ScoopToo » kindergarten

Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril – a recent NYT op ed piece

JM — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:50:14 +0000

We posted a series on “redshirting” a while back and it still seems to be a hot topic. Many of us question whether to advance our kindergartner or keep them back for a second year so they can mature or get ahead, especially we are told, if they are boys. It’s a common dilemma many parents face if a child is born somewhere between August and December. In Denver, the public school cut-off date is October 1st as is the same with most private schools. Some have set their dates in September. Either way, we question what makes the most sense for our child. Are they emotionally ready even though they are academically ready? Would they benefit and get ahead if they spent another year in kindergarten?

In a recent New York Times Op Ed piece titled Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril, the author suggests that “redshirting” your child – keeping them back another year despite their age – could be detrimental. I found this article especially interesting because it is exactly what I have done with my son. In retrospect, I may have fought a little harder for him to advance to the next grade given he was most certainly academically ready, though perhaps not emotionally. Granted, his birthday is in October so I would have had to present a very strong case for him to move into first grade. The other problem with advancing him was having him in a combined classroom of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders which may have been too overwhelming at an earlier age. The most enlightening and perhaps controversial part of the article is where the author suggests that if you put your child with more mature students, then they will adjust to become more mature and therefore eliminate the fear of not having the social/emotional readiness that a first grader should have.

Please let us know your experiences and thoughts about holding your child back or advancing them forward to first grade when it was a questionable situation. We’d love to hear from you on this subject.

Article: Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril – New York Times Opinion column

By SAM WANG and SANDRA AAMODT

Published: September 24, 2011

Sam Wang is an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton. Sandra Aamodt is a former editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience. They are the authors of “Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows From Conception to College.”

THIS fall, one in 11 kindergarten-age children in the United States will not be going to class. Parents of these children often delay school entry in an attempt to give them a leg up on peers, but this strategy is likely to be counterproductive.

The practice, called redshirting — from the term for allowing college athletes to delay participation in sports to prolong their eligibility — also has a connection to children’s sports. As sports-minded parents know, physical maturity allows older children to perform better. Coaches often mistake this difference for natural aptitude and respond by giving the older children on their T-ball or soccer teams more opportunities to improve their skills. And those athletes tend to gain a lasting competitive advantage. Does a similar approach work for academic achievement?

Teachers may encourage redshirting because more mature children are easier to handle in the classroom and initially produce better test scores than their younger classmates. In a class of 25, the average difference is equivalent to going from 13th place to 11th. This advantage fades by the end of elementary school, though, and disadvantages start to accumulate. In high school, redshirted children are less motivated and perform less well. By adulthood, they are no better off in wages or educational attainment — in fact, their lifetime earnings are reduced by one year.

In short, the analogy to athletics does not hold. The question we should ask instead is: What approach gives children the greatest opportunity to learn?

Parents who want to give their young children an academic advantage have a powerful tool: school itself. In a large-scale study at 26 Canadian elementary schools, first graders who were young for their year made considerably more progress in reading and math than kindergartners who were old for their year (but just two months younger). In another large study, the youngest fifth-graders scored a little lower than their classmates, but five points higher in verbal I.Q., on average, than fourth-graders of the same age. In other words, school makes children smarter.

The benefits of being younger are even greater for those who skip a grade, an option available to many high-achieving children. Compared with nonskippers of similar talent and motivation, these youngsters pursue advanced degrees and enter professional school more often. Acceleration is a powerful intervention, with effects on achievement that are twice as large as programs for the gifted. Grade-skippers even report more positive social and emotional feelings.

These differences may come from the increased challenges of a demanding environment. Learning is maximized not by getting all the answers right, but by making errors and correcting them quickly. In this respect, children benefit from being close to the limits of their ability. Too low an error rate becomes boring, while too high an error rate is unrewarding. A delay in school entry may therefore still be justified if children are very far behind their peers, leaving a gap too broad for school to allow effective learning.

Parents want to provide the best environment for their child, but delaying school is rarely the right approach. The first six years of life are a time of tremendous growth and change in the developing brain. Synapses, the connections between brain cells, are undergoing major reorganization. Indeed, a 4-year-old’s brain uses more energy than it ever will again. Brain development cannot be put on pause, so the critical question is how to provide the best possible context to support it.

