I think maybe the question to ask is "how does the school differentiate?" Are they more into "enriching," which is keeping him on grade level but going wider, or do they accelerate? Our school started out enriching and has finally accelerated our child to the grade above in a couple subjects, which works out better.

oh brother - who cares - let your kid be a kid before he/she grows up with a ton of issues.

GDS. Of course.

Public or private its not going to be challenging in a positive, academic way until at least 3rd grade.

Don't waste your time looking for challenges where they don't exist. You'll need to provide the challenges yourself.

OP here - yes our DC needs to be pushed academically or else he's unhappy and can be a bit wandering - the harder the curriculum and the happier our kid and happier the teacher

Anonymous wrote:Are you for real, OP? You're talking about a KINDERGARTENER (or younger) and academics and wanting an environment that is more challenging?

NP here. Yes, it's for real. We have the same question. Our DS does better when school is challenging. Otherwise he'll use that mental energy to talk and play and you'll be complaining about that disruptive child.

Are you for real, OP? You're talking about a KINDERGARTENER (or younger) and academics and wanting an environment that is more challenging?

For fourth and fifth grades, the GT program in MoCo was fabulous.

OP here - good question - my snowflake isn't a genius, but we've realized our DC2 does much better in school the harder and more challenging the curriculum. Our older DC was different, so we looked at different schools. We've toured a ton and have really not been able to tell who is pushing the farthest ahead on academics - and yes, I realize we may end up being very surprised in first or second grade when we end up needing remedial math or something, but this is what we are looking for right now. . .I fear picking a school that has a great reputation and then realizing that it's not that fabulous academically

How would you define academically oriented at elementary school level?

Feynman

I think Sidwell.

Public g t program

Anonymous wrote:title says it all - we aren't interested in homework, but have had trouble figuring out which lower school is the most academically oriented (most of them seem to be doing good jobs w arts, athletics, community etc)

Try none of them. They aren't particularly academic, until after 5th grade.

title says it all - we aren't interested in homework, but have had trouble figuring out which lower school is the most academically oriented (most of them seem to be doing good jobs w arts, athletics, community etc)