Moving with a young family (Nolensville: retiree, retailers, town)

[Anony-Momma]

Resources for parents of gifted kids in Williamson County: wcsLink.org | Connecting Special and Gifted Education Families, Educators, and the Community in Williamson County | Tennessee

[TnBoundFromNJ]

anony-momma - thank you so much for the link. This is something we will definitely look into. At this point, we don't even know for sure if our son is gifted/advanced or just a normal kid who really likes school and learning.

Septimus- I too was surprised at how little the kids are expected to know in kindergarten here. I grew up in India for the first few years and have nieces and nephews who attend school there and there is a definite gap in early childhood learning. But that is a discussion for another day.
The SAVY program looks good. We haven't had our son tested yet but I guess that should be our first step now.

Another question - in NJ we do not have preschool as part of the public school system, except in very few areas. How is it in TN? We will most likely be moving in the end of jan and would like to enroll him in either a kindergarten or preschool program. Would a private preschool be our only option?

Would you guys suggest any other areas besides the Kenrose elementary school district for houses. The pickings for a rental were kind of slim in that area ;-).

Once again, thank you so much for all your help. If this helpful attitude is any indication of how things are down south, I have a feeling we are going to love it ;-)

[septimus]

There is only public preschool for kids considered at risk in TN (low income/ESL).

There are a couple montessoris in Franklin you could look at to fill the gap until next year. Montessori School of Franklin, Cool Springs Montessori and Holy Trinity Montessori

as for Rentals I think you'll be fine with any WCS in Franklin or Brentwood.

[sucrose]

I'm useless for school information but thought I'd add (for what it's worth) that when I was at a supermarket in Brentwood recently I noticed a surprising number of Asian Indians that hopefully will provide enough variation in skin pigment to help your son feel he belongs.

[brentwoodgirl]

Kenrose has the highest percentage of Asian students in Williamson County. My husband used to work for a Japanese company, and I researched the schools for one of his Japanese co-workers who was moving here and wanted to live near other Japanese people.
There is a chance your son could get into the peer model preschool as a peer model. But there aren't many spots.

I have been amazed by how much harder Kindergarten is now than it was even 7-8 years ago when my older ones were in K. My son brings home world problems in math. He reads the word problems, graphs it, writes a numerical equation, and then writes a sentence with his answer. And he's learned to use quotes in his writing to depict speech. I am amazed at what they are learning, and he is loving it. A friend who is a Kindergarten teacher at a WCS school in Franklin said that some of the work he is doing is not necessarily in the curriculum (like learning to use quotes), so it may be school and probably teacher dependent.

[TnBoundFromNJ]

Brentwoodgirl - this really does put my mins at ease. We do word problems with him at home but at school they are only expected to count till 100 by 10s abd 5s etc and do basic math. They are not even taught to read phonetically - just sight words!!! And we were in one of the better school districts.
My husband is starting his new job on the 6th and we are looking at moving by mid jan - so gotta find something really fast.
Are there any areas in franklin/ Brentwood that we should be avoiding. There is such a wide range of rents so we were wondering if some areas are not as desirable as others.

[brentwoodgirl]

Brentwood and Franklin are both nice areas. If you want to be in Williamson County schools, you need to make sure that you are looking at rentals in Williamson County. There are some areas in Davidson County that have a Brentwood zip code, but those children go to Davidson County (Metro Nashville) schools. Some of the rentals you are seeing advertising "Brentwood" may be in those areas. There are neighborhoods that have some houses zoned for MNPS and some for WCS in the same neighborhood. So if you are looking at houses on the border of the county, you may want to call the school system to confirm.

Also, parts of Franklin are covered by Franklin Special School District for elementary and middle school. So you may want to check out FSSD to see if you would prefer your children going to WCS or FSSD.

[TnBoundFromNJ]

Thanks. This is really helpful brentwoodgirl :-)

[ahope1980]

Not a ton of help here but my son went to The People's Church for preschool and there were at least 2-3 Asian-Indian children in each of the classes it seemed. I think most of the children were zoned for either Moore, Franklin or Liberty. I don't think that school will challenge your son as much as you'd like so I won't necessarily recommend it, although it is still a great program, but I did want you to know that you won't feel alone in that area. Hope that helps some.

[TnBoundFromNJ]

Hi again
Somebody we know suggested Nolansville as well. What is your take on that area? Are the schools good? I know it's in Williamson county and is there any diversity?

Thanks!!!