For most children, that context is the classroom. Disadvantaged children have the most to lose from delayed access to school. For low-income children, every month of additional schooling closes one-tenth of the gap between them and more advantaged students. Even without redshirting, a national trend is afoot to move back the cutoff birthdays for the start of school. Since the early 1970s, the date has shifted by an average of six weeks, to about Oct. 14 from about Nov. 25. This has the effect of making children who would have been the youngest in one grade the oldest in the next-lower grade; it hurts children from low-income families the most.

Some children, especially boys, are slow to mature emotionally, a process that may be aided by the presence of older children. Kindergartners show age-related differences in social acceptance and self-perceptions, but these differences usually even out by first grade. The benefits of interacting with older children may extend to empathetic abilities. Empathy requires the ability to reason about the beliefs of others. This capacity relies on brain maturation, but it is also influenced by interactions with other children. Having an older (but not younger) sibling speeds the onset of this capacity in 3- to 5-year-olds. The acceleration is large: up to half a year per sibling. Although nearly all children reach a mature level of understanding by age 6, there may be lasting social advantages to developing this ability earlier. Parents concerned about a child’s emotional maturity might consider that frequent interaction with more mature classmates could help the developmental process along.

The initial redshirt advantage may disappear because children are not on a fixed trajectory but learn actively from teachers — and classmates. It matters very much who a child’s peers are. Redshirted children begin school with others who are a little further behind them. Because learning is social, the real winners in that situation are their classmates.

Superintendent Boasberg Mentions ScoopToo in Letter to DPS Community

KB — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 22:55:04 +0000

Letter from Superintendent Tom Boasberg:

Breaking Ground…and Setting the Foundation for a Great Education

Dear DPS Community:

One of our critical priorities in the Denver Public Schools is increasing our kids’ access to high quality preschool and full-day kindergarten. Research is clear that preschool and full-day kindergarten are critical for a child’s academic and social development and the long-term benefit of high quality education in these years pays long-term dividends.

In the last three years, thanks in large part to the creation of the Denver Preschool Program—a voter-approved initiative to support preschool in Denver – we have increased the number of our 4-year-olds in full-day preschool by over five times, from 500 to over 2,500. We have also focused our resources on expanding full-day kindergarten, and we have increased in the last three years the percentage of our 5-year-olds in full day kindergarten from just over 70% to over 95%. These programs are vital for all families and of special importance for our families in poverty and our English language learners, many of whom do not have access to private preschool.

That is why I am thrilled to announce that on Tuesday, we’ll be building on that success by breaking ground on the construction of a new Montbello Early Education Center to serve Far Northeast Denver. Beginning in August of next year, the center will serve approximately 300 3- and 4-year-olds in a $5.5 million, state-of-the-art facility at 5300 Crown Blvd.

Funds for the construction are coming from the $454 million bond program that voters approved in 2008. Because of efficient management and favorable market conditions, we’re currently $70 million under budget and a year ahead of schedule in completing all of the bond projects. Those savings have allowed us to start building a third elementary school in Stapleton, upgrade technology across the district, and now add to our early childhood education facilities and offerings.

Our mission is to make sure every neighborhood in Denver has great schools, from preschool to high school. And we want to do a better job of making it easy for parents to get information about the schools that are the right fit for their child. That’s why, in partnership with the ScoopToo education blog, we’re hosting a series of “Early Education Scoop” events across the city. The first was held Nov. 8 and drew about 150 parents to the Center for Early Education at the Knight facility in Central Denver, which serves over 200 preschool and kindergarten students. The final two “Scoops” will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on December 8 at Palmer Elementary in Northeast Denver, 995 Grape St., and Jan. 6 at Valdez Elementary in Northwest Denver, 2525 W. 29th Ave. Click here for more information.

We need to keep strengthening and growing our preschool and kindergarten programs. That’s a very tough challenge, however, given that Colorado lags far behind other states in funding these early-years programs. As a state, we only fund a half-day of kindergarten instruction and make only a minimal investment in preschool education. While I fully understand the current funding challenges the state faces in the wake of the nation’s economic crisis, I firmly believe that we need to come together and agree as a community to significantly increase our investment in preschool and kindergarten.

There’s nothing more critical to the strength and future of our nation than the education of our children. On a global scale, however, we’ve gone from an education Goliath to the middle of the pack over the course of one generation. We need to reverse that. And we need to start early.

Best,

Tom

Get the Inside Scoop at DPS Early Education Events This Fall

JM — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:22:54 +0000

Get Educated at the Preschool and Kindergarten EARLY EDUCATION SCOOP Events This Fall! There are also Middle School and High School Events as well. See the DPS Announcement here.

