Anonymous wrote:I stumbled upon this thread in my search for information about Key Elementary lottery. I don't have a student at Appletree because my kids are too old, but I felt compelled to read this discussion after an experience I had recently. I am a pediatrician and I had an appointment with a young patient recently. I talked to the youngster about school and he told me he attended apple tree. I asked him what he was learning about and he was very excited to tell me about dinosaurs. But what really shocked me was the detail he went into. He said he was learning about tyrannosaurus rex - the "king of the dinosaurs" - who had sharp teeth because they were carnivores which means they eat other animals. I was absolutely blown away for a 4 year old to use such vocabulary. I had to check my computer to make sure I had his age correct because of how atypical it was! I mentioned it to his mother and she seemed totally unaffected because he speaks like this all the time.

Obviously something great is happening over there, and I thought I would share that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stumbled upon this thread in my search for information about Key Elementary lottery. I don't have a student at Appletree because my kids are too old, but I felt compelled to read this discussion after an experience I had recently. I am a pediatrician and I had an appointment with a young patient recently. I talked to the youngster about school and he told me he attended apple tree. I asked him what he was learning about and he was very excited to tell me about dinosaurs. But what really shocked me was the detail he went into. He said he was learning about tyrannosaurus rex - the "king of the dinosaurs" - who had sharp teeth because they were carnivores which means they eat other animals. I was absolutely blown away for a 4 year old to use such vocabulary. I had to check my computer to make sure I had his age correct because of how atypical it was! I mentioned it to his mother and she seemed totally unaffected because he speaks like this all the time.

Obviously something great is happening over there, and I thought I would share that.

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the Appletree Lincoln Park parent - are there lots of Maryland residents? We live in the neighborhood and routinely seek mothers doing morning dropoff in illegally parked and aggressively driving SUVs with Maryland plates. Makes me plenty mad.

There appear to be some -- just like at every other school on the east side of DC.

Anonymous wrote:I stumbled upon this thread in my search for information about Key Elementary lottery. I don't have a student at Appletree because my kids are too old, but I felt compelled to read this discussion after an experience I had recently. I am a pediatrician and I had an appointment with a young patient recently. I talked to the youngster about school and he told me he attended apple tree. I asked him what he was learning about and he was very excited to tell me about dinosaurs. But what really shocked me was the detail he went into. He said he was learning about tyrannosaurus rex - the "king of the dinosaurs" - who had sharp teeth because they were carnivores which means they eat other animals. I was absolutely blown away for a 4 year old to use such vocabulary. I had to check my computer to make sure I had his age correct because of how atypical it was! I mentioned it to his mother and she seemed totally unaffected because he speaks like this all the time.

Obviously something great is happening over there, and I thought I would share that.

Anonymous wrote:I am the PP with doubts who went to a second open house tonight. I felt much better about all of my concerns after this second visit. The principal is so impressive and engaged. He seemed to know every kid by name, and everyone seems to love him. I also noticed much more art EVERYWHERE in the classrooms, and the principal assured me that art and music are woven throughout every day of the program. (I had concerns that these things would be lacking since they don't have "specials" the way an elementary school might have). I also feel better about the building after walking around a second time. Especially loved seeing how one classroom had hay on the carpet from an activity they were doing about farm life -- my DS was verrrry interested in this idea of putting hay on the floor. Haha!

I still feel like we're taking a gamble by passing up a DCPS which would go until 5th grade, but I think it's the right decision (especially since we're not wild about the DCPS option). We'll just play the lotto again next year. Sigh. Anyway, thanks again to everyone for their feedback.