Help! Need School Advice!

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01/27/2016 10:43

Subject: Re:Help! Need School Advice!

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I metro to work. It's subsidized (as in free), and parking is crazy expensive. Also, part of the point of moving to the city was to get out of the car.

I'm not sure how I gave the impression that I'm all about "impressive results". My son will immerse himself in what interests him and that's fine by me. My problem at this point is figuring out what that will be, because he's interested in *everything* (except sports). I just want him to be happy, confident, and challenged. I'm failing at instilling confidence in him, so I'm hopeful that the right environment will help us with that.

I went to a subpar school in a subpar school system (in rural KY) until mid-8th grade, and I never really overcame the disadvantage of that (in terms of confidence, study habits, foundational knowledge) despite attending a very good high school and college. I want better for my kids.

I agree with the statement that they will lose Spanish if they don't get it regularly. I spoke Hebrew fluently at age 3, and when I took an introductory class in college, I was completely over my head. (And I still speak zero Hebrew.) That's why I really want to continue the momentum with the Spanish. I went to a lot of trouble and expense to get this far with it, and I don't want to lose that investment or the far-reaching benefit for my kiddos of speaking a second language.

I appreciate all the feedback and suggestions from everyone. I will check out all the schools you have put forward. I lean toward DC Bilingual because it's soooooo close to home and on the way to the metro, but of course there's no guarantee we'll get in, and their open house isn't until Feb 20. Then, as someone suggested, maybe I can get them both into LAMB next year on sibling preference, though I'm not sure if that works in reverse. I'll have to call the school. Later. Maybe we'll love where we end up so much that LAMB will be moot.

Something else that may or may not be important: At this time my son identifies as a boy, but expresses as a girl (i.e. has long hair that he likes to wear in braids with pretty hair clips, wears dresses most days, loves his Elsa shoes). This may change, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. It came on gradually, but has been going on for a couple of years. At his preschool, the kids and parents were very accepting, though I think some of the kids actually thought he was a girl. Obviously, I want him to go to school in an equally accepting environment. I realize there will always be challenges with gender nonconforming, but the more we can minimize that, the better. I will of course speak to the management of whatever school we end up at, but are there schools that we should particularly avoid or seek out based on this?

Strange that I (who don't generally bother with girly stuff) ended up with 2 girly girls (even if one of them is a boy).

The one thing you may consider then is how to deal with schools that require a uniform. They are generally pretty easy - Navy pants/dress and white shirt - but it's something to think about and ask the staff about. How accepting are they of a boy who may want to wear the jumper, not the slacks?