REGISTER TO ATTEND <- click here

For new parents, enrolling in preschool and kindergarten in Denver Public Schools can be confusing. At the Early Education Scoop, Enrollment Experts – including the moms behind ScoopToo.com – will be on hand to answer your questions! The event starts with a helpful overview from DPS Director of Early Education. Parents can then visit with Enrollment Experts who are well-versed in hot topics like tuition, transportation, the School of Choice process, special-needs programming, Advanced Kindergarten, English Language Acquisition and dual-language programming, Montessori programs and before- and after-school care.

Child care will be provided, but you must RSVP one week prior to the event if you plan to bring the kids.

Early Education Scoop Opportunities to Attend

November 8, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Center for Early Education
3245 E. Exposition Ave.

December 8, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Palmer Elementary
995 Grape St.

January 6, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Valdez Elementary
2525 W. 29th Ave.

Our Journey to Kindergarten: An Essay by Jennifer Holladay

JM — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:09:26 +0000

It has been our discovery here at ScoopToo.com that we are not alone – that YOU are not alone. The dark little secrets that we harbor about what-to-do-about-finding-the-right-school-for Johnny or Susie are, more often than not, running through the heads of the majority of parents of 4 year olds out there. Quite possibly the ambitious parents of 2 and 3 year olds as well. These are people like us, who don’t have a stellar default school option just waiting with open doors to welcome your 5 year old.

Jennifer Holladay, the former Senior Adviser for Strategic Affairs at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and former director Teaching Tolerance tells us about her family’s Journey to Kindergarten. Enjoy the read. There is hope!

WELCOME TO SCOOPTOO

KB — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:30:59 +0000

Our blog’s purpose is to help parents navigate the Kindergarten and elementary school phase of their children’s education. In Colorado, we are given the opportunity of “choice” in our search. This program gives parents many options when it comes to choosing a school for their child outside of their neighborhood school. The process can become overwhelming with the myriad of choices including faith-based schools, private schools, charter schools, and magnet schools – each with varying programs and curriculum. The entire process can be very mind-boggling.

We created ScoopToo.com as a result of this daunting search and discovery process endured not long ago while researching the right school for our children. After charts, graphs, phone calls, tours, interviews, testing, researching, seeking advice from friends, it became a huge commitment and sacrifice of time. We felt strongly about helping other parents in this arena and that a collective resource for information on related topics would help abundantly. So, therein lies the inspiration for ScoopToo.com.

Our blog consists of school profiles, parent interviews, national and local education related articles, a Two Cents series, events, posts on educational topics we’ve researched, etc. Please grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine, kick back, and start reading.

It is our belief that the more educated you are with this process, the more empowered you will feel about making informed decisions about your child’s education. We’d love for you to spread the word about ScoopToo.com to your family, friends, and colleagues and wish you the best of luck in your journey.

Parents in San Francisco Discouraged by Choice Too

KB — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:46:19 +0000

I recently came across this interesting article from the NY Times regarding San Francisco’s Public School System. Parents in San Francisco, like Denver, have many options when it comes to their children’s education. However, if parents there are choosing public school, the student-assignment process is complex and flawed. The Superintendent hopes to replace the current system with an alternative one but this doesn’t seem to be easing the mind of many parents. Read the article below to see what I mean.

New Plan on School Selection, but Still Discontent by Jesse McKinley

After years of complaints from parents, the San Francisco Unified School District has just taken a serious step toward revamping its well-meaning but labyrinthine student-assignment system, which decides the educational homes for tens of thousands of children.

The current system — designed to meet the terms of a settlement in a long-fought federal desegregation case — involves a complicated computer algorithm that creates student “profiles,” using various economic and educational factors, with the aim of sending students of different backgrounds to the same schools.

It has resulted instead in more segregation and has aggravated parents to a point where efforts to manipulate the system have become endemic.

This month, the school district rolled out a new plan. It is designed to more closely consider proximity between a student’s home and classroom. It is to be applied to every child headed for kindergarten.

And once again, no one seems completely happy.

“I’ll be honest with you; we’re really frustrated,” said Michelle Menegaz, the chairwoman of the Parent Advisory Council, which was established by the school board and has made recommendations on how to fix the assignment system. “We’re really concerned that what’s being put forward now doesn’t reflect the best of our research and it doesn’t reflect the needs the community expressed.”

