Question for those who are doing the DCPS lotteries-- why did you choose to live where you live?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, what will you do for MS and HS, and what about the other Brent families?

NP here. I have a 4th grader at Brent so this is a matter weighing on my mind. I plan to have my child stay at Brent through 5th and then research and apply to every middle school that seems like a good fit for my child, including privates. I'm positive we will find the perfect fit for middle school. I know that last year many families went from Brent to Latin, Basis, Hardy and Jefferson.

Latin and BASIS will allow my child to apply for a 5th grade spot next year at their schools while my child is already in 5th grade at Brent, so I'm not much worried that we will lose out by waiting a year.

PP quoted above, I have a question for you. Do you mean that you will apply for your Brent 5th grader to repeat 5th at Latin or Basis in what would have been their 6th grade year? Can you apply for them to enter the 5th and 6th grades at these schools simultaneously?

I have a Brent third grader who we plan at keeping at Brent through 5th too. I don't think Latin or Basis would be a great fit for my family (frankly if I did we would probably bail from Brent a year early), but we definitely want as many options as possible for the lottery. Stuart Hobson and Hardy are our top choices and I think we'll get into both (it may be in September of 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are none of you concerned about your kids missing out on the traditional neighborhood school? Maybe it doesn't matter as much if you work full time and your kids don't get home from after-care until 6pm. But I would hate to think that every child in my neighborhood went to a different school. I would hate my child's school to be miles away from our neighborhood. We don't live in D.C. anymore. One of the things I absolutely LOVE about our neighborhood is that all the kids in our neighborhood ride their bikes to school together. There is a real sense of community because all of us are concerned about working to make our neighborhood school the best it can be. My son's teacher lives four houses away from me. The principal lives two streets down. We have crossing guards to help the kids cross the streets safely. They know all the kids by name. Community events are often held at the schools. Our community is tied together in many ways by our school.

I would hate it if my kids' schools started allowing out-of-boundary kids, if for no other reason than the additional traffic. We have almost no car riders. ALL the kids walk or bike. The only time there is a car pool line is in bad weather.

I really think you are missing out on the value of supporting the elementary school in your community.

Please tell us roughly where you live and how far away from DC you are. You don't have to be that specific. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 95% of people the lottery works out.

We live in a neighborhood that the OP would undoubtedly consider undesirable. We moved there before I was pregnant. We thought we would move before our kids were school aged.

I now have 3 kids OOB at one of the best EOP elementary schools in the city. My kids litterally run into the school like they were going to Disney World every day. Our house payment is slightly less than $1600 a month. We live 2 blocks from a metro station. Our house has doubled in value. Our commutes are very reasonable.

The middle school lottery craziness looms ahead, but if we strike out we can move to Takoma Park or whereever. I kind of think on the lottery stuff that you just have to fight letting it get to you, and getting obsessed with it. Go to a couple open houses. See where the chips fall.

I really don't think that NWDC was the safest bet for you OP. If I was going to be totally Ms. safe choice, I'd have gone with Arlington or Bethesda near a metro.

That's the key isn't it. OP probably considers a majority of the neighborhoods in DC undesirable - except maybe in her perfect Ward 3 world.

Right, but it's so desirable to you that you want to send your kids to school anywhere but there (dare I even say her precious ward 3). Give me a break!

Nope, wouldn't even send my kids to Ward 3 schools. No immersion programs that is acceptable to me in DCPS. My kid goes to charter school. My child is bilingual and will most likely be trilingual by the time she graduates. I'm sure your kids will enjoy working for her.

You say your kid will be trilingual like it's a big deal. My kids all spoke three languages fluently before they entered K, with no formal schooling, just because mommy and daddy do. They may or may not pick up language #4 by the time they graduate, we don't care. Paying for language education is so ...American.

Not pp, but in the same position. What an odd comment. That is nice that your kids are trilingual becuase you are. Do you know tht other people are not all exactly like you? And, you don't pay for charter schools.

Being a 3 yr old who's trilingual is not the same thing as a 23 yr old who it trilingual - meaning they are literate and can operate in all three languages equally. That takes schooling. Honestly, a trilingual 3 yr old is not impressive. Get back to us in 20 yrs.

My kids are three times 3 yr old and can read and write in all three languages; thanks for the free lecture anyway. I see you completely missed the point I made. The point of my comment was to mock the pp's assertion that her kid's trilingualism will guarantee that other people's monolingual kids will end up working for her. My kids are trilingual. They are not special. I have no clue whether it means other people will end up working for them. I don't see multiple language ability as a stone-set path to executive offices. Trilingual, yawn, nothing to it.

[Anonymous]

sheesh....I feel sorry for all the kids. So much stress all around.

Lighten up DC parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 95% of people the lottery works out.

We live in a neighborhood that the OP would undoubtedly consider undesirable. We moved there before I was pregnant. We thought we would move before our kids were school aged.

I now have 3 kids OOB at one of the best EOP elementary schools in the city. My kids litterally run into the school like they were going to Disney World every day. Our house payment is slightly less than $1600 a month. We live 2 blocks from a metro station. Our house has doubled in value. Our commutes are very reasonable.

