Public versus private - did the private school save you any time or stress?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't even come up with as many wants as Op has.
I actually want less from school, not more.
The morning meetings and closing circles could be used for recess. I don't care for music or arts, but not going to complain. Wish school days were shorter or again, more breaks for running around.
We do stay after school to play to make up for the lack of recess.
I would supplement math regardless of school.

This. I wish the kids could go to school for the 3-4 hours a day they actually use for instructional time and skip all of the time wasting. I wish school didn’t double for daycare because I don’t need or use daycare. My youngest got the last year of half day kindergarten in Loudoun and I was thrilled. It was great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't even come up with as many wants as Op has.
I actually want less from school, not more.
The morning meetings and closing circles could be used for recess. I don't care for music or arts, but not going to complain. Wish school days were shorter or again, more breaks for running around.
We do stay after school to play to make up for the lack of recess.
I would supplement math regardless of school.

This. I wish the kids could go to school for the 3-4 hours a day they actually use for instructional time and skip all of the time wasting. I wish school didn’t double for daycare because I don’t need or use daycare. My youngest got the last year of half day kindergarten in Loudoun and I was thrilled. It was great.

You don’t think there was time wasting in half day K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never said they do NO math, but they are working on basic fact families, basic 2D shapes, and haven’t touched two digit numbers yet. At home I printed a 100s chart (just 0-100) to be filled out, and introduced number line. Gave an intro to working with 11-20. These are basic things that I think should be covered in 1st grade.

1-100 chart and 2-D shapes were 4 yr old material at our Montessori. Basic Addition and subtraction were late in 4yr old year or fall of 5 yr old year. Multiplication was late in K or during 1st grade, depending on the child. That was also about what my public elsewhere did when I was in 1st grade.

So I think OP is reasonable when writing about filling curriculum holes for math.

Er, no. Just because some schools accelerated, doesn’t mean other schools are behind. Two digit addition is absolutely a first grade skill (and first grade isn’t over yet). Multiplication is a second grade skill. If OP is already supplementing addition then it’s not because of gaps in the curriculum it’s because she has some sort of anxiety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't even come up with as many wants as Op has.
I actually want less from school, not more.
The morning meetings and closing circles could be used for recess. I don't care for music or arts, but not going to complain. Wish school days were shorter or again, more breaks for running around.
We do stay after school to play to make up for the lack of recess.
I would supplement math regardless of school.

This. I wish the kids could go to school for the 3-4 hours a day they actually use for instructional time and skip all of the time wasting. I wish school didn’t double for daycare because I don’t need or use daycare. My youngest got the last year of half day kindergarten in Loudoun and I was thrilled. It was great.

You don’t think there was time wasting in half day K?

Sure but a lot less than full day K! All elementary grades could complete their learning in 3 hours. The only reason they don’t….daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is shady. What public school in this country doesn’t have hot lunch?

Also, what public school doesn’t have math daily?

Instruments - has anyone ever seen instrumental groups offered younger than third at public schools? Can’t understand how this is a shock to anyone. Kids get exposed to basics in music special.

Yeah, agree. And public elementary schools typically don’t offer organized sports teams or clubs after school. That starts in middle schools. Nor do kids play instruments. Maybe in later elementary school (4-5th grade) band/orchestra starts if they pick that option.

Yep I’m pretty sure to receive any federal funding public schools must serve hot lunch.

…unless the school kitchen is closed for a (botched, and stretched out) renovation, which prevented cooking a hot lunch, as did happen at a NoVa public elementary.

Your privileges are showing my friends my kid goes to a public elementary in upstate NY and no hot food - they drive over cold lunches. But keep on living that rich life yall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But you do need to pick your private school carefully; there are quite a few out there with similar drawbacks -- even now, you'll find quite a few allegedly elite, ultra expensive schools with beautiful campuses embracing Lucy Caulkins's execrable reading and writing programs.

+1000. At least APS, FCPS, and all other Virginia publics are required by a bi-partisan VA law to eliminate the Lucy Calkins reading approach over the next 2-3 years. APS got in front of this issue beforehand, but only after NAACP threatened to sue over their (previous) ineffective reading curriculum, and I am very grateful to NAACP for that pressure on APS.

