Does anyone on Capitol Hill send their kid to an elementary in upper NW?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We commute to upper NW for a charter. It’s not ideal but I don’t regret it. Our children will enter middle school soon, whereupon they will be able to get themselves to school. I have had one insane neighbor (a repulsive white lady) try to to label our family racists for not going to our local school, but we don’t care.

The drive is bad but if your kids are older I would do it. I would not send your kids to a local Capitol Hill school when your gut is telling you it’s the wrong fit. Trust your gut.

There aren't charters in Upper NW. There are charters in lower NW (BASIS and a few more) and Upper NE.

I wish I had the confidence of mediocre white people on the hill. I really wish I could correct people regularly even though I’m not fully informed.

I feel this on a weekly basis.

tx for being racist. always nice to read.

Explain how this sentiment is racist.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kids were at a CH school some years ago for pre k/K and I LOVED it. But even though the I loved their teachers and classmates, I didn't like the behavior, language, and activity I was seeing from some of the kids in the upper grades (4-5/6), so I applied out for private. I thought about waiting a few years, but I figured they had a better chance of getting accepted to the lower grades.

They both got in to great schools and I haven't regretted the decision at all, not even once. The commute isn't great, but its a sacrifice I chose to make and one that won't last forever. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

As a mom to a child starting ECE in CH, I'm just curious, what privates are CH families moving to for later elementary years? And then do you plan to stay private for MS and HS as well?

We looked at basically every school- including Capitol Hill Day and St. Peter’s on the Hill. We didn’t look at anything in Maryland. We looked at Potomac and Burgundy Farms in VA. If you begin to do research you’ll find a wide set of options. We are applying for K, first choice is Maret (and we find out Friday). We plan to do private through HS and will move closer to the school in a few years once we get the other 2 kids through daycare and prek (our eldest did get pre-K 3 lottery to our inbound). There were CH families at every school we looked at. Capitol Hill Day was fabulous, we didn’t end up applying because we decided we don’t like super progressive schools. I think it’s a great option if that’s your education philosophy.

You couldn't find tolerable public K on Capitol Hill? Come on, ridiculous. Capitol Hill Day just isn't fabulous. They're charging more than 30K for a campus without a gym or stage (they borrow stages from CH churches, including mine). No secret that CHD essentially admits any family that can pay where the kid isn't a discipline problem. If you want to raise a cocoon kid who may not be able to cope with the every day rough and tumble of life, keep at it, mom. We're Ivy league grads. Our kids went through a DCPS CH ES program from PreS-5th grade. They play in competitive orchestras at Strathmore, are bilingual (in a language not taught in any DC school), and compete in regional math Olympiads and pre-SCRIPPS spelling bees (and often win). Why don't you take your private school K rhapsodies to the private school threads, where they belong?

Why didn’t you have your kids do the DC Youth Orchestra?
Don’t they practice at Eastern HS?

We started at DCYO but my kid wanted to play in one of the single wind instrument ensembles at Strathmore, offered for harp, flute and clarinet for ages 12-18 for those who audition successfully. The MYCO instruction and the fantastic venue--Strathmore--are worth the weekly commute to rehearsals. My older kid has a music/academic scholarship to a private after 8 years in DCPS.

You mean to a Cathoic school? Because the schools generally understood to mean "private" in DC do not give merit scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Yes, parochial school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kids were at a CH school some years ago for pre k/K and I LOVED it. But even though the I loved their teachers and classmates, I didn't like the behavior, language, and activity I was seeing from some of the kids in the upper grades (4-5/6), so I applied out for private. I thought about waiting a few years, but I figured they had a better chance of getting accepted to the lower grades.

They both got in to great schools and I haven't regretted the decision at all, not even once. The commute isn't great, but its a sacrifice I chose to make and one that won't last forever. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

As a mom to a child starting ECE in CH, I'm just curious, what privates are CH families moving to for later elementary years? And then do you plan to stay private for MS and HS as well?

We looked at basically every school- including Capitol Hill Day and St. Peter’s on the Hill. We didn’t look at anything in Maryland. We looked at Potomac and Burgundy Farms in VA. If you begin to do research you’ll find a wide set of options. We are applying for K, first choice is Maret (and we find out Friday). We plan to do private through HS and will move closer to the school in a few years once we get the other 2 kids through daycare and prek (our eldest did get pre-K 3 lottery to our inbound). There were CH families at every school we looked at. Capitol Hill Day was fabulous, we didn’t end up applying because we decided we don’t like super progressive schools. I think it’s a great option if that’s your education philosophy.

