Pregnant and house searching -- PK3 question
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Anonymous
I would at least look at bethesda elementary school. I don't think they offer PK though. With a young child, there's definitely something to be said for living near where you work, particularly if you want to remain car free. |
Anonymous
| Especially if BOTH parents works in Bethesda! You could easily live a truly car-free life there or Friendship Heights. |
Anonymous
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Agree with other PPs that it's important to look at your long-run plans. Just to share my experience, I bought a condo before I was pregnant in an area which had a nice PK3 program that was not particularly difficult to get into if you were in-bounds. Fast forward to 5 years later, and the PK3 slots are very hard to get (slots mostly go to those with older siblings). So if you're just pregnant now, and not really loving your options in-bounds for SWWFS (and especially if you work in Bethesda), you should understand it's hard to predict you'll get into PK3 as an inbounds student for any school, given the ever increasing demand for PK3. SWWFS had a very long waitlist this year (although I think it accommodated all of its inbound students by summer time).
However, if you want to live in DC and are open to trekking your kid across the city for whatever slot is available, that is a much more likely option. |
Anonymous
Don't let schools dictate your housing search (not in DC)! There really is a lot of choice. You won't get stuck in a "bad" IB school. There frankly really aren't that many left, not before the testing grades really. And if you happen to get stuck with one, then there are good elementary schools that you can get into through the lottery. They may not be the "top" three buzzing in your ear but I could give you countless reasons why those really aren't better anyway. No, you don't need to own a car. We've got three kids and never owned a car. Can't say I've never driven one and our transportation costs certainly aren't zero; but it's really been very feasible to do without. (I must say 500K is becoming a difficult budget to work with. Have you checked out Trinidad? And make sure you train your and your agent's eye to look past what's fixable and remediable. Houses are amazingly staged around here. So you quickly grow to see everything that's not brand spanking new as a dump, where really a bit of paint, new blinds, and decent lighting would make all the difference.) |
Anonymous
| That's encouraging, PP! My hubby, who's always biking, will love to hear that. I'm also looking at the cute cottages in Silver Spring... at least there we could live near the metro, afford a 3 bedroom, and take a 20 min bus to Bethesda for work... |
Anonymous
| Ignore people who say that getting into PK3 is not guaranteed. WHile that is technically true there is ALWAYS a spot somewhere for everyone who wants one. There are open PK3 spaces every year for weeks after school starts. Sure you might not get your kid into your preferred choices, but if you are just looking for free daycare then you're in luck. |
Anonymous
| You may want to look at some of the homes available in the Capitol Riverfront. You have guaranteed access to PK3/PK4 at Van Ness Elementary School. |
Anonymous
| Rent IB for Hearst if you work in Bethesda. They have PreK3 and you are close to redline/ bus |
Anonymous
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Don't plan your PK years around Ross. It has become exceptionally competitive. I think around 50% of the inbound non-sibling kids got a PK3 slot this year? And you can expect those odds to go down a lot more in the coming few years as more and more families squeeze into this hot neighborhood.
Before you mentioned Bethesda, I was just going to say to buy where you want to be for a good ES district, and take whatever decent PK you get -- like Seaton, which still decent odds of getting in but is gentrifying and improving quickly these days. But that's the opposite direction for you from GP. Not sure if there are comparable PKs between GP and Bethesda, but if there are, just plan on one of those. 80% of the PK programs in NW are perfectly good at this point, so if you're only worrying about 2 years under your IB ES slot kids in, just do that. However, I caution you like others did that the savings aren't really that great over private preschool. You *can* save a lot of money through a combo of free PK and cheap aftercare. But the free and cheap aftercare and summer camps are pretty bare bones and may not be right for your three year old. to the extent parents have some money to spend on better aftercare, they are inclined to want to spend it. Our 4-year old son still has regulatory issues and doesn't do well in, well, "chaos". The PKs near us all had free aftercare, but it was essentially just dropping all 7 grades of kids in the gym, putting on a movie, running around the field, etc. I've heard the same about the super cheap YMCA summer programs. Our son will be able to handle that when he's 7, but that just wasn't a good option for us at age 3-4. So then we started having to think about the cost of nicer after care and summer programs, which aren't cheap, and at that point it would have just made more sense for us to spend a bit more on an after school/summer babysitter - making our lives easier and giving my son a break from the chaos of the school day. Taking all this into account and given that preschool is year round, we found that preschool was only going to cost $7200 more per year than the free PK program plus a 2-hour a day/summer babysitter. Point is that I wouldn't plan my life around the free PK program. |
Anonymous
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How many kids do you want to have, OP? 1 kid in a condo is doable, but 2 might start to feel pretty cramped. You may not want to do that for 10+ years through your kid's elementary school years just to be IB for Ross.
There is something to be said for continuing to save and waiting until after your kid is born to buy a house. That way you'll have a better sense of what you want in a home and where you want to live. We always wanted to be close to the action, but 1 year later all we want is some peace and quiet, green space, and being close to parks and playgrounds. We had no idea how important outdoor space would be to us so soon, and how much we wanted to be able to walk out our front or back door to get outside. Our 1-yr-old is always begging to go outside, and it's a totally different thing to have to pack up the stroller and a diaper bag with supplies and go down the elevator or in our case down the stairs and walk a few blocks compared to just opening your back door. |
Anonymous
Hearst has PK-3? I'm not sure about that. But good school and nice neighborhood for sure! |
Anonymous
Hearst was slated for PreK3 this year. |
Anonymous
No PreK3 next year either (per my school DC). |
Anonymous
This is a crazy attitude. There are no guarantees of getting into a school via lottery - not to mention the fact that if you rely on the lottery you could end up with a hellish commute and school drop off situation going from one side of the town to another especially if you refuse to drive!! That extra hour in your day and stressful commute with a child can really eat up your quality of life. |
Anonymous
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I work in Bethesda and live in Petworth. The commute is easy via Rock Creek Park.
There are plenty of Charters within a 10-15 minute drive from our home to Ward 5. I wouldn't necessarily move to where I work because I love the city. |