Public School after Waldorf

[Olya]

Hello,
our DS has been attending Waldorf KG for three years (he's 6 now). Mostly it was good experience and we all enjoyed it and would love to stay for grade school as well (although there is no ideal school
However, now due to quite a few reasons (financial !!!, possible moving and so on) we have to put him into the public system.
Here my anxiety goes up and some (or rather a lot questions arise:
-how he would do academically (since in Waldorf KG no academics)?
- which grade he should go (in public system he should be in Grade 1 now, so next year by age he should go to gr.2), so if he goes to gr.1 he would be a year older than the rest of class
- how he would adjust to a different system (different philosophy, rules, environment....)?
- how to help him in this process?
Did somebody was on the same situation or know kids who had a transition from Waldorf to public?
I would really appreciate if you can share your story

[lauren]

Welcome Olya! I do not have personal experience with the situation you are describing, but I know a bit about Waldorf and have experience with public school. You say your ds is six and would by age be going into 2nd grade in ps. Is he reading yet? I ask that because I'm aware that in Waldorf reading instruction is postponed but in public school it is expected that a child is reading pretty well in 2nd grade. Other things that would be expected are solid early grasp of adding and subtraction, lots of awareness of concepts of time (days, months, years, decades, etc.) telling time, etc. The amt. of science knowledge needed seems to vary widely by school district.

Can you get in touch with a prospective school and get their curriculum list for 1st and 2nd grade and find out what their expectations would be?

I think kids are pretty resilient about changing schools--more so than we usually expect.

There are plenty of folks on this board that know much much more about Waldorf than I do. Hopefully some of them will post soon!

[Gendenwitha]

I think it would be well worth it to look into financial aid or scholarship programs at Waldorf. This is why our 5.5 yo goes to PS. I wanted to do Waldorf for him, but I knew if he didn't like Waldorf in Kindergarten he'd be very behind going from Waldorf K to PS 1st grade, whereas going from PS Kindergarten to Waldorf 1st grade wouldn't be as much of a leap.

If that's not possible, look into alternatives like pre-first, a split classroom, PS summer school, charter school etc.

[Rhonwyn]

Start with 1st grade.

When is his birthday? Will he really be that much older? There is no way your child will be prepared for PS 2nd grade but you can get him ready for PS 1st grade over the summer. Find out what they learn in PS Kindergarten and start working on those things so he will be prepared for 1st grade in PS. A lot of people hold boys back so he may not be the only older boy in PS.

In my son's Waldorf class, several children left after 1st grade for 2nd grade PS and Catholic school. All of them were tutored over the summer to catch up with their PS peers and they are doing fine academically. Several are having a rough time with cultural shock but others are thriving.

Good luck! Now is the time to make the switch if you are going to. It gets much harder to switch until after 3rd grade when the Waldorf kids are more on track with the PS kids.