You couldn't find tolerable public K on Capitol Hill? Come on, ridiculous. Capitol Hill Day just isn't fabulous. They're charging more than 30K for a campus without a gym or stage (they borrow stages from CH churches, including mine). No secret that CHD essentially admits any family that can pay where the kid isn't a discipline problem. If you want to raise a cocoon kid who may not be able to cope with the every day rough and tumble of life, keep at it, mom. We're Ivy league grads. Our kids went through a DCPS CH ES program from PreS-5th grade. They play in competitive orchestras at Strathmore, are bilingual (in a language not taught in any DC school), and compete in regional math Olympiads and pre-SCRIPPS spelling bees (and often win). Why don't you take your private school K rhapsodies to the private school threads, where they belong?

Why didn’t you have your kids do the DC Youth Orchestra?
Don’t they practice at Eastern HS?

We started at DCYO but my kid wanted to play in one of the single wind instrument ensembles at Strathmore, offered for harp, flute and clarinet for ages 12-18 for those who audition successfully. The MYCO instruction and the fantastic venue--Strathmore--are worth the weekly commute to rehearsals. My older kid has a music/academic scholarship to a private after 8 years in DCPS.

Are you personally driving this commute or have you hired it out or is your kid old enough to drive and you have a second car? I'm wondering how you are making this work.

It’s one single day a week. My Hill kids do DCYOP and it’s not like Takoma is close… Like, yes, Strathmore is another 15-20 minutes, but either way you’re just hanging out/running errands/waiting for your kid, not driving home & back unless you absolutely have to.

Takoma from the Hill is a pointless PITA too. I have to take my kid weekly to MoCo for therapy (b/c there are not specialists any closer) and it sucks. Living in MoCo would be convenient for many reasons, including buses to schools where you don’t have to assume you will “supplement,” access to medical care/therapists, and extra curriculars. Spending hours driving to far-flung activities or schools defeats the purpose of living on the Hill.

If you decide to dig in and stay on the Hill, which we've done after 25 years of living in Ward 6, you roll with how things turn out for your kids. No parent can look into a crystal ball when a kid is tiny on CH to know how things will turn out. My eldest got much better instrumental music instruction that we expected at our DCPS ES then really hunkered down during the pandemic to develop as a musician via Zoom lessons (much better than streaming movies and playing video games). We're not about to move from the Hill because the kid plays at Strathmore once a week. The kid is old enough to jump on the Red Line to get to some rehearsals. You roll with the hassles and expense of developing your kids' most serious talents and interests as best you can. In the big picture, we're glad that we're staying in the neighborhood we love, come what may.

[Anonymous]

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the above two statements as well.

School is a relatively short period of time in your life, and I would much rather live on CH than any other part of DC. I truly think it is a waste of money to buy an overpriced house near a charter in a bad neighborhood for a short commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kids were at a CH school some years ago for pre k/K and I LOVED it. But even though the I loved their teachers and classmates, I didn't like the behavior, language, and activity I was seeing from some of the kids in the upper grades (4-5/6), so I applied out for private. I thought about waiting a few years, but I figured they had a better chance of getting accepted to the lower grades.

They both got in to great schools and I haven't regretted the decision at all, not even once. The commute isn't great, but its a sacrifice I chose to make and one that won't last forever. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

As a mom to a child starting ECE in CH, I'm just curious, what privates are CH families moving to for later elementary years? And then do you plan to stay private for MS and HS as well?

We looked at basically every school- including Capitol Hill Day and St. Peter’s on the Hill. We didn’t look at anything in Maryland. We looked at Potomac and Burgundy Farms in VA. If you begin to do research you’ll find a wide set of options. We are applying for K, first choice is Maret (and we find out Friday). We plan to do private through HS and will move closer to the school in a few years once we get the other 2 kids through daycare and prek (our eldest did get pre-K 3 lottery to our inbound). There were CH families at every school we looked at. Capitol Hill Day was fabulous, we didn’t end up applying because we decided we don’t like super progressive schools. I think it’s a great option if that’s your education philosophy.

