Anyone Chosen Different Schooling Options for Different Kids?

[carolinamama]

I need the perspective of the wise people here! I am struggling with schooling decisions for next year with my kids. Only one of my 3 is a certainty at this point and I'm running out of time!

Background -

DS1 (5th grade) and DS2 (2nd grade) go to elementary at a magnet school. We are a magnet family and do not use our base elementary. We have been happy here and both boys have been provided opportunities that the wouldn't have gotten at our local public school. But it is still a public school and feeling the effects of the current climate. I am very involved at their school and support it wholeheartedly. I'm pretty sure I will be questioned by administration about not bringing my daughter there if I don't.

DS1 graduates elementary school this year. As of now, he will be coming back to our base/neighborhood for middle school next year as long as we get a few things worked out with them but that's a whole 'nother can of worms. This was a logistics decision more than anything as I just couldn't get him to the magnet middle we liked even further away.

DS2 will go to 3rd grade at the same magnet (he's my certainty!)

DD (5) is in private Montessori and will finish up extended day this year (Kinder). I always thought I would bring her over to the boys' school after preschool and she could have gone last year but we decided to give her another year of Montessori. She has a summer birthday and is a spirited dreamer. I was worried that her quirky and fun personality would be squashed in public. I'm now thinking of leaving her in this same school for a few more years to do lower elementary there (1-3 grades). She would go to K if we put her in public since it is so different.

So my question is: Anyone made different decisions for different kids? One in private, rest in public etc? DH is worried that we are giving DD an opportunity that DSs didn't get. That's maybe true! But I also know that they are better served in a more traditional school setting - Montessori preschool teachers even admitted this was probably true for DS2.

Thank you for reading this far! I'm truly looking for pros and cons of splitting out kids by education and opinions that I may not have thought about yet.

[scrooks]

I haven't experienced this but I don't think it's a bad thing to tailor your kid's educations to fit them better. It sounds like you made the best choice for your boys. I would do the same for her! As long as all of the logistics work out.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Practical concern- different schedules. It's a PITB.


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[smilequeen]

It's highly likely that my 3 will go to different ms/hs. They are all together for elementary and it has worked well as it's a small very personalized school. But my 2 older boys are very different and I envision different schools for them moving forward. (My youngest is still pretty far from there). So...in another 2 years I may be looking at 3 different schools. I'm totally fine with this as long as it works logistically (it does for us).

[bisous]

I haven't experienced this but I don't think it's a bad thing to tailor your kid's educations to fit them better. It sounds like you made the best choice for your boys. I would do the same for her! As long as all of the logistics work out.

I totally agree and think this is very well stated. I would do (and have done) different schools for my different kids.

[jren]

Yes, we have done this. Currently, DD (7th grade) is homeschooled and DS (2nd grade) is at a private school. Prior to that, DD was at private and DS was at public. They are two very different kids with different learning styles and academic needs.

We were lucky in that the major holiday breaks were at the same time. Spring break was the biggest concern there. Summer started a week or two earlier for one of my kids once, but that wasn't horrible as it allowed me one on one with each kid - one at beginning and other at end of summer. Carpool was a hassle, but we made it work. Now with one homeschooled, it's super easy, but we're not looking to continue that beyond another year and she won't go back to where DS will be.

I wish the same school would work for both, but I guess it isn't meant to be! We've tried public for both, though not at the same time, and it wasn't a good fit for either for different reasons. We tried two different private and one was a good fit for DD but not DS and the other was a good fit for DS but not DD. Frustrating for sure!


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[Dayzy]

One of my friends does this with her kids. The daughter (6th grade) is in private school and her son (3rd grade) is in public because of his IEP being better handled in the district.

[PunkyBoo]

Different kids have different needs. My 2 boys are completely different from each other in every way. I had them at 2 different private schools for 2 years, until we moved (now they are both in public schools). They are 5 years apart and so would have been at the same school only one year anyway (DS1 in 5th and DS2 in K)but we chose different environments for them based on class sizes, learning style, etc.

[hillview]

Yes
DS1 in a private school
DS2 in public

[specialp]

It's very common in my circle that DH and I wouldn't hesitate to do it. In fact, my mom did it with us but there was an age gap so we were always going to be in different schools. My siblings went to private and I went to public. Somewhat similar to you is my friend who has a son and two daughters. She put the middle (boy) in private for a few years even while her older and younger daughter were in public. She initially wanted to go until 2nd, but extended it to 3rd before moving him to public.

The biggest issue in our area are holiday breaks. For week long breaks, most of the privates try to follow the calendar of the public school system where they are located. That's still tricky because we live right in a triangle of three school systems. So if your public is A, but you're sending another kid to a private that is close, maybe 5 miles away, but physically located in System B, you have to accept that some years your spring break will not be the same and some years they will. [ETA: That will actually happen to us this year, but my youngest is in pre-k and we are going to pull him out that week. I wouldn't do that for K and beyond.]