relocating - what austin neighborhoods suit us? (Atlanta, Clarksville: fit in, magnet schools)

[hildev]

We just moved from Hyde Park (45th and Ave. B) to Bouldin. We rent and have an 18 month old. I prefer Hyde Park over Rosedale aesthetically and because you can walk to Central Market, Shipe Park (with public pool) Mother's Cafe, a gelato/wine bar that is kid and cocktail friendly, a nice little neighborhood grocery, lovely streets to walk, etc. etc. I preferred living up there, especially because of its proximity to UT. I would definitely stay in that neighborhood if you have to commute to UT- it would be about 3-5 mins. Plus living in Hyde Park it's super easy to scoot down Guadalupe (the drag) which offers many casual, delicious and affordable dining options. Also- we would have date nights at the Hyde Park Theater, a black box style community theater- pizza and cocktails at the Parlor before the show made for the perfect evening out- and it was 3 blocks from our house. We moved down here so I could go to school at St. Ed's- it's nice but I would buy in Hyde Park, for sure. They have good public schools and a few private schools in the neighborhood.

[a2dal]

All such great info - thanks! We're finding that if we extend our budget range just a little bit, we get a lot more homes, many really nicely renovated, especially with 3 bedrooms. We're really liking the south neighborhoods (Barton Hills, Travis Heights) but if we've got a commute to downtown, is it still pretty easy even though you have to cross the water & so have bridge traffic? Hyde Park looks good too, but it turns out my husband's work being "near UT" meant near the south end fo campus so really it's a commute to downtown.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by a2dal

All such great info - thanks! We're finding that if we extend our budget range just a little bit, we get a lot more homes, many really nicely renovated, especially with 3 bedrooms. We're really liking the south neighborhoods (Barton Hills, Travis Heights) but if we've got a commute to downtown, is it still pretty easy even though you have to cross the water & so have bridge traffic? Hyde Park looks good too, but it turns out my husband's work being "near UT" meant near the south end fo campus so really it's a commute to downtown.

Yes, downtown is VERY easy to get to from those close-in south neighborhoods. Most commuters having to cross the river are doing so on the highways (loop 1 and I35), which is where the terrible traffic is. Places like Barton Hills and Travis Heights would use the in-town street bridges like Lamar, S. First, and Congress. No problem at all.

[TexasHorseLady]

There are quite a few private schools in the central part of Austin, thus not too far from just about anywhere (even when we lived in South Austin and our daughter attended the Waldorf School in Oak Hill, it was a 15 minute commute twice a day). What kind of school do you think you'd be interested in?

[a2dal]

For schools, I'm looking for more liberal/progressive, diverse, small teacher:student ratios, individualized/differentiated instruction, athletics & arts. I would be fine with a "religious" school but non-denominational or not too heavy-handed. As far as educational philosophy, I prefer focus on critical thinking and application of concepts over memorization & rote, and a focus on character development and individual responsibility, as well as a school that is open to new approaches and finding what is right for a particular child. I don't want to put my kids in a bubble, but to recognize where they are coming from and develop their skills from there, realistically. It is also important that it be an environment/approach particularly good for advanced learners, especially ones that are also high-energy, creative boys!

I have to say I find the Waldorf model very intriguing, but I'm afraid I couldn't promise to stick to the technology ban. We both work in the technology sector, are gadget lovers, and couldn't lead by example - the kids hardly watch TV, and we never do around them except maybe the news, but it's the computers and games that would be an issue

[TexasHorseLady]

Oh, heck, we never stuck to the technology ban and didn't have an issue. And when my daughter's teacher expressed some concern over her collection of Goosebumps, I simply said we wouldn't buy her any more, we'd give her what my parents the preacher and his wife gave me at the same age - the complete unexpurgated works of Edgar Allan Poe, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Andersen's Fairy Tales, and Edith Hamilton's Mythology (never mind the Bible - now THERE's some scary reading!). They were fine with it - it was much more individual child than that, we found.