You couldn't find tolerable public K on Capitol Hill? Come on, ridiculous. Capitol Hill Day just isn't fabulous. They're charging more than 30K for a campus without a gym or stage (they borrow stages from CH churches, including mine). No secret that CHD essentially admits any family that can pay where the kid isn't a discipline problem. If you want to raise a cocoon kid who may not be able to cope with the every day rough and tumble of life, keep at it, mom. We're Ivy league grads. Our kids went through a DCPS CH ES program from PreS-5th grade. They play in competitive orchestras at Strathmore, are bilingual (in a language not taught in any DC school), and compete in regional math Olympiads and pre-SCRIPPS spelling bees (and often win). Why don't you take your private school K rhapsodies to the private school threads, where they belong?

Why didn’t you have your kids do the DC Youth Orchestra?
Don’t they practice at Eastern HS?

We started at DCYO but my kid wanted to play in one of the single wind instrument ensembles at Strathmore, offered for harp, flute and clarinet for ages 12-18 for those who audition successfully. The MYCO instruction and the fantastic venue--Strathmore--are worth the weekly commute to rehearsals. My older kid has a music/academic scholarship to a private after 8 years in DCPS.

Are you personally driving this commute or have you hired it out or is your kid old enough to drive and you have a second car? I'm wondering how you are making this work.

It’s one single day a week. My Hill kids do DCYOP and it’s not like Takoma is close… Like, yes, Strathmore is another 15-20 minutes, but either way you’re just hanging out/running errands/waiting for your kid, not driving home & back unless you absolutely have to.

Takoma from the Hill is a pointless PITA too. I have to take my kid weekly to MoCo for therapy (b/c there are not specialists any closer) and it sucks. Living in MoCo would be convenient for many reasons, including buses to schools where you don’t have to assume you will “supplement,” access to medical care/therapists, and extra curriculars. Spending hours driving to far-flung activities or schools defeats the purpose of living on the Hill.

If you decide to dig in and stay on the Hill, which we've done after 25 years of living in Ward 6, you roll with how things turn out for your kids. No parent can look into a crystal ball when a kid is tiny on CH to know how things will turn out. My eldest got much better instrumental music instruction that we expected at our DCPS ES then really hunkered down during the pandemic to develop as a musician via Zoom lessons (much better than streaming movies and playing video games). We're not about to move from the Hill because the kid plays at Strathmore once a week. The kid is old enough to jump on the Red Line to get to some rehearsals. You roll with the hassles and expense of developing your kids' most serious talents and interests as best you can. In the big picture, we're glad that we're staying in the neighborhood we love, come what may.

Preach! The difference between your approach and mentality and the person to whom you responded is the difference between being older and actually having kids at this age and either (i) being a troll/jealous person who lives somewhere else and is desperate to convince themselves they made the right choice or (ii) younger parents freaking out because none of us really knew what parenting an older kid was or who our kids were when they were younger.

If one understood CH only through the lens of DCUM they'd never know that a majority of parents are like you (and me). We role with it. Nothing is perfect and everything has trade offs. What is right for my older kid might not be for my younger. What is right for my family might not be for someone else. All of which is ok.

[Anonymous]

You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

NP. The person wrote a thoughtful, nuanced reply explaining the range of considerations that went into their decision making. And this is what you grasped? To quote one of my favorite comedians, "Your confidence makes you ignorant."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kids were at a CH school some years ago for pre k/K and I LOVED it. But even though the I loved their teachers and classmates, I didn't like the behavior, language, and activity I was seeing from some of the kids in the upper grades (4-5/6), so I applied out for private. I thought about waiting a few years, but I figured they had a better chance of getting accepted to the lower grades.

They both got in to great schools and I haven't regretted the decision at all, not even once. The commute isn't great, but its a sacrifice I chose to make and one that won't last forever. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

As a mom to a child starting ECE in CH, I'm just curious, what privates are CH families moving to for later elementary years? And then do you plan to stay private for MS and HS as well?

We looked at basically every school- including Capitol Hill Day and St. Peter’s on the Hill. We didn’t look at anything in Maryland. We looked at Potomac and Burgundy Farms in VA. If you begin to do research you’ll find a wide set of options. We are applying for K, first choice is Maret (and we find out Friday). We plan to do private through HS and will move closer to the school in a few years once we get the other 2 kids through daycare and prek (our eldest did get pre-K 3 lottery to our inbound). There were CH families at every school we looked at. Capitol Hill Day was fabulous, we didn’t end up applying because we decided we don’t like super progressive schools. I think it’s a great option if that’s your education philosophy.

