I am heartened that more private options are appearing on the VA side.

[Anonymous]

Ideaventions has a whopping three national merit semifinalists this year. This is incredibly impressive for such a small school.