Public or Private School??

I live in Frederick County and have for about 2 years. Before that we lived in Richmond, VA. In both places I homeschooled until this year. We found a wonderful private school in Emmitsburg and scraped together the funds to at least send our oldest there and will try to get our middle child there next year. What I like about private school is the focus on the total person. A lot of time is spent at my son's school on helping them develop character. The children are kind to each other and do a lot of service projects. There is the usual stuff but the classes are so small the teachers are able to get a handle on things quickly. There is a lot of parent/teacher communication and I feel like my child is safe. I have heard that Howard County has good schools so if you did decide on public, you should feel good about that choice. Homeschooling was an option for us so I did it until I found the environment I was looking for and I am happy with that choice. Isn't it wonderful to live in a country where we have choices??!!!!
Good luck.

I currently have a Kindergartner and decided to send him to private school, but only for Kindergarten. I will enroll him in the local public school for 1st grade. Where I live, K is only 1/2 day, and the student to teacher ratio is about 28 to 1. In his private school, my son goes from 9:30am to 3:00pm and there are 13 kids in his class with 2 teachers. He is learning the most amazing things and is loving it! Plus they actually have time to do a huge array of activities and projects. And there is much one-on-one time.

I have always heard that K is the "great equalizer." You have kids that have never been in PreK, or any social care situation; those that don't know their letters and those that can read. I thought my son's time would be better spent with kids that were all ahead of the game and where the teachers have more time to spend with him.

It is definitely expensive, but I only plan to do it for 1 year, so we are making it work. I don't regret the choice one bit! I would suggest speaking with both the private & public schools you anticipate attending and find out why they each think they are the better choice. Good luck!

Oh, and I have a 3-1/2 yr old too, and plan on sending him to private Kindergarten too!

The statistics show that private is typically the best choice if you can afford it. Obviously there are some (very few) cases were this isn't true but overall yes private will probably be the way to go.

We pay a lot in property taxes, live in a very good school district but still chose to send our kids to private. We love the religious discipline, conservative aspect, felt like our voice matters, easy to volunteer, small classrooms, and soooo much more. Good luck

I was thinking of sending my daughter to Catholic school, after hearing a neighbor bad mouth the school my daughter would attend. The neighbor sent her daughter to Catholic school, and she did well there. The big problem? This Catholic school only went to 8th grade, and when the neighbor girl went to public high school, she found out she was far behind in her academics. Her parents couldn't afford to send her the Catholic high school.

I have mixed feelings about the public schools teaching to the SOL's (I live in Virginia). You have onery kids no matter what school they go to. If my daughter was going to an expensive private school, some of the kids there would have more money than God and just find more expensive ways to get into trouble. At least she's learning how to deal with all sorts of folks by being in public schools. And I know she'll be kept up to snuff academically.

My feeling is that there are no perfect choices anymore.

I'm not in your area, so I can't comment on your specific schools. But, my feeling is this - I'm in a good school district in my area. I pay a lot of taxes to live here. Going to public elementary school allows me to make my child's college 529 plan well-funded. That is where I plan to put my funds.

Hi, MD:

Go to your local school board meetings and find out how your
school board works in your district.
Good luck.
D.

I live in MD and although we are in Baltimore County, I have heard that most in Howard county are pretty good. You could go to the Great Schools website to see where they rank. When you pick your house, call the school board and find out what school that will be and go on a tour. My personal feeling is why pay for private school if the public school is a good one? Save that money for college, or if the child runs into problems, then go private. You never know what could happen in the future, and just because you can afford it now, doesn't seem like the best reason to do private. My SIL is doing private with her kindergartner next year, but that is only because the schools in her area horrible.