You couldn't find tolerable public K on Capitol Hill? Come on, ridiculous. Capitol Hill Day just isn't fabulous. They're charging more than 30K for a campus without a gym or stage (they borrow stages from CH churches, including mine). No secret that CHD essentially admits any family that can pay where the kid isn't a discipline problem. If you want to raise a cocoon kid who may not be able to cope with the every day rough and tumble of life, keep at it, mom. We're Ivy league grads. Our kids went through a DCPS CH ES program from PreS-5th grade. They play in competitive orchestras at Strathmore, are bilingual (in a language not taught in any DC school), and compete in regional math Olympiads and pre-SCRIPPS spelling bees (and often win). Why don't you take your private school K rhapsodies to the private school threads, where they belong?

Why didn’t you have your kids do the DC Youth Orchestra?
Don’t they practice at Eastern HS?

We started at DCYO but my kid wanted to play in one of the single wind instrument ensembles at Strathmore, offered for harp, flute and clarinet for ages 12-18 for those who audition successfully. The MYCO instruction and the fantastic venue--Strathmore--are worth the weekly commute to rehearsals. My older kid has a music/academic scholarship to a private after 8 years in DCPS.

Are you personally driving this commute or have you hired it out or is your kid old enough to drive and you have a second car? I'm wondering how you are making this work.

It’s one single day a week. My Hill kids do DCYOP and it’s not like Takoma is close… Like, yes, Strathmore is another 15-20 minutes, but either way you’re just hanging out/running errands/waiting for your kid, not driving home & back unless you absolutely have to.

Takoma from the Hill is a pointless PITA too. I have to take my kid weekly to MoCo for therapy (b/c there are not specialists any closer) and it sucks. Living in MoCo would be convenient for many reasons, including buses to schools where you don’t have to assume you will “supplement,” access to medical care/therapists, and extra curriculars. Spending hours driving to far-flung activities or schools defeats the purpose of living on the Hill.

If you decide to dig in and stay on the Hill, which we've done after 25 years of living in Ward 6, you roll with how things turn out for your kids. No parent can look into a crystal ball when a kid is tiny on CH to know how things will turn out. My eldest got much better instrumental music instruction that we expected at our DCPS ES then really hunkered down during the pandemic to develop as a musician via Zoom lessons (much better than streaming movies and playing video games). We're not about to move from the Hill because the kid plays at Strathmore once a week. The kid is old enough to jump on the Red Line to get to some rehearsals. You roll with the hassles and expense of developing your kids' most serious talents and interests as best you can. In the big picture, we're glad that we're staying in the neighborhood we love, come what may.

typical Hill attitude. “It sucks but we loovvve it and if you don’t you are so uncool!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kids were at a CH school some years ago for pre k/K and I LOVED it. But even though the I loved their teachers and classmates, I didn't like the behavior, language, and activity I was seeing from some of the kids in the upper grades (4-5/6), so I applied out for private. I thought about waiting a few years, but I figured they had a better chance of getting accepted to the lower grades.

They both got in to great schools and I haven't regretted the decision at all, not even once. The commute isn't great, but its a sacrifice I chose to make and one that won't last forever. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

As a mom to a child starting ECE in CH, I'm just curious, what privates are CH families moving to for later elementary years? And then do you plan to stay private for MS and HS as well?

We looked at basically every school- including Capitol Hill Day and St. Peter’s on the Hill. We didn’t look at anything in Maryland. We looked at Potomac and Burgundy Farms in VA. If you begin to do research you’ll find a wide set of options. We are applying for K, first choice is Maret (and we find out Friday). We plan to do private through HS and will move closer to the school in a few years once we get the other 2 kids through daycare and prek (our eldest did get pre-K 3 lottery to our inbound). There were CH families at every school we looked at. Capitol Hill Day was fabulous, we didn’t end up applying because we decided we don’t like super progressive schools. I think it’s a great option if that’s your education philosophy.

