4s Ranch vs Carmel Valley – schools

[all]

I have no first hand experience with CV schools. A guy I know who lives in CV put his kid in Cathedral because he did not like the level of attention (low) given to the athletics and ‘average’ kids in the kid’s public school. So that’s probably a positive for you.

My experience with Poway Unified is that things differ between schools and between teachers. I’m more satisfied with Stone Ranch in 4S than I was with Highland Ranch or Shoal Creek in Carmel Mountain. The curriculum (at least Math & Science) for the first grade is borderline trivial and pretty much all the kids can perfect the tests. All but two kids in my kid’s class did 25/25 on a recent test. The other two kids were 24/25. So the teachers probably have some freedom in choosing the materials. My daughter’s teacher uses several resources that are more challenging than the standard Math Expression edition. She uses Evan-Moor’s Daily Word Problems and that is more serious than pattern completion and bean counting covered by the Math Expression books. (e.g. “how tall would two and a half monkeys be if a monkey is 6 feet tall” – not trivial for a 1st grader in October)

I know that at least one other teacher is using the same material. I also know that at least one teacher does not.

There is GATE and all the kids in the school have access to Compass Learning. For the 1st grade the use is optional and they are not graded on that, for the older kids it’s mandatory.

They are doing the Science Fair this year, for the first time, and they seem to be taking it very serious (I was frustrated with Highland Ranch experience where my daughter’s kindergarten teacher did not even show up for the Fair).

My kid is an advanced reader/writer. She turned 7 a month ago and she read all 5000+ pages of Harry Potter books and she memorized all the spells (she also taught her 3 years younger brother some). According to the teacher she is at or near the top of the class. She’s ok with math – she can solve linear equations with integers (including negative), do word problems and she knows what the sum of interior angles in triangle is, in degrees (she’s not really getting the radians). According to the teacher she is near, but not at the top of her class. As the national champion in mathematics through my entire middle/high school I was slightly upset to hear that, but at the same time I was pleased by the fact that she is being challenged.

She plays chess and she can strategize, but her game is not breathtaking.

I don’t think she is gifted at a news-worthy level. I attribute much of her success to the work my wife does with our kids. Having three kids kind of helps to lower expectations – there just isn’t enough time to promote all three of them to sainthood 🙂

Overall I am satisfied with the school. My biggest frustration is that they do math after lunch, at the end of the day. This semester the after school tennis classes were canceled due to lack of interest, but science and chess aren’t. That tells you something about priorities of the parents.

[cvmom]

Captcha, your daughter sounds very special. Seems like you and your wife are doing a great job of keeping her challenged. Keep it up as she goes through the school system. As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.

It’s especially hard for girls as they get older–that’s why the peer group of other girls who love math is also very important, I think.

[cvmom]

Captcha, your daughter sounds very special. Seems like you and your wife are doing a great job of keeping her challenged. Keep it up as she goes through the school system. As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.

It’s especially hard for girls as they get older–that’s why the peer group of other girls who love math is also very important, I think.

[cvmom]

Captcha, your daughter sounds very special. Seems like you and your wife are doing a great job of keeping her challenged. Keep it up as she goes through the school system. As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.

It’s especially hard for girls as they get older–that’s why the peer group of other girls who love math is also very important, I think.

[cvmom]

Captcha, your daughter sounds very special. Seems like you and your wife are doing a great job of keeping her challenged. Keep it up as she goes through the school system. As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.

It’s especially hard for girls as they get older–that’s why the peer group of other girls who love math is also very important, I think.

[cvmom]

Captcha, your daughter sounds very special. Seems like you and your wife are doing a great job of keeping her challenged. Keep it up as she goes through the school system. As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.

It’s especially hard for girls as they get older–that’s why the peer group of other girls who love math is also very important, I think.

[UCGal]

[quote=cvmom] As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.
[/quote]
thank you so much for posting this link. It sounds like a great thing for my older son next year. (He’s currently in 4th, and it starts at grade 5.) I’ll have to see if it conflicts with is first lego league stuff… but it looks very cool.

[UCGal]

[quote=cvmom] As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.
[/quote]
thank you so much for posting this link. It sounds like a great thing for my older son next year. (He’s currently in 4th, and it starts at grade 5.) I’ll have to see if it conflicts with is first lego league stuff… but it looks very cool.

