Alternative Programs in the Public School system?

[Oceanmamma77]

Do you have alternative programs in your public school system?

My ds goes to a French Immersion program at our public school (and a very good public school). They get tought in French instead of English. He loves it! Dh and I do not speak any French, but are learning along with our ds. It is great. I get so proud of him when I hear him carry a conversation with his teacher.

In our area they also have Montessori programs in the public school system.

[BathrobeGoddess]

My dd is at a "lab" school...child-centered, ungraded, small classes, combined grades, lots of field trips, a little less state mandated BS, weekly school meetings, integrated subject matter...I love it! DD came from a waldorf Kinder (her 1st grade would have had only 5 other kids in it...nope not big enough for normal social interaction) and she has doe very, very well there.

On a side not I worked at a Spanish immersion school for a while...it was pretty neat, too.

[javamama]

In our school district, we have a similar program to the lab program you described. I actually just interviewed today to enroll DD in the kindergarten class. It is called the Open Classroom. I am so excited! I like that they are associated with the school district/curriculum, but present it in their own way. Like you, mixed grades, minimal testing, no desks........ I feel luck to have this option because there is no way we could afford to pay for a private education and I am leery of our public schools to say the least!!

We are just starting elementary education, I'll have alot of questions and plan to visit this forum often!
Heather

[Alexander]

Javamama,

That sounds absolutly great!!

I'm surprised and delighted to see this type of change in your school system. Very exciting! Up to what age does this go?

I have always believed that there is a method for introducing this and other (SVS type) model schools into the public system.

Keep us posted please.

a

[daylily]

My two oldest children are in a Spanish immersion program at their public school. Ds, who's in fourth grade and has been in this program since first grade, can converse with people who speak only Spanish. At the same school, two of the three kindergarten teachers are Waldorf teachers. My third child is in one of these Waldorf kindergarten classes and she is thriving. Hopefully, I'll be able to get her into the S.I. program as well. Right now it's a "space available" program. They'd like to expand it to include the whole school, but there are logistical problems like finding Spanish speaking teachers.
There's also an excellent collaborative gifted program. By collaborative I mean that all children have access to the gifted and talented teacher, not just those identified as gifted. The G&T teacher works with the classroom teacher to offer enrichment in classroom subjects.

[LEmama]

Our six year old attends kindergarten at a K-8 public Montessori school. The school must meet the district's achievement requirements, but does so using a Montessori approach. This results in lots of manipulatives and sensorial learning materials in the classroom, independent and small group study, an arts-infused curriculum, and portfolio assesment (instead of letter grades.) We love it so far!