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Interesting that some people have found DCB responsive. I have called and emailed a few times and have never heard back after leaving multiple messages and emails.
Does anyone know how they teach the common core standards (inquiry-based or whatnot approach) and what their early childhood curriculum looks like (play-based vs academic)? I attended an open house and learned a lot about the non-academic aspects of the school (specials, nutrition, etc.) but not much about their academics.
Thanks!
Does anyone know how they teach the common core standards (inquiry-based or whatnot approach) and what their early childhood curriculum looks like (play-based vs academic)? I attended an open house and learned a lot about the non-academic aspects of the school (specials, nutrition, etc.) but not much about their academics.
Thanks!
Anonymous wrote:I haven't done the commute yet, but I've been mapping routes and approximate times to all my school picks with Google's new map feature. You can customize a map with all your destinations on it and then for each point on the map, simultaneously see routes by car and Metro, including lines, station stops and approximate times. Perfection will be the inclusion of bus lines.
I know my son would be thrilled to pieces to be riding Metro every day. As I was contemplating that, I realized I would need to add another ten minutes to the estimated commute to account for his slower pace.
The advice I got was I double the time to account for slower pace and public transport delays.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Post-Sept. birthday: Hope Community for PS
May also want to look at shining stars and Sela and Bethune. I believe all take late fall birthdays.
Bethune doesn't anymore and Sela is PK4 & up.
But Shining Stars definitely has a later cutoff for PS3
Appletree definitely does.
All the open houses are listed on myschooldc.org for schools participating on the common lottery. http://www.myschooldc.org/key-dates/open-house-dates/
Assume it is cancelled. There is nothing about it on their website and no message at the phone #.
Just want to make sure because they only have one other open house, and I can't make that one. Really hoping they reschedule. At the charter school expo, they said over 150 people had already registered for the open house tonight.
Just want to make sure because they only have one other open house, and I can't make that one. Really hoping they reschedule. At the charter school expo, they said over 150 people had already registered for the open house tonight.
We are IB and liked a lot of what we saw at the open house. We are definitely applying for PK3. OP, if you are seriously considering it, go to the upcoming open house or ask people in the parent listservs in the neighborhood.
What did you think, OP?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:How old is your kid?
I ask how old because we started at Montessori very young, it was only part-time but both of my kids were in it at 2, and it wasn't so clear at the time, but in retrospect, if I knew then what I know now, it would have been easy to tell that a long-term Montessori model would probably work well for one, not so great for the other. They are now both in Reggio and find the model fits their different styles well.
My older child, who is ahead of most of his class in a reading level in first grade, is extremely distractible. He thrives where he can play out his fantasies, but he needs pretty constant reminders to stay on task. His most-focused activities appear to be the "1000 language" tasks that the Reggio model supports. A child who won't sit still for 20 minutes at home will sit for an hour in school drawing some incredibly elaborate drawings. (I'm still not sure how his teachers manage it.) I can't be positive, but my gut is that Montessori probably would not have ended up well for him.
My younger child (now in PK4) doesn't seem, at this point, to have nearly as strong language skills as his brother, but is much more focused (OCD? - hopefully not) I think Montessori worked better for him and may have worked longer-term, but the Reggio model allows him to still get his perfectionist attention to detail stuff out yet it drags his introverted self into the community and also lets him know it's ok to make mistakes - in fact, sometimes mistakes are good!
If you have an 18-month-old, it might be able to tell if she's a good fit for one model already (again, I wouldn't have been able to see this at the time.) Is it difficult to pull her out of tantrums? How does she interact with her peers? Seeing how monumentally different my children are, I am convinced most of this stuff is not taught and that makes decision-making easier. (I'm going to keep telling myself that anyway
Thank you! That is very helpful. My daughter turned 2 in September, so we'll be applying for PK3 next year, but she will be the youngest in the class. She has moments when she can really concentrate on things. Relative to other kids her age, e.g., she can sit still and listen carefully for pretty long books--and she's done so for quite some time. Generally, though, she's pretty high energy, likes to move a lot, and tantrums can be long--it's definitely not easy to pull her out of them. I think they provide her with a release of energy that she really needs. The thing that worries me most about Montessori is having a "right" and "wrong" way of using the materials; she has a good imagination, so she will sometimes use things very different from how they are intended to be used. I could see a teacher intervening and showing her how to use something, and that seems potentially stifling.
I really appreciate your sharing your perspective!
An example of the specifics of how the lottery in Denver works--which is what I believe DC will be doing-is on page 25 in Example 2 in the appendix of this paper: https://www2.bc.edu/~sonmezt/sc_aerfinal.pdf. This paper is linked to from the website of the company that is setting up the lottery.
It's very complicated. But essentially, it optimizes the number of people who are matched to a high-choice school, and the ranking of the schools by the applicants does matter. (It definitely matters less than sibling/founder/boundary preferences, though.) And the schools do "rank" the students, via a random lottery number, within the preference brackets.
It's very complicated. But essentially, it optimizes the number of people who are matched to a high-choice school, and the ranking of the schools by the applicants does matter. (It definitely matters less than sibling/founder/boundary preferences, though.) And the schools do "rank" the students, via a random lottery number, within the preference brackets.
Anonymous wrote:So if my kid's lottery # is picked, his #1 is IT, but they just filled their spots, will he be #1 on their waitlist and admitted in school #2 if there is space?
Yes, he would be placed on the wait list for IT (at whatever # they are up to on the wait list at that point), and be admitted to #2 if there is space. If not, then wait listed at #2, and admitted at #3 if there is space…. and so on down the line.
I'm not sure why you ask whether he would be #1 on the wait list. That would only happen in the very rare instance that he was the very first person whose lottery # came up after all the slots were filled for the grade.
I would love to hear more from the Shining Stars families about what administrative challenges you've faced and what they have done and are planning to do to address them. We are considering the school for our list of 12 in the common lottery, and they haven't yet held any open houses. Thanks!
Anonymous wrote:Doubt there will be a bus, but yes many carpools. The drive is actually not bad. We tried it from current location and made it in 10.
Great! Thanks for this info.
I am so interested in this school, but we are much closer to the current location than the future one. Do you think there would be people in the Mt. Pleasant/Adams-Morgan area who could carpool? Of course, that is assuming we got in for PK3, which I know is a long shot.... Any chance there will a parent-organized bus from the current location?
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