You couldn't find tolerable public K on Capitol Hill? Come on, ridiculous. Capitol Hill Day just isn't fabulous. They're charging more than 30K for a campus without a gym or stage (they borrow stages from CH churches, including mine). No secret that CHD essentially admits any family that can pay where the kid isn't a discipline problem. If you want to raise a cocoon kid who may not be able to cope with the every day rough and tumble of life, keep at it, mom. We're Ivy league grads. Our kids went through a DCPS CH ES program from PreS-5th grade. They play in competitive orchestras at Strathmore, are bilingual (in a language not taught in any DC school), and compete in regional math Olympiads and pre-SCRIPPS spelling bees (and often win). Why don't you take your private school K rhapsodies to the private school threads, where they belong?

Why didn’t you have your kids do the DC Youth Orchestra?
Don’t they practice at Eastern HS?

We started at DCYO but my kid wanted to play in one of the single wind instrument ensembles at Strathmore, offered for harp, flute and clarinet for ages 12-18 for those who audition successfully. The MYCO instruction and the fantastic venue--Strathmore--are worth the weekly commute to rehearsals. My older kid has a music/academic scholarship to a private after 8 years in DCPS.

Are you personally driving this commute or have you hired it out or is your kid old enough to drive and you have a second car? I'm wondering how you are making this work.

It’s one single day a week. My Hill kids do DCYOP and it’s not like Takoma is close… Like, yes, Strathmore is another 15-20 minutes, but either way you’re just hanging out/running errands/waiting for your kid, not driving home & back unless you absolutely have to.

Takoma from the Hill is a pointless PITA too. I have to take my kid weekly to MoCo for therapy (b/c there are not specialists any closer) and it sucks. Living in MoCo would be convenient for many reasons, including buses to schools where you don’t have to assume you will “supplement,” access to medical care/therapists, and extra curriculars. Spending hours driving to far-flung activities or schools defeats the purpose of living on the Hill.

If you decide to dig in and stay on the Hill, which we've done after 25 years of living in Ward 6, you roll with how things turn out for your kids. No parent can look into a crystal ball when a kid is tiny on CH to know how things will turn out. My eldest got much better instrumental music instruction that we expected at our DCPS ES then really hunkered down during the pandemic to develop as a musician via Zoom lessons (much better than streaming movies and playing video games). We're not about to move from the Hill because the kid plays at Strathmore once a week. The kid is old enough to jump on the Red Line to get to some rehearsals. You roll with the hassles and expense of developing your kids' most serious talents and interests as best you can. In the big picture, we're glad that we're staying in the neighborhood we love, come what may.

Preach! The difference between your approach and mentality and the person to whom you responded is the difference between being older and actually having kids at this age and either (i) being a troll/jealous person who lives somewhere else and is desperate to convince themselves they made the right choice or (ii) younger parents freaking out because none of us really knew what parenting an older kid was or who our kids were when they were younger.

If one understood CH only through the lens of DCUM they'd never know that a majority of parents are like you (and me). We role with it. Nothing is perfect and everything has trade offs. What is right for my older kid might not be for my younger. What is right for my family might not be for someone else. All of which is ok.

everything is ok except people who disagree with you! (and of course the old “everything is ok with our IB [we are planning on private HS].” I like the Hill; the self-righteousness gets annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

NP. The person wrote a thoughtful, nuanced reply explaining the range of considerations that went into their decision making. And this is what you grasped? To quote one of my favorite comedians, "Your confidence makes you ignorant."

nothing was really thoughtful and nuanced. it was dripping with self-motivated reasoning. PP is right - if you are going to schelpp to NW for school and MoCo for extracurriculars, it really starts to suggest the Hill is not the place you want to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kids were at a CH school some years ago for pre k/K and I LOVED it. But even though the I loved their teachers and classmates, I didn't like the behavior, language, and activity I was seeing from some of the kids in the upper grades (4-5/6), so I applied out for private. I thought about waiting a few years, but I figured they had a better chance of getting accepted to the lower grades.

They both got in to great schools and I haven't regretted the decision at all, not even once. The commute isn't great, but its a sacrifice I chose to make and one that won't last forever. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

As a mom to a child starting ECE in CH, I'm just curious, what privates are CH families moving to for later elementary years? And then do you plan to stay private for MS and HS as well?

We looked at basically every school- including Capitol Hill Day and St. Peter’s on the Hill. We didn’t look at anything in Maryland. We looked at Potomac and Burgundy Farms in VA. If you begin to do research you’ll find a wide set of options. We are applying for K, first choice is Maret (and we find out Friday). We plan to do private through HS and will move closer to the school in a few years once we get the other 2 kids through daycare and prek (our eldest did get pre-K 3 lottery to our inbound). There were CH families at every school we looked at. Capitol Hill Day was fabulous, we didn’t end up applying because we decided we don’t like super progressive schools. I think it’s a great option if that’s your education philosophy.

