First, I’ll get this out of the way. No, we haven’t sold our house. The economy is crumbling and this has turned out to be the worst time to try and sell a house. Oh well.
Despite no movement on the house, we went ahead and enrolled the kids in a new school near where we eventually want to live. We thought we would be living in our new house by now, or at least be in escrow, but since that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon, we’re now living in a rented apartment near the kids’ new school.
The new school is different from the old school. I’m not going to make any judgments yet about which is better, only to say that the kids like the new school–but they liked the old school too. Here are some differences I’ve noticed:
- Enrollment: The old school has a several month long waiting list. It took us a year to get into the old school. But once you’re at the top of the waiting list, you’re in. The new school doesn’t really have a waiting list, but they have an elaborate admissions procedure that involves both parents visiting the school, then the kid needs to spend a full day at the school by him/herself, then they tell you whether they think the school is a good fit for your child.
- Price: Old school $900/month for two kids. New school $1400. Montessori school in Irvine $2000. Montessori school in San Francisco $3000. I figure we’re still getting a bargain.
- Student-teacher ratio: Old school 6:1. New school 4:1.
- School philosophy: Old school–not very clear, but had skills-related curriculum, e.g. language, math, science, arts, physical education, social development. New school–very clear Montessori philosophy with a mission statement and a school motto.
- School environment: Old school–clean, with some fun toys and materials. Great play structure outside. New school–lots of Montessori materials for hands-on learning. Large yard with lots of grass to run on, a garden, treehouse, live animals–there’s a class goose, chickens, rabbits, turtle, salamander, fish.
- Socioeconomic status of students: Old school–probably middle class, lower middle class. New school–closer to upper middle class. This probably explains why there were no stay-at-home moms in the old school, and at least a third of the kids in the new school have a stay-at-home mom.
- Food policy: Old school–none. It wasn’t unusual to see kids sent to school with a McDonalds Big Breakfast and Lunchables for lunch. Also, you could buy school lunch, which we did. New school–Healthy lunches encouraged. No school lunch available. No Lunchables or other processed, pre-packaged foods. This is very difficult on working parents. I get up at 5:30am to prepare the kids’ lunch, and I’m usually stuck doing a PB&J.
- Distance from grandparents: the reason we changed schools. Old school–40 miles, New school–20 miles. My mom picked up the kids yesterday for the first time, and it went smoothly.
- Clothing policy: Old school–none. New school–no commercialized clothing or lunch boxes, e.g. no Spiderman, no Dora the Explorer, no Disney princess, no Sponge-Bob, no Nemo, no Nike, basically, nothing with characters or brands. I guess that’s the end of Miranda’s obsession with High School Musical.
- Halloween and Birthdays: Old school–big costume parade for Halloween and cupcakes etc. for everyone’s birthday. This meant in the month of August where 6 kids turned three in a span of two weeks, the kids were hopped-up on sugar most days. New school–no costumes for Halloween, and all birthdays for the month are celebrated on one day only. Now there’s a debate going on on whether cake and ice cream are okay to serve on that one day. Personally, I’m really glad for these policies because as a working mom, I hated coming up with costumes and having to bring food to school for birthdays.
- Parent involvement: Old school–nothing formal, New school–parents are expected to volunteer, there’s an active parents group on the web.
Well, most importantly, both schools have really nice teachers that Eleanor and Miranda like. I guess that’s really all that matters.