Half-day private kindergarten?
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Anonymous
| Can anyone recommend a half-day private kindergarten program? We are doing speech therapy in the afternoons and she will not start public kindergarten, if we choose to go that route, until next fall. It does not have to be special needs as she is currently in mainstream preschool. |
Anonymous
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Where are you located?
You might want to look at junior Ks, Montessori or Waldorf programs for half day programs. Look at preschool programs at Maddux in MD, Dolley Madison in VA, or LEAP at UMD, or KEEP at the Kingsbury Day School in DC. |
Anonymous
| Also Mount Olivet in Arlington has a 5 day 5's program. Country day in McLean might too. |
Anonymous
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We are in MoCo. Already did a stint at UMD a while ago.
Because of the speech delays, we have been warned by other parents that public kindergarten may be too much next year, so we were looking to maybe do a private kindergarten or half-day kindergarten for a year to let her catch up and then test her in public and see where she should be placed for the following year. She is extremely bright and already reading, but her expressive speech and social lagging as a result make me think she might be eaten alive in the public setting. |
Anonymous
Have you talked to the principal and kindergarten teachers at your public school? I would do that before assuming your child would be eaten alive. She won't be the first kindergartener with expressive delays. Where ever you go, make sure it a school that has the experience to support her in the classroom. You will find teachers that don't now what expressive speech delay is. |
Anonymous
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OP here. We have worked with MCPS on this issue before as my middle child had expressive delays due to ear infections.
We are veterans to the whole IEP process/special ed/speech therapy, but our LO's issue is complicated by her fear of new situations. We are still investigating a selective mutism diagnosis because she talks much more at home, but almost never at preschool. Worried that in public, they will be more than happy with 20-something kids in the class to just have her sit quietly and never say anything and that she will not be in an environment that helps her confidence. Haven't ruled it out yet – still another year to go, and a lot can change. But weighing the possibility of a small, nurturing private (if we can even afford it) and would like suggestions. |
Anonymous
| Bethesda Country Day has a wonderful K program. I would also look at Manor Montessori if you're open to Montessori. The Harbor School and Primary Day are also great schools. Harbor may be more nurturing. |
Anonymous
| Potomac Glen Day School has Transitional K. |
Anonymous
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Grace Episcopal Day School (Kensington) has a half-day option for pre-K.
I know you said you're looking for a K program, but then you said DD is in a preschool program, so maybe this might be a good fit. |
Anonymous
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OP - I would go with what you are planning to do with a half-day kindergarten because you will give your DD the opportunity which will never come around again to continue to work in a focused way on "her speech" skills and with a practitioner that she has a relationship with. Also going only half a day, she will not be exhausted to go to say late afternoon session. Also another year of a smaller school setting hopefully will encourage her speech and social interactions with typical age peers. There is no particular reason to start kindergarten and if you can afford the private K and continued speech services, from your older daughter you know you are giving her the benefit of another year of specialized services suited to her needs. Also we have seen with granddaughters in both MOCO in a diverse elementary school setting with only about 16 students in classes K-2so far and in North Arlington with a class of 20+ that you have to be ready for the "push down" academics of today. The one K now is in the top reading group and will be pushed beyond the kindergarten standards which is fine. But again if your daughter is already reading, there is the question of trying to help her be able to demonstrate verbally the skills she has so that she will comfortable in a group setting. Another consideration is that now so much of therapies including speech is "push in" and not pull out, so that given your daughter's particular language needs, it does not seem that she would benefit from such a setting. |
Anonymous
| The only half-day option for kindergarten I know of in MoCo is at the Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda south of Glen Echo. I looked up half-day option when one of my children was going into K last year, but I didn't think it was worth pursuing the Waldorf School for us because the full-day private we were considering cost only a couple thousand more and Washington Waldorf is a long commute from our house. The website is: http://www.washingtonwaldorf.org/young-children/ and they have two different half-day K programs. |
Anonymous
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There aren't many 1/2 day K options. There will be 1/2 jr. K programs. Montessori and Waldorf programs usually have mixed age "K/pre-K" programs.
A friend of mine sent her kid with express speech issues here and loved it: http://acornhill.org |
Anonymous
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OP again. Thanks so much for all the replies, it's been very helpful!
To the PP who had the friend at Acorn Hill – I am a bit stunned because we had parents strongly discourage us from applying there because they said the Waldorf method did not really work well for children with special needs. We live about three minutes from Acorn Hill and would love to give it a try, but I was a bit daunted by the advice I just mentioned and a bit worried about the Waldorf "no screens" policy, as my daughter uses a lot of speech apps on her iPad to practice. My DH thought that would sort of doom us there for sure. What do you think? |
Anonymous
Truly, you won't know until you tour/ask the school. We actually got similar advice from our developmental pediatrician for our kid with delayed speech. Having toured many montessori/waldorf type schools and preschools, they are often so different that it's hard to make a generalization about them. There are definitely ones that I know my kid would not have been a good match for, but other kids with a different SN profile fit right in. My friend whose kid went there didn't have any behavioral issues and his speech and language haven't resolved--he's still in ST. He didn't continue onto Waldorf though as they wouldn't have the supports to meet his educational needs in place. I wouldn't worry about the fact that your DD uses an iPad. It's really not the school's business, but I think no screens is more part of being play based more than condemning a kid who would be using it for supplementing speech therapy. I would be candid with school about the challenges that your DD might have in the classroom. If a school would give you the cold shoulder, then you wouldn't want your kid in that school. I've also heard wonderful things about the inclusiveness of Geneva Day School, so I would look there as well. GL. |
Anonymous
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OP, your post reminded me that someone else I know sent her kid here:
https://silverspringdayschool.org He had more OT issues--fine and gross motor but they really loved the school. Sounds as though they were pretty inclusive. |