You couldn't find tolerable public K on Capitol Hill? Come on, ridiculous. Capitol Hill Day just isn't fabulous. They're charging more than 30K for a campus without a gym or stage (they borrow stages from CH churches, including mine). No secret that CHD essentially admits any family that can pay where the kid isn't a discipline problem. If you want to raise a cocoon kid who may not be able to cope with the every day rough and tumble of life, keep at it, mom. We're Ivy league grads. Our kids went through a DCPS CH ES program from PreS-5th grade. They play in competitive orchestras at Strathmore, are bilingual (in a language not taught in any DC school), and compete in regional math Olympiads and pre-SCRIPPS spelling bees (and often win). Why don't you take your private school K rhapsodies to the private school threads, where they belong?

Why didn’t you have your kids do the DC Youth Orchestra?
Don’t they practice at Eastern HS?

We started at DCYO but my kid wanted to play in one of the single wind instrument ensembles at Strathmore, offered for harp, flute and clarinet for ages 12-18 for those who audition successfully. The MYCO instruction and the fantastic venue--Strathmore--are worth the weekly commute to rehearsals. My older kid has a music/academic scholarship to a private after 8 years in DCPS.

Are you personally driving this commute or have you hired it out or is your kid old enough to drive and you have a second car? I'm wondering how you are making this work.

It’s one single day a week. My Hill kids do DCYOP and it’s not like Takoma is close… Like, yes, Strathmore is another 15-20 minutes, but either way you’re just hanging out/running errands/waiting for your kid, not driving home & back unless you absolutely have to.

Takoma from the Hill is a pointless PITA too. I have to take my kid weekly to MoCo for therapy (b/c there are not specialists any closer) and it sucks. Living in MoCo would be convenient for many reasons, including buses to schools where you don’t have to assume you will “supplement,” access to medical care/therapists, and extra curriculars. Spending hours driving to far-flung activities or schools defeats the purpose of living on the Hill.

If you decide to dig in and stay on the Hill, which we've done after 25 years of living in Ward 6, you roll with how things turn out for your kids. No parent can look into a crystal ball when a kid is tiny on CH to know how things will turn out. My eldest got much better instrumental music instruction that we expected at our DCPS ES then really hunkered down during the pandemic to develop as a musician via Zoom lessons (much better than streaming movies and playing video games). We're not about to move from the Hill because the kid plays at Strathmore once a week. The kid is old enough to jump on the Red Line to get to some rehearsals. You roll with the hassles and expense of developing your kids' most serious talents and interests as best you can. In the big picture, we're glad that we're staying in the neighborhood we love, come what may.

Preach! The difference between your approach and mentality and the person to whom you responded is the difference between being older and actually having kids at this age and either (i) being a troll/jealous person who lives somewhere else and is desperate to convince themselves they made the right choice or (ii) younger parents freaking out because none of us really knew what parenting an older kid was or who our kids were when they were younger.

If one understood CH only through the lens of DCUM they'd never know that a majority of parents are like you (and me). We role with it. Nothing is perfect and everything has trade offs. What is right for my older kid might not be for my younger. What is right for my family might not be for someone else. All of which is ok.

everything is ok except people who disagree with you! (and of course the old “everything is ok with our IB [we are planning on private HS].” I like the Hill; the self-righteousness gets annoying.

You need to learn to read. The CH poster (not me) explained why it was the right choice for them and the things they did to make it work. They indicted no other choices. Then someone else replied to say, "you probably should be living [in NW] in the first place." Let me repeat that since you seem to be confused; the CH poster did NOT suggest anyone else should make the same choices or that their choices were superior. That concept was introduced by someone else.

If you are seeing self ritchousness where there is none that seems like an indication that maybe you are really fragile and question your own life choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kids were at a CH school some years ago for pre k/K and I LOVED it. But even though the I loved their teachers and classmates, I didn't like the behavior, language, and activity I was seeing from some of the kids in the upper grades (4-5/6), so I applied out for private. I thought about waiting a few years, but I figured they had a better chance of getting accepted to the lower grades.

