Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year, I was completely underwhelmed by Creative Minds and found the principal really off-putting.

+1

Ditto on both counts (so +2? ). Not applying this year.

+3

I'm a parent who worked one of the open houses last year mentioned here, I'd love if you could be more specific in these posts re: the open houses so we (at least at our school) could work to try and improve our open house.

If there were specific things like "could use more information, or the tour was boring"

It would be so helpful. Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year, I was completely underwhelmed by Creative Minds and found the principal really off-putting.

+1

Ditto on both counts (so +2? ). Not applying this year.

Anonymous wrote:Last year, I was completely underwhelmed by Creative Minds and found the principal really off-putting.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't made the open house rounds this year, but last year I thought 2 Rivers was nice, but there were so many parents and it was just too crowded. I didn't care for SWS.

My kid is at SWS and we love it. But their open houses, in my experience, are nutty. The (sweet) principal is always totally inaudible and the presentations come off as kind of pie-in-the-sky.

In reality, though, it is a wonderful place.

lol, that describes it exactly. Also I went to an evening session - it probably would be better to visit during the school day to see classes in action.

the acoustics in the auditorium produce echos it's hard to hear anything

I'm pretty sure this open house was in the library - nice space though

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't made the open house rounds this year, but last year I thought 2 Rivers was nice, but there were so many parents and it was just too crowded. I didn't care for SWS.

My kid is at SWS and we love it. But their open houses, in my experience, are nutty. The (sweet) principal is always totally inaudible and the presentations come off as kind of pie-in-the-sky.

In reality, though, it is a wonderful place.

lol, that describes it exactly. Also I went to an evening session - it probably would be better to visit during the school day to see classes in action.

the acoustics in the auditorium produce echos it's hard to hear anything

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't made the open house rounds this year, but last year I thought 2 Rivers was nice, but there were so many parents and it was just too crowded. I didn't care for SWS.

My kid is at SWS and we love it. But their open houses, in my experience, are nutty. The (sweet) principal is always totally inaudible and the presentations come off as kind of pie-in-the-sky.

In reality, though, it is a wonderful place.

lol, that describes it exactly. Also I went to an evening session - it probably would be better to visit during the school day to see classes in action.

I was expecting the wow-effect by vising the NW private middle schools last year in preparation for our son (currently in 5th grade, Ward 3) graduation from his elementary DCPS school.

None of the schools we visited (GDS, St Albans, St Patrick, Holy Trinity) impressed us, at all. We found several aspects which would have not worked for him or did not convince us (in addition to the $$$ tuition). We then went to take a look at Basis as some parents from our ES had great words about it, but almost immediately ran away (office style building, long commuting, no outdoor space, no creativity).

At the end of this process, we are unexpectedly but firmly convinced that the best available option for him is our feeder DCPS middle school, Hardy. We are trying to convince as many parents we can from our current 5th grade. I can see that there's still some prejudice around the school, albeit decreasing. All the families who went to visit and talked to Principal & teachers came back very impressed by it. I believe that more than 50% of families form our 5th grade class will attend Hardy.

Anonymous wrote:Last year we were really unimpressed with:

LAMB
Mundo Verde

People love them so much that we applied anyway (didn't get in), but the open houses were very loud and very underwhelming. Perhaps they just don't have to even try?

By contrast, we had the opposite experience at 2 Rivers, very warm and seems a great environment.

About Montessori -- kids get to play but instead of playing with, for example, a play kitchen, they get to use a real kitchen. Have you observed a class? The kids LOVE it.

Montessori parent here. Maria Montessori didn't believe in "play for play's sake" so the "work" in Montessori is deliberate and not kid-driven. The kids are taught how to wash a table, for example. The teacher starts by showing the child the 8 steps in the process... first, take the sponge and dip it in the water... second, wring it out, etc.

In contrast, a kid-centric play program involves the kids drawing on prior knowledge and experience to play on their own. So, in the kitchen, they may choose to pretend it's a restaurant, or family dinner, or a grocery store or even a school teacher lunchroom if they are really creative. The teachers do not "direct" the play like they do in Montessori.

My child has been in both. I see value in both approaches as I saw a different type of growth in my child but they are VERY different approaches.

Last year, I was completely underwhelmed by Creative Minds and found the principal really off-putting.

Anonymous wrote:I haven't made the open house rounds this year, but last year I thought 2 Rivers was nice, but there were so many parents and it was just too crowded. I didn't care for SWS.

My kid is at SWS and we love it. But their open houses, in my experience, are nutty. The (sweet) principal is always totally inaudible and the presentations come off as kind of pie-in-the-sky.

In reality, though, it is a wonderful place.

I haven't made the open house rounds this year, but last year I thought 2 Rivers was nice, but there were so many parents and it was just too crowded. I didn't care for SWS.

I haven't gone to 2 Rivers this year, but I LOVED their open house last year. Maybe some of it also has to do with expectations? I didn't feel like I'd read that much about 2 Rivers before I went, and I didn't really have expectations one way or the other. But I was totally impressed by many many aspects of it and I did find it to be warm and fuzzy, even though it's a very concrete-y feeling building in some ways. Agreed though on the surrounding neighborhood... but I learned to look past that when I fell in love with Appletree Columbia Heights, despite the fact it was in a basement! (We did attend AT CH btw, and we absolutely loved it, so yes, if I think the program is excellent, I can deal with less than ideal surroundings).

Haven't been to any open houses so far this year but will weigh in when we do.

Last year we were really unimpressed with:

LAMB
Mundo Verde

People love them so much that we applied anyway (didn't get in), but the open houses were very loud and very underwhelming. Perhaps they just don't have to even try?

By contrast, we had the opposite experience at 2 Rivers, very warm and seems a great environment.

About Montessori -- kids get to play but instead of playing with, for example, a play kitchen, they get to use a real kitchen. Have you observed a class? The kids LOVE it.

I was expecting that Two Rivers would be really awesome since we know families there who really like it, but it didn't seem warm & fuzzy when I toured it, and it sounds like older kids don't get much outside time. The surrounding neighborhood is just depressing.

Lee was really interesting--looks like it would be great if you're looking for Montessori, but I'm not a fan of the Montessori's general lack of imaginative play for little kids.