What everyone agrees on is that the current system is broken. In a quarter of San Francisco’s public schools, more than 60 percent of the student body is of a single race, and academic performance by black, Latino and Samoan students continues to lag. In theory, parents choose up to seven schools for their child, but 20 percent of kindergarteners get none of their parents’ choices.

All of which has been a boon for private schools; San Francisco has a larger percentage of students in private schools — nearly 3 out of 10 — than any other major city in the state. Others families simply move away.

And while advocates of the new plan say it offers more flexibility and simplicity, whether that will be the case is unclear.

At a school board meeting on Wednesday, Commissioner Jill Wynns seemed perplexed as to whether the plan would meet the board’s elusive goals of diversity and transparency.

“If you don’t know it can be done,” Ms. Wynn said of the redesign team, “how can we trust it will be done?”

Such questions are ringing in the ears of parents throughout the city, especially those — like this reporter — who have a child entering kindergarten in the fall.

Here is how the current system works: Let’s say a 5-year-old — we’ll call him Jake, like my son — wants to go to kindergarten. His parents fill out an application and list seven schools they prefer.

The more desirable schools get more applications than they have seats; in some cases that ratio is 20 to 1. That’s where the Diversity Index comes in. Known as “the lottery,” the index uses five factors to determine a child’s profile: poverty level, socio-economic status, English-language proficiency, academic achievement and, for upper grades, the quality of the student’s previous school.

Once that profile is built, the child is placed in one of his selected schools, in a class of students whose collective profile is as different from his own profile as possible. As each child is added, the class profile is adjusted, and more “most different” children are placed. Students living near their selected schools are considered first. The district also gives preference to children who have siblings at the same school and apply on time.

But there is no guarantee that a child will get in a selected school. And once the lottery has filled all the slots, those soon-to-be kindergartners who get into none of their choices are offered a place in a school with open positions. Proximity to their home and transportation are considered.

Designed to be race-neutral, the system has instead been widely criticized as too complex and opaque. “It’s all magic and voodoo,” Ms. Menegaz said, only half joking.

Next page of article

School Scoop: Park Hill Elementary

KB — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:13:11 +0000

School: PARK HILL ELEMENTARY

Website: http://parkhill.dpsk12.org/

Type: Public-DPS

Tours: Tours take place in the fall. Currently, tours are given each Wednesday at 9am (through December). Be sure to check the website or call the school to reserve a spot.

Main Phone: (303) 322-1811

Principal: Tonda Potts

Location: 5050 E.19^th Avenue, Denver, CO, 80220-Park Hill neighborhood

Hours: 8:15 AM-3:00 PM

Grades: ECE-5^th grade (2 full day Kindergarten classrooms, 1 half day K classroom)

Average Class Size: Approximately 500 students attend Park Hill. This school has an average class size of 25 students per classroom. Many paraprofessionals were seen in the classrooms too.

Before/After Care: Kaleidoscope Corner (before and after school) After school extensions such as Destination Imagination, Chess Club, Junior Great Books are also offered.

Facilities/Playground: The ECE and Kindergartners have their own playground separate from the rest of the school. They also have their own drop-off and pick-up area as well. The playground for the rest of the students (1^st-5^th graders) is located in the back of the building. I saw two separate areas designated with playground equipment for the students. One area had updated equipment while the other looked very dated. There was a blacktop area and a large, grassy field for organized play. An urban garden also can be found on the school grounds.

Special & Core Programs: Park Hill hosts ICOMM (Intensive Communication Center program). It’s a district program providing instruction to students with speech and language needs within the regular classroom. The ICOMM students learn along side the regular ed students along with a full-time speech pathologist, full-time teacher, and full-time paraprofessional. There are three fully-inclusive classrooms. This program attracts children from other neighborhoods.

This school benefits greatly from nearby Park Hill businesses. Park Hill also has many community partnerships outside the neighborhood, including Denver Urban Gardens, CU Boulder, CU Denver, University of Wyoming, and the Denver Zoo. These are some of the programs that enrich the curriculum at Park Hill. Many interns and student teachers can be seen throughout the school.

Impressions: Park Hill Elementary is nestled within the historical Park Hill neighborhood. This school was built in the early 1900’s. It’s had several expansions and renovations since then. The Spanish Colonial Revival design is very unique. As you enter the school, you are greeted within a large foyer with an ascending and descending staircase. On the main floor, the hallways are wide and the lighting is bright. You can also see some of the unique architectural details such as the wood banisters, door trim, and molding.