They both got in to great schools and I haven't regretted the decision at all, not even once. The commute isn't great, but its a sacrifice I chose to make and one that won't last forever. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

As a mom to a child starting ECE in CH, I'm just curious, what privates are CH families moving to for later elementary years? And then do you plan to stay private for MS and HS as well?

We looked at basically every school- including Capitol Hill Day and St. Peter’s on the Hill. We didn’t look at anything in Maryland. We looked at Potomac and Burgundy Farms in VA. If you begin to do research you’ll find a wide set of options. We are applying for K, first choice is Maret (and we find out Friday). We plan to do private through HS and will move closer to the school in a few years once we get the other 2 kids through daycare and prek (our eldest did get pre-K 3 lottery to our inbound). There were CH families at every school we looked at. Capitol Hill Day was fabulous, we didn’t end up applying because we decided we don’t like super progressive schools. I think it’s a great option if that’s your education philosophy.

You couldn't find tolerable public K on Capitol Hill? Come on, ridiculous. Capitol Hill Day just isn't fabulous. They're charging more than 30K for a campus without a gym or stage (they borrow stages from CH churches, including mine). No secret that CHD essentially admits any family that can pay where the kid isn't a discipline problem. If you want to raise a cocoon kid who may not be able to cope with the every day rough and tumble of life, keep at it, mom. We're Ivy league grads. Our kids went through a DCPS CH ES program from PreS-5th grade. They play in competitive orchestras at Strathmore, are bilingual (in a language not taught in any DC school), and compete in regional math Olympiads and pre-SCRIPPS spelling bees (and often win). Why don't you take your private school K rhapsodies to the private school threads, where they belong?

Why didn’t you have your kids do the DC Youth Orchestra?
Don’t they practice at Eastern HS?

We started at DCYO but my kid wanted to play in one of the single wind instrument ensembles at Strathmore, offered for harp, flute and clarinet for ages 12-18 for those who audition successfully. The MYCO instruction and the fantastic venue--Strathmore--are worth the weekly commute to rehearsals. My older kid has a music/academic scholarship to a private after 8 years in DCPS.

Are you personally driving this commute or have you hired it out or is your kid old enough to drive and you have a second car? I'm wondering how you are making this work.

It’s one single day a week. My Hill kids do DCYOP and it’s not like Takoma is close… Like, yes, Strathmore is another 15-20 minutes, but either way you’re just hanging out/running errands/waiting for your kid, not driving home & back unless you absolutely have to.

Takoma from the Hill is a pointless PITA too. I have to take my kid weekly to MoCo for therapy (b/c there are not specialists any closer) and it sucks. Living in MoCo would be convenient for many reasons, including buses to schools where you don’t have to assume you will “supplement,” access to medical care/therapists, and extra curriculars. Spending hours driving to far-flung activities or schools defeats the purpose of living on the Hill.

If you decide to dig in and stay on the Hill, which we've done after 25 years of living in Ward 6, you roll with how things turn out for your kids. No parent can look into a crystal ball when a kid is tiny on CH to know how things will turn out. My eldest got much better instrumental music instruction that we expected at our DCPS ES then really hunkered down during the pandemic to develop as a musician via Zoom lessons (much better than streaming movies and playing video games). We're not about to move from the Hill because the kid plays at Strathmore once a week. The kid is old enough to jump on the Red Line to get to some rehearsals. You roll with the hassles and expense of developing your kids' most serious talents and interests as best you can. In the big picture, we're glad that we're staying in the neighborhood we love, come what may.

Preach! The difference between your approach and mentality and the person to whom you responded is the difference between being older and actually having kids at this age and either (i) being a troll/jealous person who lives somewhere else and is desperate to convince themselves they made the right choice or (ii) younger parents freaking out because none of us really knew what parenting an older kid was or who our kids were when they were younger.

If one understood CH only through the lens of DCUM they'd never know that a majority of parents are like you (and me). We role with it. Nothing is perfect and everything has trade offs. What is right for my older kid might not be for my younger. What is right for my family might not be for someone else. All of which is ok.

everything is ok except people who disagree with you! (and of course the old “everything is ok with our IB [we are planning on private HS].” I like the Hill; the self-righteousness gets annoying.