NAACP was behind de-politicizing the issue. Prior to the northern Virginia NAACP getting involved specifically in our area, phonics was (and is in some areas and even some fairly recent reporting) seen as a right-of-center thing, which is ridiculous. When the local NAACP pushed it, it pushed local state-level Democrats to support it, which was critical in the state-level bills getting broad support. FCPS is moving more slowly, but the 3 options they picked from the state options for new possible curricula are all head-and-shoulders above what we had.

The problem will be fidelity of implementation to the better curricula at all these districts. In FCPS at least fidelity of implementation is principal- and teacher-dependent.

And math is still the same old slow VA curriculum that even FCPS's math lead acknowledges is too basic for kids in the lower grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't even come up with as many wants as Op has.
I actually want less from school, not more.
The morning meetings and closing circles could be used for recess. I don't care for music or arts, but not going to complain. Wish school days were shorter or again, more breaks for running around.
We do stay after school to play to make up for the lack of recess.
I would supplement math regardless of school.

This. I wish the kids could go to school for the 3-4 hours a day they actually use for instructional time and skip all of the time wasting. I wish school didn’t double for daycare because I don’t need or use daycare. My youngest got the last year of half day kindergarten in Loudoun and I was thrilled. It was great.

You don’t think there was time wasting in half day K?

Sure but a lot less than full day K! All elementary grades could complete their learning in 3 hours. The only reason they don’t….daycare.

+100! Kindergarten learning is really about an hour long and most of elementary is about 3 hours. Add in transitions (necessary) and you'd probably stretch kindergarten to 3 hours and upper grades to 5, but you could still manage some sort of SACC/camp type environment for the rest of the day to make the "daycare" thing not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't even come up with as many wants as Op has.
I actually want less from school, not more.
The morning meetings and closing circles could be used for recess. I don't care for music or arts, but not going to complain. Wish school days were shorter or again, more breaks for running around.
We do stay after school to play to make up for the lack of recess.
I would supplement math regardless of school.

This. I wish the kids could go to school for the 3-4 hours a day they actually use for instructional time and skip all of the time wasting. I wish school didn’t double for daycare because I don’t need or use daycare. My youngest got the last year of half day kindergarten in Loudoun and I was thrilled. It was great.

You don’t think there was time wasting in half day K?

Sure but a lot less than full day K! All elementary grades could complete their learning in 3 hours. The only reason they don’t….daycare.

+100! Kindergarten learning is really about an hour long and most of elementary is about 3 hours. Add in transitions (necessary) and you'd probably stretch kindergarten to 3 hours and upper grades to 5, but you could still manage some sort of SACC/camp type environment for the rest of the day to make the "daycare" thing not an issue.

Isn't the main thing with kindergarten the structure of it? So getting used to transitions, being able to be in a group of kids, being able to share, listen to directions.... It's really just getting acclimated to a school setting. Which I don't think you could do in an hour and then expect 1st grade to go well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't even come up with as many wants as Op has.
I actually want less from school, not more.
The morning meetings and closing circles could be used for recess. I don't care for music or arts, but not going to complain. Wish school days were shorter or again, more breaks for running around.
We do stay after school to play to make up for the lack of recess.
I would supplement math regardless of school.

This. I wish the kids could go to school for the 3-4 hours a day they actually use for instructional time and skip all of the time wasting. I wish school didn’t double for daycare because I don’t need or use daycare. My youngest got the last year of half day kindergarten in Loudoun and I was thrilled. It was great.

You don’t think there was time wasting in half day K?

Sure but a lot less than full day K! All elementary grades could complete their learning in 3 hours. The only reason they don’t….daycare.

+100! Kindergarten learning is really about an hour long and most of elementary is about 3 hours. Add in transitions (necessary) and you'd probably stretch kindergarten to 3 hours and upper grades to 5, but you could still manage some sort of SACC/camp type environment for the rest of the day to make the "daycare" thing not an issue.

Isn't the main thing with kindergarten the structure of it? So getting used to transitions, being able to be in a group of kids, being able to share, listen to directions.... It's really just getting acclimated to a school setting. Which I don't think you could do in an hour and then expect 1st grade to go well.

Which is why I said that the necessary structure part of it would stretch K to about 3 hours.