The middle school lottery craziness looms ahead, but if we strike out we can move to Takoma Park or whereever. I kind of think on the lottery stuff that you just have to fight letting it get to you, and getting obsessed with it. Go to a couple open houses. See where the chips fall.

I really don't think that NWDC was the safest bet for you OP. If I was going to be totally Ms. safe choice, I'd have gone with Arlington or Bethesda near a metro.

That's the key isn't it. OP probably considers a majority of the neighborhoods in DC undesirable - except maybe in her perfect Ward 3 world.

Right, but it's so desirable to you that you want to send your kids to school anywhere but there (dare I even say her precious ward 3). Give me a break!

Nope, wouldn't even send my kids to Ward 3 schools. No immersion programs that is acceptable to me in DCPS. My kid goes to charter school. My child is bilingual and will most likely be trilingual by the time she graduates. I'm sure your kids will enjoy working for her.

You say your kid will be trilingual like it's a big deal. My kids all spoke three languages fluently before they entered K, with no formal schooling, just because mommy and daddy do. They may or may not pick up language #4 by the time they graduate, we don't care. Paying for language education is so ...American.

Not pp, but in the same position. What an odd comment. That is nice that your kids are trilingual becuase you are. Do you know tht other people are not all exactly like you? And, you don't pay for charter schools.

Being a 3 yr old who's trilingual is not the same thing as a 23 yr old who it trilingual - meaning they are literate and can operate in all three languages equally. That takes schooling. Honestly, a trilingual 3 yr old is not impressive. Get back to us in 20 yrs.

My kids are three times 3 yr old and can read and write in all three languages; thanks for the free lecture anyway. I see you completely missed the point I made. The point of my comment was to mock the pp's assertion that her kid's trilingualism will guarantee that other people's monolingual kids will end up working for her. My kids are trilingual. They are not special. I have no clue whether it means other people will end up working for them. I don't see multiple language ability as a stone-set path to executive offices. Trilingual, yawn, nothing to it.

NP. Which three languages and how do you support it? Is their spoken and written at grade level? I came over when I was 6 knowing no English and reading and writing 10 yrs above age level in my native language and became English dominant within two yrs. It's very difficult to support bilingualism much less trilingualism. Any tips on how you managed? My relatives are having the same issue with their young children, 8 and 6, who moved to the US two yrs ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are none of you concerned about your kids missing out on the traditional neighborhood school? Maybe it doesn't matter as much if you work full time and your kids don't get home from after-care until 6pm. But I would hate to think that every child in my neighborhood went to a different school. I would hate my child's school to be miles away from our neighborhood. We don't live in D.C. anymore. One of the things I absolutely LOVE about our neighborhood is that all the kids in our neighborhood ride their bikes to school together. There is a real sense of community because all of us are concerned about working to make our neighborhood school the best it can be. My son's teacher lives four houses away from me. The principal lives two streets down. We have crossing guards to help the kids cross the streets safely. They know all the kids by name. Community events are often held at the schools. Our community is tied together in many ways by our school.

I would hate it if my kids' schools started allowing out-of-boundary kids, if for no other reason than the additional traffic. We have almost no car riders. ALL the kids walk or bike. The only time there is a car pool line is in bad weather.

I really think you are missing out on the value of supporting the elementary school in your community.

I'm not concerned about a neighborhood school. I'm concerned about my child speaking fluent Chinese. Someday, when your child is working in the mailroom
at my child's company, maybe he can submit a question to the president, and ask her.

[Anonymous]

^^ I'm not one of those parents who think speaking Chinese is a ticket to the C-suite (heck, I speak it, and it's only been so helpful career-wise), but I want my kid to learn it, because China is a big important country, because I think learning Mandarin will enrich her life in ways that are hard to predict, and because I think it's a challenging thing to do which will grow and stretch her mind.

The opportunity to learn Chinese is an incredible one. But a city like DC can likely only support one Mandarin-immersion charter school. So it needs to be placed somewhere relatively central, and it needs to pull kids from all over the city. That's the trade off you make when you have a very specialized program, vs. a neighborhood school that serves local kids.

It might be nice to have all of our neighbors go to the same school, but in a place like DC, with so much choice and so many private options, there's no guarantee that all the kids even in a good school catchment area will attend the neighborhood school. Or that all of the kids at that school will be from the neighborhood.

In practice, many of our neighbors DO attend Yu Ying-- I can count at least a dozen kids within a few blocks of here.

And I like it that my kid is in school with kids from all over the city-- it offers a level of diversity that we might not otherwise get.

So add it all up, and while you might sacrifice some things, you gain lots of other important things from the system we've got too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are none of you concerned about your kids missing out on the traditional neighborhood school? Maybe it doesn't matter as much if you work full time and your kids don't get home from after-care until 6pm. But I would hate to think that every child in my neighborhood went to a different school. I would hate my child's school to be miles away from our neighborhood. We don't live in D.C. anymore. One of the things I absolutely LOVE about our neighborhood is that all the kids in our neighborhood ride their bikes to school together. There is a real sense of community because all of us are concerned about working to make our neighborhood school the best it can be. My son's teacher lives four houses away from me. The principal lives two streets down. We have crossing guards to help the kids cross the streets safely. They know all the kids by name. Community events are often held at the schools. Our community is tied together in many ways by our school.

