Imagining The Ideal School For Your Child
Posted by David Zadareky on Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 at 12:53pm.A quick exercise will help you identify the qualities that are most important to you and your child when choosing a school.
According to www.greatschools.org finding exactly what you want in a school in no easy task. As a professional Realtor®, each year I watch countless parents try to navigate these uncertain waters. I can see the strain on their faces as they struggle with the decision of where to send their child to school.
Let's be honest, deciding where you live and what school your child will attend is one of the hardest jobs a parent will face. A parent not only has to balance, what school they want, but also how long of a commute to work they can manage, and what sort of home they can afford to buy or rent. Adding all these elements together is enough to make any parents head throb.
If you have high disposable income, choosing a private school for your child is a little easier, because at least you can live where you want without regard to the school, but for those parents without private school as an economic option, deciding where you live is THE DECISION. Yes, THE DECISION, it's that big of a deal.
Fortunately there are some great tools available to help parents figure out this information overload. The website www.greatschools.org has some great tools that you can use to help make the best decision.
Choosing a school: An overview
The school visit: What to look for, what to ask
One thing that I'd like to offer as a word of caution.....be careful whom you ask for advice. Every child is different, and every school offers a different path for each child. Just because one child/family has had success in one particular school does not mean that every child will have the same experience.
The best advice I ever heard was from a teacher that worked in a Fairfax County Public school. He advised that you can research your choices online to narrow down your list, but there's just no substitute for visiting the school in person. You should speak with the administration, talk to some teachers, talk to some students, and do so face-to-face to determine the best environment for your child.
To search for homes available by school, please visit our home search page at http://www.saveafewthousand.com/idx/, or to search by High School test scores, please visit http://www.saveafewthousand.com/county-sat-scores.php
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