You can really only trim school down to it's bare essentials if you homeschool or do one of those microschools with a bare minimum number of kids and need for structure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We chose public over private because we thought we couldn't justify the cost when we live in a decent school district. My child is only starting elementary, but already the schedule is crazy because it turns out there isn't much offered at school. No sports, clubs, instruments, and not much art, not much math, no hot lunch, so we are supplementing all of that. Activities are way more PTA and parent run mishmash as opposed to well organized by faculty (which is what I seem to remember having attended private). Add in outside math tutoring, outside ELA curriculum, camps, aftercare, art class... I'm no longer sure private is looking THAT terrible in terms of maybe spending a bit more to get more time back. I know private school kids also supplement, but it feels like we are spending a lot of everything instead of just one or two things. If you went private for your children, I'm wondering if it saved you any time or stress because more was offered on site and/or more info and guidance was available to you rather than things being pieced together however parents can find?

The sport our kids do isn’t offered at school but otherwise we do no extras because they get exposed to everything at school. There are tons of afterschool offerings that we don’t do because the sport is time-consuming but I can see why you wouldn’t need to do things elsewhere unless your younger kids wanted to do a more intensive sport like a travel team. Academically we don’t supplement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting, i had never imagined that private school would do more on that front but will be also interested in the responses.

From the friends i know who are doing private, I don't see how they get more enrichments outside of class. Reason i know that is that they are doing the same extracurricular as our kids (soccer team, piano lessons, bouldering, art or gymnastics class etc..) and seem to be coming out of school at same time.

Maybe they do less in terms of tutoring? We do extra math and language classes and i would expect that private school would offer more flexbility to supplement on both end of spectrum (for kids ahead and kids falling behind). But that is just a guess

I have kids in private and we definitely do do math and language classes to supplement. They get enough of both of those at school. The thought of being in school all day and then having to do more school sounds awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has pointed out what seems to be an obvious "time" consideration -- how close you live to your public school and how close are the private schools you are considering? Chances are they are further from your home and your child will then have parties and playdates further from your neighborhood. Their school sports teams may also be part of an independent league with away games further from home. Just something to keep in mind.

Father, not further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just shocked to read about all the supplemental stuff parents are having their kids do. My kid goes to public, and he has a bit of homework (math and reading each night - prob 30 min total) that he does by himself - he's in 4th. He plays a couple of sports - recreational level and one practice a week in the evening and one game on the weekend. He began playing an instrument in school band and practices a few times a week and takes one 30 minute zoom lesson a week. I pack his lunch daily - it's not a hot lunch. Maybe I'm a lousy parent, but I don't feel like I'm running around too much. I think he is getting a well-balanced exposure to music, sports and a decent education from what I can tell. He's not really into art, but he has it at school once a week.

We're not doing it all at once. One or two sports at a time. Instrument which is a lesson once per week and practice 6x/week. The other activities slot in. 2 weeks of art class over the summer. 1 session of math enrichment during a semester or over the summer. Math and ELA at home as needed or as we find time. But my selfish take is I kind of wish art, math, and ELA were done more at school, so we could take more summer vacation and so I didn't feel pressured to search for and buy all these extras and implement at home. Not to mention all the driving. The endless driving!

I went to private and my kids go to private so I have zero public school experience but it seems crazy to me that your kids don’t get sufficient art, math, and LA at school. What on earth are they doing all day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And math is still the same old slow VA curriculum that even FCPS's math lead acknowledges is too basic for kids in the lower grades.

An FCPS Elementary Math teacher (who we know outside the school context) repeatedly tells us how much better all the students learned math when they had paper math textbooks and paper worksheets, versus the electronic textbooks and such which are used today. She says many students get distracted by the electronics. She also points out that studies support the concept that writing by hand (not clicking or typing) helps reinforce the material students are trying to learn.

She also tells us that all the top math students in her FCPS classes seem to be getting after school supplements. She hears directly from those students that they also go to Mathnasium, Kumon, or whatever for math. IF FCPS were serious about equity, they would fix the math curriculum (& reduce the use of electronics) so those after school supplements would not be needed. The kids whose parents both work do not have time to shuttle kids around after school. The kids from lower income families cannot afford to pay for after school math supplementing. Broken curricula and broken teaching methods (like Lucy Calkins) are the worst if one wants fairness to all students. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

How about the quality of aftercare activities? I only have experience with our top private school in elementary, but the aftercare activities (and there are many) are a waste of time and money. We tried a few and my kids learned nothing. It’s fun because they hangout with friends, but we decided to stop paying and invest in out of school activities for them where they are actually learning.