The River School in DC?

[Anonymous]

Hi -

Anyone have any experience with The River School in DC? We're looking at it for our DS...
thanks!

[Anonymous]

My two boys attend the River School and we have really liked it (but I do not have any experience with other schools). All classes include children with hearing loss, and the emphasis is on language development for all of the children (they do not teach sign language -- the children with hearing loss have implants and learn to speak). It has been incredible to watch the development of all the children over the years, especially the children with hearing loss. The teachers are wonderful, and they provide very detailed feedback on the children, and a really warm and nuturing environment. The school year also runs through July, which is very helpful when figuring out childcare for the summer.

[Anonymous]

....although there is no foreign language instruction, if that is important to you. Moreover, they wait a little longer than most other schools to introduce basic letter sounds and pre-reading skills (even though all kids will eventually learn to read), it's just a matter of the timing of presenting skills depending on the needs of the student population.

[Anonymous]

My son goes there and it's been amazing. We love it.

[Anonymous]

My son went through K (he's in 4th grade now). Their pre-reading program (they call it "mouth time") was AMAZING! It is a much more intuitive way of teaching reading by teaching the kids sounds first rather than letters and then adding the letter symbols later. The letter A doesn't always make the sound "ayyy" sometimes it is "ahhh", etccc...do you see what I mean? My son was reading way ahead of his 1st grade class when we left.

However, due to all the learning I do think a bit of the social aspects of pre-school are lost at River. Not much free play time at all. Maybe it is different now though.

[Anonymous]

Search the archives and read between the lines. There's much to love about it (curriculum, faculty, involved parents, hearling loss inclusion model) and much to hate (beware applying out early, no great outdoor space).

[Anonymous]

Not a lot of diversity, from what I saw.

[Anonymous]

I know its changed a lot since we went there but my son's kindergarden of 8 kids had one latin american boy, one chinese girl, one indonesian girl and one african american boy so the racial diversity was very good. Economic diversity was also good as there were a number of kids there who were hearing impaired and their tuition was paid for by DCPS or MC.