Send them to both. Would you keep your 3 yo home otherwise. What would you be doing if the 3 yo was in daycare. You'd be sending them to two different places. The effed up situation in DC really adds unnecessary layers to the decision making process about really simple matters here. If you were in the burbs WWYD. My kid would go to the local elem. if age appropriate and the younger would go to daycare. So, they'd still be going to two separate places. Now add to letter- D and C. Just cause you're in DC doesn't change things. Send them to both.

Anonymous wrote:Since Mandarin is a priority, I would put the 4 yr old in YY and the 3 yr old in Haynes if your lottery lines up like that.

I think that is a good idea. Please check that your 3year acceptance is not based on your 4 year old being accepted. If so, you will loose your 3 year old spot when you do not enroll your 4 year old.-sibling preference at work.

Since Mandarin is a priority, I would put the 4 yr old in YY and the 3 yr old in Haynes if your lottery lines up like that.

Anonymous wrote:We're at YY and we really wanted Mandarin. YY was the ONLY public school we applied to. That said, we live very close to another immersion charter school - roll out of bed and a five minute walk. Makes me wish we applied and DC was learning Spanish. Unless you really, really, REALLY want Mandarin, choose Haynes. With two kids, a short walk, pretty much a no-brainer.

I'm this poster and wanted to clarify that our drive to YY isn't bad, 10 minutes/3 miles against traffic but it gets old. It's a drive we'll be stuck with for YEARS. Depends on how much you want Mandarin... We love Yu Ying btw.

OP here. Mandarin is more of a priority for me than for DH, giving rise to the original question.

I appreciate your input here. It's a very lucky but tough decision that must be made quickly.

Just want to chime in with a general thought... am I the only one who thinks these late-in-the-game "Which school would you choose: hot charter #1 or hot charter #2?" feels like, well there can't be THIS many parents who didn't do their homework ahead of time and got slots at 2 incredibly hard to get into schools? How many lottery slots did Haynes even have for PS3 and PK4? Weren't they almost non-existent? And this person was lucky enough to get into YY either through lottery as well (which is insane luck) OR made the effort to get her app in super early, yet doesn't know if Chinese immersion is that important?

This is just one example, but my gut says there's a twisted soul with nothing better to do sitting home periodically starting these threads with different schools, just to watch the fireworks. Would be interesting if Jeff looked at the posters of the last 4 or so hot charter choice threads to see if they were the same person...

Anonymous wrote:Well, she can't send the three-year-old to Yu Ying, so she's going to have to split them up for this year if she wants to eventually send them both to YY. Nothing wrong with sending the 3 to Haynes for a year until he/she's ready for YY. This is not a disservice to the child or to the school.

But she doesn't want to send both kids to YY eventually. If she did, she wouldn't have started this thread. Apparently she doesn't know what she wants, which means Mandarin is not a high priority. If it was, again, no thread because there would be no question.

Anonymous wrote:

The idea of having one child go to each school to "test them out" is just obnoxious and ridiculous. Do your due diligence as a parent, check out both schools, and see which one is the best fit for your family. The idea that it's like buying clothes and trying them on and then returning them later is a disservice to your kids, and to the schools.

Oh, come on, stop with the hysteria. People leave highly regarded charters all the time because the schools aren't the right fit. There's no amount of due diligence that can account for every possibility. OP is lucky enough to get first-hand experience at two good schools - in effect, she gets the chance to do more extensive due diligence than other parents - if she can make the transportation work, she absolutely should.

There is no hysteria, but fine, agree to disagree. Of course there's no due diligence that accounts for every detail. But guess what, responsible parents make decisions all the time based on the info they have and what they think is best for their families. If it works for your family to cart two kids to different schools just because you can't figure out if you value Mandarin or not is not anything I'd do. You would do it, more power to you. But I think it's ridiculous and I would never do that to my own kids. They are both good schools, but if Mandarin isn't a priority and I live near Haynes, why the heck would I go to both or YY at all? It makes no sense. I think ideas like "test drive them both!" feeds into a bizarre culture of irresponsibility "Just take it all, no need to decide! Your kids won't be impacted if you just throw one into a school like an acid strip to test the school out because you as a parent can't figure out what is important!"

