Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington Forest.

No. Wakefield HS district is like moving to Wheaton.

+1 for south Arlington. Our HHI is $200k and we have a 40s colonial. I have no idea where Wheaton is, but I doubt it is 8 miles from our K Street office.

schools are not good compared to mclean, marshall or madison

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington Forest.

No. Wakefield HS district is like moving to Wheaton.

+1 for south Arlington. Our HHI is $200k and we have a 40s colonial. I have no idea where Wheaton is, but I doubt it is 8 miles from our K Street office.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Town house is doable for us though I'd prefer a row house or small bungalow.

Re our budget. We can afford more than 600,000 except my dh is in the tech field and we are nervous about his long term viability (lots of agism in the industry - it is possible his earning potential will decrease radically in the future) plus my income (about 65 before taxes and benefits) is now going to childcare and preschool and will in the future be slated for education (private school and college savings).

Private school is mostly about the kind of education we want for our kids. We both went to not great (not terrible) public schools and did just fine, but I'd like my kids to have something different. My friends are in publics (mostly Arlington) and happy enough, but their kids are doing a lot of homework in early grades and confined to desks, and one boy, according to his mother, has come to hate writing and reading because he was pushed in it too hard too young (it is better this year because they are doing a lot of collaborative learning stuff, and he is super social and so liking school more); I have two very active boys and I just don't see it as a good fit for them right now. So we are doing Montessori-type education for a while. Plus, I want a place where they love to learn and am not so interested in academic achievement or test scores; teaching college, I see VERY little of any love of learning in my students who basically just care about grades. I do think our education system causes at least some of this. But it is likely we will cycle in and out of public and private as our fiances and inclinations change - I'd just like a house that gave us the option of private, which means 600,000 or less.

And I'd also like my kids not to be in neighborhood schools where kids have way more material possessions and vacations than they will ever have; my friends in Arlington public schools already face quite a bit of this - second graders with iphones etc. I am personally fine with being lower SES than others in my neighborhood - I love my career and life and don't feel, except for a house, like there is anything I want I can't have. I am not terribly social and don't crave fitting in. But I grew up in a small new-money town (oil money in the deep south) and dread my kids wanting things "everyone else" has that they won't. It sucked in jr. high!

Silver springs and Takoma are definitely neighborhoods we are considering - was just hoping for recommendations a bit closer to Bethesdsa/va since that commute can be a bear. The neighborhoods behind ballston also seems doable, though I'm hesitant to move to VA (somehow it feels more suburban than silver springs). I am not sure, commute-wise, if a neighborhood like rock creek forest (is that its name - right above Rock creek Park over the line from DC), for which I've seen some houses in our price range, is more commutable than Takoma (from Takoma, you can cut through the park from Aspen drive whereas I'd being stuck doing the east-west HYW from Rock Creek Forest) and I'm not sure if the neighborhood is, with just a couple of housing exceptions, above our pay grade.

AU park would be great but, I haven't seen a single house come on the market we can afford (have been casting around for last month or two).

Thanks everyone for helping me think this through!

you are better home schooling your children if you are afraid of achieving and testing

No tests or graded in the private schools we are looking at. Many college profs I know (admittedly humanities) are very skeptical of grades and tests because we see the damage they have caused/cause. We are stuck in the same system though (contract grading is the best we can do - I've never tried this). College kids who have been homeschooled are actually some of my best students in terms of REALLY willing to work and learn and take risks - I don't get a lot of them though since I don't teach at one of the better area colleges.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Town house is doable for us though I'd prefer a row house or small bungalow.

Re our budget. We can afford more than 600,000 except my dh is in the tech field and we are nervous about his long term viability (lots of agism in the industry - it is possible his earning potential will decrease radically in the future) plus my income (about 65 before taxes and benefits) is now going to childcare and preschool and will in the future be slated for education (private school and college savings).

Private school is mostly about the kind of education we want for our kids. We both went to not great (not terrible) public schools and did just fine, but I'd like my kids to have something different. My friends are in publics (mostly Arlington) and happy enough, but their kids are doing a lot of homework in early grades and confined to desks, and one boy, according to his mother, has come to hate writing and reading because he was pushed in it too hard too young (it is better this year because they are doing a lot of collaborative learning stuff, and he is super social and so liking school more); I have two very active boys and I just don't see it as a good fit for them right now. So we are doing Montessori-type education for a while. Plus, I want a place where they love to learn and am not so interested in academic achievement or test scores; teaching college, I see VERY little of any love of learning in my students who basically just care about grades. I do think our education system causes at least some of this. But it is likely we will cycle in and out of public and private as our fiances and inclinations change - I'd just like a house that gave us the option of private, which means 600,000 or less.