An enthusiastic parent led us on the tour. She expressed high praise for the principal, staff, and programming offered to the students. As we made our way through the building, I have to admit, from the outside, the school is deceiving in size. Once within, there are 3 different levels with long hallways complete with an east and west wing. There were three secretaries in the office busy working and manning the phones. I found the size of the school and getting around a bit overwhelming and wondered what impact the size of the school has on its students when they first arrive. A positive to a spacious building like this is the designated wing for the ECE and Kindergarten students. They have a separate wing, their own playground area, and separate drop-off and pick-up area. The school recently downsized from a K-8 school to an ECE-5^th grade school. I wondered if more parents would consider this school now that the middle school program was gone. The student population is minimized of course, but there are still approximately 500 students that attend. The size of each classroom felt different; several seemed oversized while others seemed cramped. Overall, the classrooms were quite spacious and due to the large windows, there was lots of natural light.

I couldn’t help but notice 2-3 adults in many of the classrooms we visited and not just in the lower grades. There are a lot of paraprofessionals, interns, and student teachers assisting throughout the school year. I believe this provides a win-win situation for the student teachers and classroom teachers. The classroom teachers pass on their experiences while the student teachers pass on current teaching methods and innovative ideas. How lucky for these students! Our tour guide told us that on any given day, there are many parent volunteers present within the classroom as well. While taking a peek in one of the classrooms, I recognized the owner of a local Park Hill coffee shop. I got the feeling there was a real sense of community at this school between parents, staff, and students. There is a very active PTSA and a majority of the funding they raise goes towards hiring paraprofessionals, technology support, arts programming, after school activities, and community building activities.

Children from different grade levels interact. Last year, the fourth graders teamed up with the Kindergartners for reading buddies I was told. It was obvious from our tour that there is a very diverse student population. I learned that two thirds of the students were from the neighborhood while the rest of the students choiced in. I couldn’t help but notice the computer lab complete with new apple computers purchased through grant money. How nice to have a separate classroom for computers! It was fun to observe a music class that was underway. The children were actively engaged. Some playing instruments while others sang and danced. And the music class took place in the music room! I may be making a big deal about separate classrooms for subjects such as computer lab or music but in DPS, this is a big deal. Many of the elementary schools are facing overcrowding issues and space is at a minimum.

Tonda Potts, the principal, was gracious enough to answer some of our questions at the end of the tour. She has been at Park Hill for three years and many positive changes have occurred because of her strong leadership. Tonda told us for the last two years the school has been ranked by DPS as a high growth/high status top performing school. She credits the qualified staff, along with the strong support from parents and the community. The partnerships with Park Hill businesses, the collaborations with community partnerships (especially all those colleges) have made the school unique in comparison to others in the district.

We welcome your comments and impressions on your experience with Park Hill Elementary.

DPS Highly Gifted & Talented and Advanced K. Deadlines…

JM — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:12:13 +0000

If you’re like many of us, the deadlines and application process for the various facets of the DPS system can be confusing. Let this be your reminder that the Denver Public Schools Highly Gifted & Talented nomination deadline (2010/2011 school year) is November 2, 2009. The deadline for applications for the Advanced Kindergarten program is December 11, 2009. You will need to take several steps to get testing and applications prepared for these deadlines. To find out how it works, you can read our related post: Testing, Who Needs It? . You can also go to the DPS Gifted & Talented Department site.

Here are some important dates for information sessions at each of the HG&T and Advanced K school locations:

HIGHLY GIFTED PROGRAM INFORMATION NIGHTS
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Elementary program information at all locations
Middle School program information at Morey only
Spanish translation available

September 29, Polaris at Ebert Elementary (NE), 410 Park Ave. West
September 30, Gust Elementary (SW), 3440 W. Yale
October 1, Cory Elementary (SE), 1550 S. Steele St.
October 7, Southmoor Elementary (SE), 3755 S. Magnolia Way
October 8, Teller Elementary (S Central), 1150 Garfield St.
October 13, Morey Middle School (Central), 840 E. 14th Ave.
October 14, Edison Elementary (NW). 3350 Quitman
October 20, Carson Elementary (SE), 5420 E. 1st Ave.
October 27, Archuleta Elementary (Far NE), 16000 E. Maxwell Pl.