But OP, keep in mind, if you do enroll in both, you are stuck with that for the year. There is no "Oh, what was I thinking, let me take that sib preference spot at Haynes that I turned down to send my 4 yr old to YY". YY will have NO problem filling your 4 yr old's spot if you leave, but once you turn down Haynes (which you will have to do, you canNOT enroll your 4 yr old at both schools), then you're in it for the year or you're putting your 4 yr old in some other school. But you are not calling Haynes up one month in and saying "On second thought...". Not gonna happen.

We're at YY and we really wanted Mandarin. YY was the ONLY public school we applied to. That said, we live very close to another immersion charter school - roll out of bed and a five minute walk. Makes me wish we applied and DC was learning Spanish. Unless you really, really, REALLY want Mandarin, choose Haynes. With two kids, a short walk, pretty much a no-brainer.

Well, she can't send the three-year-old to Yu Ying, so she's going to have to split them up for this year if she wants to eventually send them both to YY. Nothing wrong with sending the 3 to Haynes for a year until he/she's ready for YY. This is not a disservice to the child or to the school.

To the poster who said it would be selfish to send the kids to both...no way. Its totally fair, how the system works and we ALL do what we need to do to get the best for our kids.

The idea of having one child go to each school to "test them out" is just obnoxious and ridiculous. Do your due diligence as a parent, check out both schools, and see which one is the best fit for your family. The idea that it's like buying clothes and trying them on and then returning them later is a disservice to your kids, and to the schools.

Oh, come on, stop with the hysteria. People leave highly regarded charters all the time because the schools aren't the right fit. There's no amount of due diligence that can account for every possibility. OP is lucky enough to get first-hand experience at two good schools - in effect, she gets the chance to do more extensive due diligence than other parents - if she can make the transportation work, she absolutely should.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I toured Haynes at the relevant time and was very impressed. But as a YY parent who really really wants his kids to learn Chinese, there wouldn't be a choice. Sounds to me like that's not true for you and Haynes might be a better fit.

Of course, one option would be to send them to both schools. You get to try out both for one year and then you have sibling preference for the other for whichever one you like better. On the other hand, that one year would be Mandarin only for your 4YO.

This is what I would do!

I am the "no-brainer" poster. Actually, this is a very tempting scenario, if it's easy to get the little one to Haynes and the trip to YY isn't a nightmare.

To me, if OP even has to ask which, she should attend Haynes. As long as DCI happens, both schools have a pathway to middle and high school (Haynes is K-12 all by itself). If OP valued or was gung ho about Mandarin, this would be a no-brainer in favor of YY.

OP if you even have to ask, and Haynes is in walking distance, why would you go to YY? And I say this also as a current YY parent. If I didn't want Mandarin, and I got into both Haynes and YY, I would jump on Haynes because I also was incredibly impressed when I visited them and spoke to their staff on several occaisions. I just happen to be very focused on Mandarin, so I would choose YY over just about any school.

The idea of having one child go to each school to "test them out" is just obnoxious and ridiculous. Do your due diligence as a parent, check out both schools, and see which one is the best fit for your family. The idea that it's like buying clothes and trying them on and then returning them later is a disservice to your kids, and to the schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I toured Haynes at the relevant time and was very impressed. But as a YY parent who really really wants his kids to learn Chinese, there wouldn't be a choice. Sounds to me like that's not true for you and Haynes might be a better fit.

Of course, one option would be to send them to both schools. You get to try out both for one year and then you have sibling preference for the other for whichever one you like better. On the other hand, that one year would be Mandarin only for your 4YO.

This is what I would do!

not at all what any sane person would do. you're short-changing everyone: the kids, the school/parent community, and chances for those who really want in to get a spot in PreK4. sounds like the most selfish move to me

Is she sends her 3 yo to ELH, and her 4 yo to YY, how is that short-changing anyone? She's taking 2 spots somewhere - why not split them up?

Only problem, OP, is that if your 3 yo got in as a sibling preference because the 4 yo got in through the lottery at ELH, you may not be able to do this scenario. If that's not the case, however, I'd do this in a heartbeat if you can make the transportation work.

Was your 3 year old accepted to Haynes based on the acceptance of the 4 year old? In other words was the three year old "bumped" to the top of the waitlist because the 4 year old was accepted? If so then you may not be able to send the 4 to one and the 3 to the other, as the 3 year old may resume his/her original position if the 4 year old does not enroll.

If not then it definitely sounds like a way to determine which school is a best fit for your family.

Congrats on two lottery wins.