The Hatch family has three children, Dylan – who’s in public – 4th grade this fall, Truman – who is in public – 2nd grade, and Nora, who is in a home-based preschool.
Please share your current model of schooling and some of the reasons why you chose this option for your family:
Our children go to the public school assigned by where we live. We chose this model for many reasons, including convenience (close to home and school bus), reputation of the school, and our personal opinion that at the elementary school level, the quality of education is no different at public schools than any other school and that no matter what schooling model followed, education is most successful when supplemented and reinforced in the home. Additionally, both of us went to public schools for K-12 and feel we received the education we needed to be successful.
Why do you feel this model of schooling best meets the needs of your children?How have you seen them grow and thrive in these environments?
As mentioned previously, we feel our children could be successful in most schooling models with support at home. However, one of the most important ways our public school meets our needs is it allows our children to be connected–because we live near our school, our children’s classmates also live close by so they can spend time together outside of school, they also connect in the affordable after-school care programs on campus, which is also convenient for us who both work outside the home, and the teachers host before and after school clubs that let them foster new and different interests (like yoga, cooking, programming or hockey) and build strong relationships with a teacher they may not normally interact with every day.
Our boys have grown and are thriving through the enthusiasm and passion they see in their teachers–between the two of them, we’ve had six different teachers over the last four years and each has been fully dedicated to the children in the class and the love and care they have for them is clear and present every day. Our boys have also been assigned to the gifted cluster in their grade, to provide them with additional “stretch” assignments and projects to challenge them and further expand their abilities.
What do you love the best about your current school environment for your kids?What advice do you have for other families considering this option?
We love the feeling of community we feel when we’re at the school, participating in events there, or volunteering. This is enhanced by our involvement in other community activities (e.g., community sports, church) and seeing those same families that we coached or worshipped with in another community environment.