You need to learn to read. The CH poster (not me) explained why it was the right choice for them and the things they did to make it work. They indicted no other choices. Then someone else replied to say, "you probably should be living [in NW] in the first place." Let me repeat that since you seem to be confused; the CH poster did NOT suggest anyone else should make the same choices or that their choices were superior. That concept was introduced by someone else.

If you are seeing self ritchousness where there is none that seems like an indication that maybe you are really fragile and question your own life choices.

+1. I can't help but wonder if the PPs are toddler or pre-K parents where 4 years feels like forever. I live on the Hill. I have for many years. My kids will ultimately go to HS elsewhere. That'll be a brief period in the grand scheme of things, really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kids were at a CH school some years ago for pre k/K and I LOVED it. But even though the I loved their teachers and classmates, I didn't like the behavior, language, and activity I was seeing from some of the kids in the upper grades (4-5/6), so I applied out for private. I thought about waiting a few years, but I figured they had a better chance of getting accepted to the lower grades.

They both got in to great schools and I haven't regretted the decision at all, not even once. The commute isn't great, but its a sacrifice I chose to make and one that won't last forever. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

As a mom to a child starting ECE in CH, I'm just curious, what privates are CH families moving to for later elementary years? And then do you plan to stay private for MS and HS as well?

We looked at basically every school- including Capitol Hill Day and St. Peter’s on the Hill. We didn’t look at anything in Maryland. We looked at Potomac and Burgundy Farms in VA. If you begin to do research you’ll find a wide set of options. We are applying for K, first choice is Maret (and we find out Friday). We plan to do private through HS and will move closer to the school in a few years once we get the other 2 kids through daycare and prek (our eldest did get pre-K 3 lottery to our inbound). There were CH families at every school we looked at. Capitol Hill Day was fabulous, we didn’t end up applying because we decided we don’t like super progressive schools. I think it’s a great option if that’s your education philosophy.

You couldn't find tolerable public K on Capitol Hill? Come on, ridiculous. Capitol Hill Day just isn't fabulous. They're charging more than 30K for a campus without a gym or stage (they borrow stages from CH churches, including mine). No secret that CHD essentially admits any family that can pay where the kid isn't a discipline problem. If you want to raise a cocoon kid who may not be able to cope with the every day rough and tumble of life, keep at it, mom. We're Ivy league grads. Our kids went through a DCPS CH ES program from PreS-5th grade. They play in competitive orchestras at Strathmore, are bilingual (in a language not taught in any DC school), and compete in regional math Olympiads and pre-SCRIPPS spelling bees (and often win). Why don't you take your private school K rhapsodies to the private school threads, where they belong?

Why didn’t you have your kids do the DC Youth Orchestra?
Don’t they practice at Eastern HS?

We started at DCYO but my kid wanted to play in one of the single wind instrument ensembles at Strathmore, offered for harp, flute and clarinet for ages 12-18 for those who audition successfully. The MYCO instruction and the fantastic venue--Strathmore--are worth the weekly commute to rehearsals. My older kid has a music/academic scholarship to a private after 8 years in DCPS.

Are you personally driving this commute or have you hired it out or is your kid old enough to drive and you have a second car? I'm wondering how you are making this work.

It’s one single day a week. My Hill kids do DCYOP and it’s not like Takoma is close… Like, yes, Strathmore is another 15-20 minutes, but either way you’re just hanging out/running errands/waiting for your kid, not driving home & back unless you absolutely have to.

Takoma from the Hill is a pointless PITA too. I have to take my kid weekly to MoCo for therapy (b/c there are not specialists any closer) and it sucks. Living in MoCo would be convenient for many reasons, including buses to schools where you don’t have to assume you will “supplement,” access to medical care/therapists, and extra curriculars. Spending hours driving to far-flung activities or schools defeats the purpose of living on the Hill.

If you decide to dig in and stay on the Hill, which we've done after 25 years of living in Ward 6, you roll with how things turn out for your kids. No parent can look into a crystal ball when a kid is tiny on CH to know how things will turn out. My eldest got much better instrumental music instruction that we expected at our DCPS ES then really hunkered down during the pandemic to develop as a musician via Zoom lessons (much better than streaming movies and playing video games). We're not about to move from the Hill because the kid plays at Strathmore once a week. The kid is old enough to jump on the Red Line to get to some rehearsals. You roll with the hassles and expense of developing your kids' most serious talents and interests as best you can. In the big picture, we're glad that we're staying in the neighborhood we love, come what may.

Where did you kids go to high school