And I'd also like my kids not to be in neighborhood schools where kids have way more material possessions and vacations than they will ever have; my friends in Arlington public schools already face quite a bit of this - second graders with iphones etc. I am personally fine with being lower SES than others in my neighborhood - I love my career and life and don't feel, except for a house, like there is anything I want I can't have. I am not terribly social and don't crave fitting in. But I grew up in a small new-money town (oil money in the deep south) and dread my kids wanting things "everyone else" has that they won't. It sucked in jr. high!

Silver springs and Takoma are definitely neighborhoods we are considering - was just hoping for recommendations a bit closer to Bethesdsa/va since that commute can be a bear. The neighborhoods behind ballston also seems doable, though I'm hesitant to move to VA (somehow it feels more suburban than silver springs). I am not sure, commute-wise, if a neighborhood like rock creek forest (is that its name - right above Rock creek Park over the line from DC), for which I've seen some houses in our price range, is more commutable than Takoma (from Takoma, you can cut through the park from Aspen drive whereas I'd being stuck doing the east-west HYW from Rock Creek Forest) and I'm not sure if the neighborhood is, with just a couple of housing exceptions, above our pay grade.

AU park would be great but, I haven't seen a single house come on the market we can afford (have been casting around for last month or two).

Thanks everyone for helping me think this through!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Town house is doable for us though I'd prefer a row house or small bungalow.

Re our budget. We can afford more than 600,000 except my dh is in the tech field and we are nervous about his long term viability (lots of agism in the industry - it is possible his earning potential will decrease radically in the future) plus my income (about 65 before taxes and benefits) is now going to childcare and preschool and will in the future be slated for education (private school and college savings).

Private school is mostly about the kind of education we want for our kids. We both went to not great (not terrible) public schools and did just fine, but I'd like my kids to have something different. My friends are in publics (mostly Arlington) and happy enough, but their kids are doing a lot of homework in early grades and confined to desks, and one boy, according to his mother, has come to hate writing and reading because he was pushed in it too hard too young (it is better this year because they are doing a lot of collaborative learning stuff, and he is super social and so liking school more); I have two very active boys and I just don't see it as a good fit for them right now. So we are doing Montessori-type education for a while. Plus, I want a place where they love to learn and am not so interested in academic achievement or test scores; teaching college, I see VERY little of any love of learning in my students who basically just care about grades. I do think our education system causes at least some of this. But it is likely we will cycle in and out of public and private as our fiances and inclinations change - I'd just like a house that gave us the option of private, which means 600,000 or less.

And I'd also like my kids not to be in neighborhood schools where kids have way more material possessions and vacations than they will ever have; my friends in Arlington public schools already face quite a bit of this - second graders with iphones etc. I am personally fine with being lower SES than others in my neighborhood - I love my career and life and don't feel, except for a house, like there is anything I want I can't have. I am not terribly social and don't crave fitting in. But I grew up in a small new-money town (oil money in the deep south) and dread my kids wanting things "everyone else" has that they won't. It sucked in jr. high!

Silver springs and Takoma are definitely neighborhoods we are considering - was just hoping for recommendations a bit closer to Bethesdsa/va since that commute can be a bear. The neighborhoods behind ballston also seems doable, though I'm hesitant to move to VA (somehow it feels more suburban than silver springs). I am not sure, commute-wise, if a neighborhood like rock creek forest (is that its name - right above Rock creek Park over the line from DC), for which I've seen some houses in our price range, is more commutable than Takoma (from Takoma, you can cut through the park from Aspen drive whereas I'd being stuck doing the east-west HYW from Rock Creek Forest) and I'm not sure if the neighborhood is, with just a couple of housing exceptions, above our pay grade.

AU park would be great but, I haven't seen a single house come on the market we can afford (have been casting around for last month or two).

Thanks everyone for helping me think this through!

you are better home schooling your children if you are afraid of achieving and testing

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington Forest.

No. Wakefield HS district is like moving to Wheaton.

+1 for south Arlington. Our HHI is $200k and we have a 40s colonial. I have no idea where Wheaton is, but I doubt it is 8 miles from our K Street office.

The OP wants good schools in case her kids switch to public. Wakefield does not fit the bill.

She also needs to get to Bethesda, not K Street. Silver Spring has better schools than South Arlington and is more convenient.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington Forest.

No. Wakefield HS district is like moving to Wheaton.

+1 for south Arlington. Our HHI is $200k and we have a 40s colonial. I have no idea where Wheaton is, but I doubt it is 8 miles from our K Street office.