[vkvidal]

Hi all, I was wondering if any one can provide some info or point me in the right direction. I am looking for information on Christian or private school in the area, close to Mountain's Edge if possible. We have a 3 year old and need to consider some schools, I may consider home schooling but need to look into that further.
Thanks in advance for any help !

[happyhunting]

Calvary Christian is off he 215 and Rainbow at Oquindo. Very good school!

[vkvidal]

Originally Posted by happyhunting

Calvary Christian is off he 215 and Rainbow at Oquindo. Very good school!

Thanks , I was just looking at that online and wondering about it, it looks good and def. affordable.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by happyhunting

Calvary Christian is off he 215 and Rainbow at Oquindo. Very good school!

A serious question. How do you know that?

Not arguing that it does not instill good Christian values etc...but it has been my experience if you dig down parochial grade schools are seldom very good. They are also seldom very bad. But very good would be interesting if true.

And how do you tell?

[happyhunting]

A serious question. How do you know that?

Not arguing that it does not instill good Christian values etc...but it has been my experience if you dig down parochial grade schools are seldom very good. They are also seldom very bad. But very good would be interesting if true.

And how do you tell?

I have personal experience there, but mine now go to a different Christian school in town for the last 4 years. I did not say it was better than public school, nor better than other Christian schools, or even other religious schools. He asked for a Christian school near Mountains edge. He specifically asked for parochial, not public. I gave him the name of one, the big one in that area, that I thought was good. Now as to what I consider good (which may be different from other parents parameters) within a Christian school, I look for one in a safe neighborhood that is k-12, has chapel once a week, bible study in the older grades and functions at or better than the norm. As it is, we are moving out of state in just a few weeks, into public schools, so I am not against public. Each school is different, but I have one middle schooler, one high schooler.

Now this is just MY OPINION so don't take it wrong......from my experience personally, the private is better at the elementary level, but public is better at the high school level. My reasons are these: The private schools at the elementary level stay about a grade ahead, maybe more, by teaching them to fully read in preschool, cursive in kindergarten, multiplication in first grade and so on and so forth. These are taught at least a grade or two ahead of time........plus we get the bible study which is what we want. We are a family that has moved quite a bit across town several times, the plus to having a k-12 school is that they keep attending the same school, no matter how many times we move. It mananges to make HUGE Vegas feel like a small town.

Where we have personally found that the private schools start to vere off is around middle school. At that point there is no longer any real difference with middle school/high school performance, and in fact it can be a detriment due to the fact that the private schools are smaller, less teachers, and don't always have a good variety of electives to chose from. We also wanted our children to have regular mainstream secular science/health courses, not faith based. We were extremely satisfied with the elementary level, and wouldn't change a thing, however not so much with middle school. So we are moving forward with public where we feel the children will meet there elective requirements........this may not be the experience of other parents at other parochial schools, but it's been my experience. For example, my child can take art, or computers, or Spanish (at our current parochial school) but there aren't any levels within those classes, like watercolor, sculpture, Spanish IV or computer programming. These schools are just too small to be effective that way.

I grew up in Las Vegas, attended public school and was very happy and satisfied. We just chose differently for our children. I feel it's very hard being a parent, you get bashed no matter what choice you make...public, private, parochial, homeschool........do I work outside of the house, or stay home? Our oldest has been begging to go to public, and we are moving at the right time, so she will get what she wants. The OP has a 3 year old, and since there is no public preschool provided by the county, it makes sense he is looking into a preschool that is in line with his religion as well.

[vkvidal]

Thanks Happyhunting ! very good food for thought. I have a ways to go before middle school and HS, but excellent points on the fact regarding the possible lack of electives and limited resources of a smaller school. My husband and I really want to home school, but I need to look a little further into that and also assess the homeschooling population and groups out in Vegas. I am not sure if Vegas has a big home schooling population.Again thanks for all the info and yes I agree.. no matter what you decide as a parent you get beat up for your decision by someone eventually ! Oh well... what are ya gonna do :-).
Best of luck on your move... are you leaving Vegas? seeing as you have been there fora while what are your thoughts on raising kids there? I get pretty mixed reviews, of course. Feel free to PM me if you'd like.

[olecapt]

I am not sure I disagree but I am not a fan of the Las Vegas high schools.

That is public or parochial. The magnets are pretty good as is Meadows. But the major public and parochial high schools seem to me to be of a homogeneous mix where none stand out. ie Gorman, Coronado, PV, Arbor View, Faith Lutheran, and probably Adelson all reach the same middle level. There is no exceptional high school. Again the magnets clearly do better but they are kind of half way high schools...

I tend to take performance in the elementary as pretty much interchangable and all washed out before they get out of middle school. Any of the upper half of the public elementary schools will do fine. YOu need to avoid the bottom schools but that is about it.

I have always been curious as to a way to tell if any of the parochial schools were actually better. I can of course find parents who will swear what a great job is going on. But I take all that with a grain of salt. As soon as you pay for something it acquires value...particularly if the payment is into the sacrifice for it range.

[EmilyIsabella]

Just do not choose Merryhill!! My daughter went there for preK/ Kindergarten and it was a joke. We have since moved out of state but everyone I know that went there shares the same feeling and does not go any longer. Many go to LV Day School. We are now at a wonderful Christian School and could not be happier...i would hands down go that route. My daughter is in 5 th grade now.

[Buzz123]

I'm not saying that public schools are bad, but my daughter is a CCSD teacher, and she won't send my granddaughter to one. She goes to a Lutheran School, and at seven, she already knows more than I do. I think all the Lutheran Schools have a good rep for learning, but I kind of shake my head at the religious emphasis. For most of my life I've been hearing that schools like Bishop Gorman, and the Hebrew Academy are the best schools in town.

[happyhunting]

I am not sure I disagree but I am not a fan of the Las Vegas high schools.

That is public or parochial. The magnets are pretty good as is Meadows. But the major public and parochial high schools seem to me to be of a homogeneous mix where none stand out. ie Gorman, Coronado, PV, Arbor View, Faith Lutheran, and probably Adelson all reach the same middle level. There is no exceptional high school. Again the magnets clearly do better but they are kind of half way high schools...

I agree wholeheartedly, and luckily for us we are moving out of state, so our children won't be attending the public high schools here in Las Vegas. Although we've actually went through the scores of the new school district, and the actual schools we will be attending, and chose very carefully based on results, we are still rolling the dice, as ALL public schools tend to be underfunded at this point. We are very involved with their education though and hoping for the best.

I have to ask myself if it was worth it financially, and I just don't know? When you consider 2 years of preschool, kindergarten through middle school, times 2 kids, we've shelled out enough in tuition to pay for an Ivy league university many, many times over. And then there is the wear the commute takes on me. I live in an area not directly near any of these schools, so I commute quite far and that's 2 round trips a day. I would have loved to had rolled out of the house, walked the kids across the street and been done with it. We didn't like the school in our neighborhood at the time. We did try it for public elementary and were dissapointed, and since we don't have open enrollment and we were zoned there, and we couldn't sell the house at the time, we chose the private route.

but I kind of shake my head at the religious emphasis.

That's part of the reason for our move. We actually liked that emphasis at the younger age, but are looking for a more mainstream approach to certain subjects, science being one of them, at this point.