ADVANCED KINDERGARTEN INFORMATION NIGHTS
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Spanish translation available

September 29, Polaris at Ebert Elementary (NE), 410 Park Ave. West
September 30, Gust Elementary (SW), 3440 W. Yale
October 14, Edison Elementary (NW). 3350 Quitman
October 27, Archuleta Elementary (Far NE), 16000 E. Maxwell Pl.
Date to be announced, Palmer Elementary (E Central), 995 Grape
Date to be announced, Stedman Elementary (NE), 2940 Dexter
Date to be announced, Bill Roberts (NE), 2100 Akron Way

Again, the process can be frustrating and confusing so attending one of these sessions should help in answering some of your questions. If you have further questions or comments, feel free to post it below.

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Gearing Up for Fall

admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:46:01 +0000

It’s that time of year again folks! Many of you will be starting your school search soon. You may be asking yourself all sorts of questions, in particular, where do I begin? You want the SCOOP? You got it. Below are some of our first posts (many of which were buried in past archives) that can help get you started. We think you will find them both informative and helpful because finding the right school can be a bit daunting to say the least. After reading some of these articles we hope you walk away feeling recharged and ready to do your “homework.”

Getting Started
Testing: Who Needs It?
Choices, Choices, Choices….School of Choice Process
Options for Kindergarten—Part I—Full Day vs. Half Day
Options for Kindergarten—Part II—Redshirting
Options for Kindergarten—Part III—Kindergarten Twice

Interview With a Parent Series No. 2

JM — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:48:47 +0000

Interview Series-No. 2

Parent: Tracy Stevens has two young sons whom will be homeschooled this upcoming year. This decision was based on some previous school experiences for her eldest son along with some other contributing factors.

Q: Describe your transitional experience or scenario.

A: Our son went to Westerly Creek for Kindergarten. He was one of the younger students in the class and had a hard time with Kindergarten. Midyear we put him back into Montessori Academy of Colorado where he had been thriving earlier and he started to improve in his old setting. With this renewed success and with teacher and Director input, we put him in Lincoln Elementary School in the Montessori Program the following year for first grade. The class looked like a Montessori class but did not act like one. There was tremendous pressure put on him to read and to keep the pace with the prescribed first grade level of achievement. Although by year end he had caught up to his grade level, it was a horrific year with daily tears. If he was behind in his work he would be kept in from recess, which only caused more frustration for a six year old boy. He seemed to need more time to play and run (not less!) and more art (they didn’t have an art teacher at the time).

Q: What circumstances led to this decision?

A: We toured several schools and liked Denver Waldorf School by far the best. It had integrated art and a pace of reading that was more developmentally appropriate for our son. It also had plenty of play time and has a great academic reputation. After the last year and following an incredible First Grade Readiness Assessment that is done for every child about to enter that grade, we decided to repeat first grade, this time at Denver Waldorf School.

Q: What type of school did your child previously attend and what type of school do they attend now?

A: Because I got laid off this summer we are not able to afford private school for both of our sons this year. I don’t want to repeat our experience in the public schools, so we have decided to homeschool. I want education to be about sharing the wonders of the world together based on their interests and abilities. I have several different curriculum styles I am drawing from, online support, and local groups with whom I can attend field trips and get together for social exchanges and ideas. I am really looking forward to all that we have planned for the upcoming year.

Q: How do the educational experiences differ?

A: The year at Denver Waldorf School went so much better than at Lincoln Elementary or even Westerly Creek. His pace of learning was respected and he did well with their philosophy of educating the heads, heart and hands – not just the head as Lincoln did. Learning was story and art based, he had music and nature walks every day and a far more nurturing environment. Within a month at Denver Waldorf, it was found that he had a visual problem and we got glasses and a few months of vision therapy for a problem that turned out to be the culprit of his reading troubles. It took awhile, but his confidence and curiosity were restored that year. I will be able to provide one on one attention this year as a homeschooler and can identify their strengths and nurture them more easily. It will be easier to provide more balance and simplicity for my kids this way too I think.

Q: What advice can you give that will help others when going through a similar experience?

A: If large class sizes, lack of access to the arts, learning difficulties, behavior problems, excess homework, or incongruent philosophies are problematic for you, there are other alternatives. Either advocate for your child as you can or seek other school alternatives that work better for your child and family. There are also educational consultants who will help families in finding the right school for their children. I never, ever thought I would homeschool my children, but now that I have explored it and prepared for it, I am confident this year will be the best yet!