So here it goes: My 4 and half year old Sofia will finish preschool this July.
1. Her Bday is Sept 28 and most kinderg have a cut off day of Sep 1st. So I am one of the moms that face the dilemma to hold her back or not?
Honestly if I think about long term future I do not see any problems, finishing high school at 16 is way too early to know what you want to do with the rest of your life but on the other side if I see short term, at this age where she is learning so much I do not want her to be bored with hting she already know.
Any suggestions?
2. Chossing a school has been harder than planned. I was all for public schools, first for the money savings (much needed) and then because I believe you ca achieve a good education.
We live in Koreatown and the school that corresponds to her is Cahuenga Elementary. I visit the school once and they said it was too early to request any info (back in Jan) so I could not tour the school or see much.
While researching online I found that the school has a 75% hispanic enrollment. First let me clarify that I AM Hispanic so this is not about racism but I would like her to have a full american experience at school.
I was not born nor raised here and must admitt that know little abouth this culture and would like her school and friends to be the ones that provide this kind of teachings.
She was born in NY so I want her to embrace her culture and be proud of where she is from.
The latino part can come from me, ehich I am proud to give her been from Venezuela and living there until I was 20 years old.
So my question would be what do you think?
Have you had any experience with this school?
3. Let's say that I decide not to go there any recommendations? The information out there is overwhelming and I see the options of Public/Private/Charters/Traditional/Experimental/Montessori/ Etc etc.
My main requests are:
Location - Close to Home
After Care Availability - I work 9-5
Healthy Lunch/Snacks provided
Affordability - Willing to pay a max of $700
Any help will be greatly appreciated and thanks so much for taking the time to read my post!
I was put ahead in school early on and finished high school at just 17. I know I would have been a better student if I had been a year older. It all worked out, because I got the right degree from University and that led to good jobs, but I know my grades would have been better with the year of maturity. I wasn't as bright as everyone thought I would be later on.
On the other hand, at 20 with only a year to go,I wanted to see the world and might have dropped out of college after I had the summer in Europe....
who knows. With only one year to go I did finsh and be a BA, but always
prefered work to school.
B. v.O.
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C.S.
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Your daughter will be 17 when she graduates. Turning 5 about a month in isn't too hard if you feel she is ready.
If you work in a suburb, you might be able to send her there. For example, people who work in Burbank can have their child attend Burbank schools. My son is a mid-October birthday and the first couple months was a little less mature than his buddies, but now is on the kindergarten honor roll :)
My roommate from before I was married was a teacher in an LA charter school and I also strongly suggest one of those as an option - one close to home - and they are free, too.
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K.M.
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I know you are not in Pasadena, but you may find the tools on this webpage helpful. I chair a non-profit here in Pasadena that helps families get good information about public schools and evaluate them effectively. http://www.penfamilies.org One of the things we tell families is that you know nothing about a school until you actually visit and get on campus. Information online can prep you for that visit, but it's impossible to tell anything until you go in person. Another good resources is http://www.greatschools.org/
Also, public schools in CA have a cutoff of Dec 1. Our daughter is an October birthday who started on time (ie she's one of the youngest in her class.) It's worked out well for her bc she's tall, she's social, and she was academically ready. So I think it depends on the child.
Finally, I would suggest reaching out to other parents near you with kids the same ages. It's easier to deal with the complexity if you have a group of parents who can process it all together!
My children are in the Glendale Unified School system and the cut off is December 2nd. If that's also the case with LAUSD (which I believe it is) then your daughter will be 5 by 12/2/10 and should be enrolled in Kinder unless you or her preschool teacher see reasons why she should be held back one more year. My sons birthday is 12/10 so I was forced to hold him back. He's 11 in the 5th grade and is doing just fine. You can use Greatschools.net to get more detailed information on the schools you are researching, including the ethnic breakdown, their 'grade' etc. Good luck!
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S.S.
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This may or may not be realistic for you but if at all possible, I would strongly suggest moving out of Koreatown and into a surrounding suburb with a better school system (i.e. Pasadena, Arcadia, Torrance, etc. -- not sure which ones are best but I've heard these are pretty good). LA is notorious for a horrible school system and if you can afford higher rent elsewhere, you'd be able to enroll her in public school and save $ there. My husband and I were living in the Downtown/Koreatown area and as soon as we had our baby, we moved to Torrance and we LOVE it. It's SO much cleaner, air is fresher, people are nicer and there's actual diversity instead of it jsut being full of hispanics and koreans (I'm korean so I know what you mean when you say you want the culture part to come from you and you want your kid to experience full american diversity). Good luck!