Waldorf does not equal Waldorf does not equal Waldorf - a lot depends not only on the individual school but on the particular teacher, but when it's good for a kid, it's very very good.

Would have been a disaster for our son. Was great for our daughter. Now, she's 25, and the school has expanded since then (more buildings and goes through high school now), so I couldn't speak to how it is now, but we still know the parents of her best friend who are teachers there and could likely get the real skinny if you wanted.

[capcat]

You might want to visit Ace Academy:
ACE ACADEMY: Program Summary

[a2dal]

Why do you think it would have been a disaster for your son? I have two elementary aged sons, twins in fact - one is very serious, quiet (in school anyway) teacher-pleaser, would do fine in a traditional setting, but the other is much more free-spirited and intrinsically motivated (or demotivated as the case may be). He simply won't do something he doesn't buy into just to make an adult he doesn't even know happy - does not compute for him. They are both very bright, but very different, and need significant differentiation, at least from the standard curriculum in their current school, which is supposed to be one of the excellent public elementary schools around here. The latter is the one I am thinking would benefit most from a Waldorf-type approach, and I would want them to go to the same school (and they would be heartbroken to be separated), but not at the expense of the more serious one.

[TexasHorseLady]

Our son is more the traditionalist (he graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, if that helps), and did very well at Kirby Hall (which has, I understand, gone down hill dramatically since then - he's now 37), a more traditional college-prep school.

Our daughter is more the free-spirit, thrived on the block learning (she hated, hated, HATED really getting into a subject and then having to stop thinking about it just because a bell rang and move on to something else, likes to get her teeth into a topic until she owns it), she just blossomed at the Waldorf School (as her brother did at Kirby Hall - he loved being able to learn at his own pace and not have to wait for others in order to move on).

He attended KHS from 4th (they started in 4th then) through 12th. Our daughter only attended 2-1/2 years of Waldorf before we moved a couple hours away and couldn't keep her there. (I would have been on the road 8 hours a day to do so or we would have.)

Both, in very different environments, aced the SATs when they took them for the Duke TIP program in the 7th grade, so they both learned. But I do think that if we'd switched the schools, both would have suffered, and if we'd had both in one school, one would have suffered.

Thing is to pick the school(s) that work best for your individual child(ren). A school that is great for one kid can be not so great for another, and vice versa. I attended one of the top 10 rated schools in the nation in junior high and part of high school and it darned near destroyed any interest in learning because they wanted us to memorize by rote and parrot back what we were taught, rather than thinking about it, so they could maintain that rating on test scores, after coming from a little country school in East Texas where they actually encouraged us to learn and think about what we were learning, so I tend to be a little more "see what's really going on at the school" than a lot of folks. Nothing beats a visit and maybe even actually talking to the parents and, better, the kids.

[a2dal]

Yes, I do agree about finding the right school for each child, and I would never force a fit, but they are twins, they share a room, they even begged to be in the same class this year (we had separated them in previous years) even though they go their own way and are totally independent. If I didn't have to separate them, that would just take a load off! I will definitely be conducting lots of visits once we have our timing settled and such.

capcat - thanks for the ACE link - I will definitely check them out. Reviews on greatschools are somewhat mixed though mostly positive - and I am not sure I buy the negative ones. Do you have personal experience with the school?

Other schools that interest me from my initial research are St. Andrews, Trinity, St. Francis, Austin International School - I have Sri Atmanada on my list to look at further but might be too loose for me, and Regents, which seems too rigid/old school/religious but I understand has a good reputation so I feel I should do my due diligence and get some more info. Griffin seems like a cool high school, but I am judging purely from their website, so I can't say that is qualified interest. . .plus it's a long way off!

Any others you might suggest I check out? I suspect I have only found some of the more well-known schools since I haven't gotten any insider info yet. . .