K.B.
answers from
Tulsa
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I would avoid any school with 30 kids in a class.
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Hi there I have twins that just turned 5 they currently got accepted into a charter school for this fall and I know 3 other families that attend the same school and love it! I told my husband if they got in i want them to go there just because it is sooo hard to get into them due to them all being lottery based and getting so many aplications! The school is about 14 miles from the house we are currrently renting! Which isnt super far but enough when you are going there for them to be there for 3 hours! Also they are on the verge on being accepted into a charter prepatory school lke 2 min from out house i have a few concerns about this one! The one thing that worrys me a little is there are 30 kids in a class so i worry if my kids are at that level will they get the help they need?? Also my son is pretty good with writing his name and knowing all his letters and numbers and that stuff but my daughter is not really into it at all! She will do stuff but she is just not into it like my son and I worry if i put them in there are they going to be overwhelmed?? Does anyone have any advice on the classical trivum learning at all??? I heard it is pretty intense! The school is parnassus prep school in maple grove some of you may go there not sure?? Any advice would be great? Thanks in advance:)
I would avoid any school with 30 kids in a class.
I am not very familiar with Parnassus but was just talking to a girl at my salon who sends her daughter there and absolutely loves it. Sounds like they have plans to continue expanding through 12th grade too, so that is a plus.
My son started at Parnassus this year and we are really liking it. My older son was at Classical Education school in Eden Prairie but recently transferred to MG High. The trivium is a great way of teaching kids and there is a lot of research and books out there on the benefits of this teaching approach. We've been almost exclusively at charter schools since my kids began school and have had some excellent teachers. Parnassus thus far has impressed me by the caliber of the teaching staff. I also love the expectation of parental involvement. I like having the kids at a smaller school where the parents have committed to being very involved. They have had a lot of school-wide activities such as restaurant nights (which have mostly been about fundraising) where the kids can see their class mates as well as teachers outside of the school setting. I would encourage you to take a tour of Parnassus to see what you think. My son (who's at Parnassus) was most recently at Beacon Academy, also in MG. We were very happy with that school as well but he is advanced for his age and excited about learning and didn't feel they were equipped to deal with this. The classical curriculum can be easily adjusted for a more advanced student to be able to delve deeper into what they are learning at their grade level.
Choosing schools for your children is a very difficult decision -- best of luck with your choice.
The trivium is excellent, because rather than learning reading and writing with generic kiddie books, they incorporate classic literature from 4 major time frames in history in the grades (my daughter is in kinder, and our literature right now is mainly ancient greeks, bible, etc), and repeat each period 3 (trivium) times before graduation so it really sinks in. Without the trivium, kids learn each historical era once (if they're lucky) randomly, which only sinks in for extremely exceptional kids. Using this system improves grammar knowledge by using classic literature as well as a deeper understanding of history and science. As for 30 kids in class.....depends how well they handle them and what type of kids are in your area.
ps, I'm very jealous. I have no such schools in my area and I'm homeschooling.
The trivium curriculum sounds fantastic. I wish this were available for my son. That said, I really wanted to respond to this because with kids this young, there are 3 core things that make a successful education:
1. How does the school accommodate different learning styles and abilities? One-size-fits-all education is never a good thing with children this young.
2. How comfortable are the children socially and emotionally? What's the school's policy on bullying-prevention?
3. What kind of learning environment do the children have at home? How much reading time do they have, vs. how much TV? How much, library, outdoors, peaceful reflection, etc., do they have. These things are really much more important than school in the early years.
I would visit both schools and look at the children's faces. How calm, comfortable, and engaged do they seem to be? Look at both the kids who seem to be "stars" and the ones who don't. That, more than distance from home, is really what's important in a school.
I'm unsure as to why they would only be at school for 3 hours in kindergarten for the first one you're excited about. Almost all kindergartens in this day and age are "full day" and run from 7:50 -8:00am to 2:30 or 3:00pm. Even so, 14 miles really isn't that far. I went to a half day kindergarten 12 miles from my home.
The 30 kids per class in the second one would send up HUGE red flags to me. If I were you, I would go visit, sit in on some classes, find out about the para-pro situation, etc. That's just too many kids in a traditional classroom -even with one para pro.
