Going from public to private school

[Anonymous]

Op - we are moving to a parochial school. Not an independent private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kids will be fine, though there will undoubtedly be an adjustment period.

Our kids did both at various times, and they had homework in both public and private. Here's an example that will show how it's just different. (not necessarily better or worse)

4th grade public: Eight math problems. Five are simple problems; two are word problems; one is a sort of theoretical "explore this" question.

Prepare for spelling quiz on Friday.

Color a map for Social Studies.

4th grade private: 20 math problems, 18 are simple, two are word problems.

Use each of 20 words in a sentence. Sentences must be properly constructed and work must be neat.

Social Studies: Read a chapter and answer questions in the textbook, again with proper structure and neat work.

Op - this is very helpful. I agree with the public school break down. The hardest I also agree will be writing and spelling. My DC still has lots of misspelled words and I am sure that won’t fly

OP, entertain the idea that your kids spelling issues are not attributable to the inferior public school education and rather their own need to improve in certain areas. If you think Catholic school will be some kind of panacea for existing learning issues, you are mistaken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kids will be fine, though there will undoubtedly be an adjustment period.

Our kids did both at various times, and they had homework in both public and private. Here's an example that will show how it's just different. (not necessarily better or worse)

4th grade public: Eight math problems. Five are simple problems; two are word problems; one is a sort of theoretical "explore this" question.

Prepare for spelling quiz on Friday.

Color a map for Social Studies.

4th grade private: 20 math problems, 18 are simple, two are word problems.

Use each of 20 words in a sentence. Sentences must be properly constructed and work must be neat.

Social Studies: Read a chapter and answer questions in the textbook, again with proper structure and neat work.

Op - this is very helpful. I agree with the public school break down. The hardest I also agree will be writing and spelling. My DC still has lots of misspelled words and I am sure that won’t fly

OP, entertain the idea that your kids spelling issues are not attributable to the inferior public school education and rather their own need to improve in certain areas. If you think Catholic school will be some kind of panacea for existing learning issues, you are mistaken.

Op - completely understood. However in the 4 years we have been in school I don’t remember one single spelling test for my now 4th grader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kids will be fine, though there will undoubtedly be an adjustment period.

Our kids did both at various times, and they had homework in both public and private. Here's an example that will show how it's just different. (not necessarily better or worse)

4th grade public: Eight math problems. Five are simple problems; two are word problems; one is a sort of theoretical "explore this" question.

Prepare for spelling quiz on Friday.

Color a map for Social Studies.

4th grade private: 20 math problems, 18 are simple, two are word problems.

Use each of 20 words in a sentence. Sentences must be properly constructed and work must be neat.

Social Studies: Read a chapter and answer questions in the textbook, again with proper structure and neat work.

Op - this is very helpful. I agree with the public school break down. The hardest I also agree will be writing and spelling. My DC still has lots of misspelled words and I am sure that won’t fly

OP, entertain the idea that your kids spelling issues are not attributable to the inferior public school education and rather their own need to improve in certain areas. If you think Catholic school will be some kind of panacea for existing learning issues, you are mistaken.

Op - completely understood. However in the 4 years we have been in school I don’t remember one single spelling test for my now 4th grader.

They will certainly be behind in writing. Parochial schools are very big on cursive writing and it is part of the core curriculum of most schools. Though most cursive is taught in 1-3rd grades.

Don't think handwriting is important, I was just with an 18 year old that couldn't sign a document in cursive. It was in big block letters. It looked completely foolish and childish. kid had gone to public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dd moved from public to private in 2nd grade and it was rough. She was very, very behind and I had to do a ton of help at home. The posters who are saying that it’s not a big deal are trying to justify that public school approaches to learning are working. They are not. The rigor of private school saved my daughter’s ability to read and do math. I’m positive if she had stayed in public she would have come out illiterate. Good for you for making the switch. It’s hard but worth it.

I am happy your kid is thriving but this kind of hyperbole is absurd.

[Anonymous]

OP we made the move from public to a Catholic private for high school and it was a big learning curve. At least by making the switch earlier you can work out any issues before the stakes are as high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kids will be fine, though there will undoubtedly be an adjustment period.

Our kids did both at various times, and they had homework in both public and private. Here's an example that will show how it's just different. (not necessarily better or worse)

4th grade public: Eight math problems. Five are simple problems; two are word problems; one is a sort of theoretical "explore this" question.