I would hate it if my kids' schools started allowing out-of-boundary kids, if for no other reason than the additional traffic. We have almost no car riders. ALL the kids walk or bike. The only time there is a car pool line is in bad weather.

I really think you are missing out on the value of supporting the elementary school in your community.

I'm not concerned about a neighborhood school. I'm concerned about my child speaking fluent Chinese. Someday, when your child is working in the mailroom
at my child's company, maybe he can submit a question to the president, and ask her.

Seriously, lady, you are gross!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NP. Which three languages and how do you support it? Is their spoken and written at grade level? I came over when I was 6 knowing no English and reading and writing 10 yrs above age level in my native language and became English dominant within two yrs. It's very difficult to support bilingualism much less trilingualism. Any tips on how you managed? My relatives are having the same issue with their young children, 8 and 6, who moved to the US two yrs ago.

I agree with you that it is difficult, expensive and inconvenient. It also makes up for lots of awkward family time and loneliness. But we do it.

How do we do it:

- no English spoken to the children unless completely necessary, including in presence of others
- language 1 and language 2 afterschool and weekend activities (school, drama, music classes)
- my mom lives with us and does all their afterschool care - she's a former teacher but speaks no English
- long summer breaks at country 1 and country 2
- extensive library of age appropriate books in all 3 languages
- we work hard to make them feel proud of being different.

I want to repeat, again, that it is difficult, expensive, inconvenient and emotionally not cost-free.

[Anonymous]

P.S. Are you seriously saying you could read and write like a 16-year old when you were six? Honestly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are none of you concerned about your kids missing out on the traditional neighborhood school? Maybe it doesn't matter as much if you work full time and your kids don't get home from after-care until 6pm. But I would hate to think that every child in my neighborhood went to a different school. I would hate my child's school to be miles away from our neighborhood. We don't live in D.C. anymore. One of the things I absolutely LOVE about our neighborhood is that all the kids in our neighborhood ride their bikes to school together. There is a real sense of community because all of us are concerned about working to make our neighborhood school the best it can be. My son's teacher lives four houses away from me. The principal lives two streets down. We have crossing guards to help the kids cross the streets safely. They know all the kids by name. Community events are often held at the schools. Our community is tied together in many ways by our school.

I would hate it if my kids' schools started allowing out-of-boundary kids, if for no other reason than the additional traffic. We have almost no car riders. ALL the kids walk or bike. The only time there is a car pool line is in bad weather.

I really think you are missing out on the value of supporting the elementary school in your community.

I'm not concerned about a neighborhood school. I'm concerned about my child speaking fluent Chinese. Someday, when your child is working in the mailroom
at my child's company, maybe he can submit a question to the president, and ask her.

Silly woman. There's a lot more fluent Chinese speakers than company presidents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:P.S. Are you seriously saying you could read and write like a 16-year old when you were six? Honestly?

Yes. I started 1st grade when I was 3 yrs old. Won the best reader award for my grade that yr. Was reading high school level books at 5.

Thanks for the tips. My sil was an elementary school teacher so she tries to supplement but it's a losing battle to get the kids to only speak their mother tongue and these are kids who are bilingual. They prefer English here. I told my brother he has to take them back to our country every summer if he does not want them to lose the language. Weekend heritage classes at their church isn't cutting it not only speaking it at home. It's a struggle to just maintain. My brother who came here at two lost his language and had to relearn it as an adult. Unfortunately, his accent never recovered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, what will you do for MS and HS, and what about the other Brent families?

Good question. We're not sure, it's a way off for a 3 year old. We may go for Latin, or BASIS, or DCI if we can and we're going to continue to hope that Brent gets a new neighborhood MS feed after the "big review' next year, allowing the middle class cohort on the Hill to cluster at one school. We're Catholic and may or may not be able to afford parochial middle school by then. Worst case, we move to MoCo after 5th, renting our Hill house out until we can return as empty nesters. At least we should have a decent school until age 11, helping us enjoy family life on the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm not concerned about a neighborhood school. I'm concerned about my child speaking fluent Chinese. Someday, when your child is working in the mailroom
at my child's company, maybe he can submit a question to the president, and ask her.

Silly woman. There's a lot more fluent Chinese speakers than company presidents.

SillyYu Ying families. How many of the pupils are bilingual? How many kids speak Chinese in the halls and at recess at YY? How many have Chinese au pairs at home (about 3!). Nearly half were bilingual in some dialect at our neighborhood Chinese immersion program in Queens NYC before we moved to Capitol Hill. There's a lot more fluent Chinese speakers with little kids in DC who avoid YY for cultural reasons than you think. Yea, cultural reasons, such as actually being Chinese. And this observation makes me a troll, right, right.

[Anonymous]

My kids don't go to Yu Ying. I have no opinions on the school. But 90% of the families I've met who go there have a major connection (usually one mandarin speaking parent). Have I just had weird luck? I've probably met 20 families (none are close friends).