Reply to Advice on Good Fit Private for K with Good Amount of Outdoor and Play

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid is at the River School, and while the playgrounds are relatively small (responding to PP 8/28 19:29), the younger kids' playground is sufficiently covered and that they usually use it rain or shine. They spend plenty of time outdoors, especially since they don't only go outdoors for playground times.

River has a lot of the things that you want, OP, although the facilities aren't luxurious. They do zero standardized testing (though they administer the WRAT every couple of years for benchmarking where a kid is at, it's done one-on-one with each kid) It's screen-free until 4th grade where they start to teach keyboarding skills and typed papers, and even then, they don't depend on screens for any instruction.

Classes cap at 14 kids, and there are a minimum of two teachers per class (both with master's degrees) and there's often also a teaching assistant and.or an intern, as well. Kids get a lot of individual attention as a result. Classrooms are busy with activity, but they aren't chaotic, and the teachers do a very good job of classroom management.

The way subjects are taught at River is often very creative. The preschool is wonderful, with play-based learning rooted in dramatic play. That goes away bit by bit in the elementary school, but since the curriculum is progressive there's still a lot of fun hands-on projects built into the day. They do a great job of disguising the "learning" part in the activities that the kids participate in.

The commute from Bethesda to the Palisades (where River is located) is relatively easy, though it does depend on where in Bethesda you live -- some parts of Bethesda border the Palisades.[/quote]

Thanks for this - will check it out. We live really close to the palisades. [/quote]

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