Prepare for spelling quiz on Friday.

Color a map for Social Studies.

4th grade private: 20 math problems, 18 are simple, two are word problems.

Use each of 20 words in a sentence. Sentences must be properly constructed and work must be neat.

Social Studies: Read a chapter and answer questions in the textbook, again with proper structure and neat work.

Op - this is very helpful. I agree with the public school break down. The hardest I also agree will be writing and spelling. My DC still has lots of misspelled words and I am sure that won’t fly

OP, entertain the idea that your kids spelling issues are not attributable to the inferior public school education and rather their own need to improve in certain areas. If you think Catholic school will be some kind of panacea for existing learning issues, you are mistaken.

We just moved to a parochial that stated cursive was taught in 2nd and kids were to write in it my 3rd. I was pleasantly surprised when my 3rd grader (new to school) came home and indicated she could still write in print while she was learning cursive. We did some over the summer but she still isn't to the point where she's writing words or sentences, because she was also doing summer math and reading assignments which were an entirely new concept to our kids. Someone upthread said these schools meet the kids where they are on the writing/grammar/spelling and I'm hoping that trend will continue at our school.

Op - completely understood. However in the 4 years we have been in school I don’t remember one single spelling test for my now 4th grader.

They will certainly be behind in writing. Parochial schools are very big on cursive writing and it is part of the core curriculum of most schools. Though most cursive is taught in 1-3rd grades.

Don't think handwriting is important, I was just with an 18 year old that couldn't sign a document in cursive. It was in big block letters. It looked completely foolish and childish. kid had gone to public school.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the public and parochial. Some parochials have incredible teachers and administrators and those kids are extremely proficient at math, writing, and time management. Some are not. My advice is always to not always go to the parochial closest to you but to look at the other nearby ones and take a tour, talk to parents, etc and get a sense of the school. Even though that curriculum is that same, the instruction is not

[Anonymous]

The data does not support lots of homework in elementary. Just reading minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op - completely understood. However in the 4 years we have been in school I don’t remember one single spelling test for my now 4th grader.

Many local public schools (not all) mostly stopped teaching spelling, grammar, and handwriting over the past 15-20 years (partly this was caused by the Lucy Calkins “Writers Workshop” crap, where in many cases teachers explicitly were forbidden to correct or teach either grammar or spelling before 4th/5th grade). So there actually is a good chance that OP is 100% correct and DC simply were not taught in public school.

By contrast, most of the Catholic schools avoid educational fads (such as the now widely discredited Lucy Calkins reading/writing crap) and so they retained explicit instruction on handwriting (including cursive), spelling, and grammar. They also have kept having daily or weekly quizzes on the same topics.

I think everything ultimately will be fine, but DC likely are in for a small shock that they are behind in some areas and need to catch up. They likely also will need to develop age-appropriate study skills. OP likely will need to help kids catch up in any areas where they are behind, either directly at home or by finding an after-school tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The data does not support lots of homework in elementary. Just reading minutes.

True ONLY IF one cherry picks the data and only uses studies with small sample sizes and inadequate controls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot more work in parochial school. We made the switch and this year also got Summer homework. It is a lot, but I honestly appreciate there is caring about the work and we are out of the MCPS chrome book insanity.

+1. Want out of the same insanity at FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS switched from DCPS to a "big 3" in 4th grade. He was not at all behind. If anything, he had less homework.

Big3 is not a Catholic parochial school. Also, big3 are well known to be less rigorous in the elementary grades than once DC hits their middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In general do public schools just not have homework in elementary school? Does it ramp up in middle and high school?

FCPS and APS mostly do not offer any (or much) homework until middle school. Maybe AAP offers some in FCPS, but we haven’t heard of any. The main exception seems to be APS’s Arlington Traditional School, which actually is more traditional.

[Anonymous]

I moved my son and it was a big adjustment. His teacher would correct him and make him redo sloppy work which he wasn't used to at all. At public he turned in half-a** work far beneath his capacity and only ever got "wonderful!" as feedback. It took the first half of the year to really get in gear.
There will be spelling tests, they will learn parts of speech, they will have to do actual paper and pencil math. Basically expect it to be like you remember elementary school in the 90s. For me the most welcome change was the books they read, mostly from the 20th century! The books at public were all post-2020 politicized garbage that no kid would be interested in reading.