[UCGal]

[quote=cvmom] As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.
[/quote]
thank you so much for posting this link. It sounds like a great thing for my older son next year. (He’s currently in 4th, and it starts at grade 5.) I’ll have to see if it conflicts with is first lego league stuff… but it looks very cool.

[UCGal]

[quote=cvmom] As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.
[/quote]
thank you so much for posting this link. It sounds like a great thing for my older son next year. (He’s currently in 4th, and it starts at grade 5.) I’ll have to see if it conflicts with is first lego league stuff… but it looks very cool.

[UCGal]

[quote=cvmom] As she gets older, it gets more and more important for her to find peers who are also excited about math. One great resource (starts in fifth grade) is the San Diego Math Circle. It runs on Saturday mornings at UCSD, and was founded by another Poway parent. http://www.sdmathcircle.org/ Actually though, I think they do have some things for younger kids at the Math Circle now as well.
[/quote]
thank you so much for posting this link. It sounds like a great thing for my older son next year. (He’s currently in 4th, and it starts at grade 5.) I’ll have to see if it conflicts with is first lego league stuff… but it looks very cool.

[Rhett]

[quote=irondoc]Pacific Highlands Ranch is Del Mar Union. All of it.[/quote]

It would not be beyond my realtor to feed me dated information – he relayed this to me a few weeks ago, but for all I know he had heard this years ago. There is a future school planned there, but the current boundary map with its “students assigned on a space available basis” designation for PHR seems to suggest that it is not yet a sure thing:

http://www.sbsd.k12.ca.us/District/Facilities/Attend04.jpg

So where do the kids go that don’t have space available?

As far as the Winstanley way proclamation goes, I was pretty far off the mark on that (guess I should have done a little research). Perhaps these people I know have parents in the Ashley Falls area, and are using their address.

All of this is academic – I honestly can’t understand why one school district is any different than the other. Then again, I don’t even understand this goofy notion of separate secondary and primary education districts.

[Rhett]

[quote=irondoc]Pacific Highlands Ranch is Del Mar Union. All of it.[/quote]

It would not be beyond my realtor to feed me dated information – he relayed this to me a few weeks ago, but for all I know he had heard this years ago. There is a future school planned there, but the current boundary map with its “students assigned on a space available basis” designation for PHR seems to suggest that it is not yet a sure thing:

http://www.sbsd.k12.ca.us/District/Facilities/Attend04.jpg

So where do the kids go that don’t have space available?

As far as the Winstanley way proclamation goes, I was pretty far off the mark on that (guess I should have done a little research). Perhaps these people I know have parents in the Ashley Falls area, and are using their address.

All of this is academic – I honestly can’t understand why one school district is any different than the other. Then again, I don’t even understand this goofy notion of separate secondary and primary education districts.

[Rhett]

[quote=irondoc]Pacific Highlands Ranch is Del Mar Union. All of it.[/quote]

It would not be beyond my realtor to feed me dated information – he relayed this to me a few weeks ago, but for all I know he had heard this years ago. There is a future school planned there, but the current boundary map with its “students assigned on a space available basis” designation for PHR seems to suggest that it is not yet a sure thing:

http://www.sbsd.k12.ca.us/District/Facilities/Attend04.jpg

So where do the kids go that don’t have space available?

As far as the Winstanley way proclamation goes, I was pretty far off the mark on that (guess I should have done a little research). Perhaps these people I know have parents in the Ashley Falls area, and are using their address.

All of this is academic – I honestly can’t understand why one school district is any different than the other. Then again, I don’t even understand this goofy notion of separate secondary and primary education districts.

[Rhett]

[quote=irondoc]Pacific Highlands Ranch is Del Mar Union. All of it.[/quote]

It would not be beyond my realtor to feed me dated information – he relayed this to me a few weeks ago, but for all I know he had heard this years ago. There is a future school planned there, but the current boundary map with its “students assigned on a space available basis” designation for PHR seems to suggest that it is not yet a sure thing:

http://www.sbsd.k12.ca.us/District/Facilities/Attend04.jpg

So where do the kids go that don’t have space available?

As far as the Winstanley way proclamation goes, I was pretty far off the mark on that (guess I should have done a little research). Perhaps these people I know have parents in the Ashley Falls area, and are using their address.

All of this is academic – I honestly can’t understand why one school district is any different than the other. Then again, I don’t even understand this goofy notion of separate secondary and primary education districts.

[Author]

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