Coeur D Alene Locals??????? (Coeur d'Alene, Eagle: condo, day care, home)

[Happy Kid]

I am looking to move up to the Area, and wondered if there is anyone familiar with some of the Area Places.
Any ideas or comments on some good:
1. Schools
Preschool
Elementry
Highschool...
2. Churches
3. Parks
4. Hiking areas

[IdahoEagle]

I live in the Coeur d'Alene Area.

Here are some quick answers.
Preschools
Noahs Ark- Outstanding education
Christ the King - more daycare than preschool

Elementary Schools
Dalton & Hayden Meadows - excellent
Fernan & Borah - not so much
Atlas & Skyway - new within the last few years.
Plus a few others.

High Schools
Coeur d'Alene - over 100 years
Lake City around ten years old
I have never heard anything bad about either school.

Cd'A Charter Academy - College prep with lots of homework

churches - Can't help you there.

Hiking
Tubbs Hill - Next to the lake lots of tourists
English Point near Hayden lake- nice relatively flat wooded hiking.
Mineral Ridge - near beauty bay steep hike but the view of the lake from the top is worth it.

[mejaka]

I'll add a few things.

CHS is a decent school, currently making the transition to an IB school (international baccalaureate, look it up to see if it interests you).

LCHS is a bit rougher but still a good school. Excellent band instructor there.

I'm a sub and have worked in both schools. I haven't had the experiences at LCHS that some other subs have, but most concur that it's got more attitude problems etc. than CHS.

However, both schools have some exceptional offerings. For example, CHS has the IB program; LCHS offers Japanese as well as the usual languages. Just examples.

My sons attend CHS and I have been happy with their experiences. (Oh--cool thing in the district--ParentConnect sends you an email if your child is absent, tardy, fails an assignment, or fails to turn in an assignment, and you can also check on upcoming homework and so forth).

My younger children have attended Hayden Meadows--a WONDERFUL public school. We also have had experience with Canfield (solid enough) and Lakes (great teachers, bad atmosphere) middle schools.

Of my friends who opt for preschool, most seem inclined toward the one at the Friends Church on Miles and Govt Way. I preschooled my own, so I wouldn't know.

I'm LDS and can only speak for that sect, but Hayden 2nd Ward (congregation) is awesome. Other churches that seem to be popular (by which I mean I've personally talked to more than one person who LOVES their church) are Lake City and New Life. Both Christian. New Life is one of the movement of energetic church families with lots of goings-on. Oh--there's also a church next to CHS that I have taught in and associated with members of. It has a school facility on site and holds a few free lunches during the school year, kind of showing off its programs to the CHS students who come for the food. My boys have gone on occasion. I was impressed with the mothers I associated with, and with the way the facility is used.

The Friends Church mentioned above has such things as a rock band and an indoor skate park. If those sound like great ideas to you, you might look into that one.

Also, my son has a friend who attends another church that's got a strong youth group. I'll try to remember to ask him about it when he wakes up.

Coeur d'Alene City Park is a large park with a neat wooden play structure, a bandstand (lots going on in there during the summer), basketball courts. The park sits right above City Beach.

McCall Park in Hayden is a small grassy park with a walking path that weaves in and out of pines. The path is a .38-mile loop. The park is popular with dog owners.

There are small parks with playgrounds--Hayden City Park and Dalton Gardens City Park are both next to the city offices--and quite a few ballparks. I live in Hayden and am less familiar with C d'A Parks, other than as described above.

IdahoEagle mentioned the most popular places for easy-to-moderate hikes. There are some wicked good hikes around here, too. Monument Mountain and Scotchmen's Peak, for example. If you want to read about a Scotchmen's hike, my friend Alan just did it and has a report with great photos on his webpage: www. alangage.blogspot.com

[Happy Kid]

Thank you mejaka!!!
I also heard some stuff about Noah's Ark Learning center, and ABCD daycare in Coeur D Alene....Any news on those places?

[IdahoEagle]

My Youngest son just finished up at Noah’s Ark and we were very happy with our boy’s experiences there. They seems to be very in tune with the kids skill levels and spend a lot of time working with the kids at whatever level they are at. My youngest son is starting kindergarten this fall and he can read pretty well. They do a lot of crafts and things to help the kids with fine motor skills. Some of the kids struggled and the teachers were always working with them to bring them up to where they need to be. They are having fundraisers for a new outdoor play set and the kids went on some fun field trips.

Some of the pre schools are more day care than preschool. I felt that Noah’s Ark has a strong preschool curriculum. I haven’t ever heard anything good or bad about ABCD Daycare. I have a friend who is really happy with Kinder Magic.

Hope this helps.

[Happy Kid]

Thanks Everything helps...Any others out there with some ideas???

[SOSADFORUS]

My grandson went to Noah's Ark 13 years ago, you can not get any better, the are wonderful! He loved it.
My twins graduated from coeur d'alene (cda) in 1986 and my granddaught is now a soph. there now on the track team, It also is a wonderful school, I'd say better than LCH. I believe it is because the majority of kids there were born and raised here.Lake City has mostly new people and the children come with a different attitude than the children born and raised in a small town, I'm not saying their better just different. If you have been here along time you can pick out the new kids from the one born or lived here most of their life.
I don't know if you have visited here but it is one of the most beautiful towns and there is alot to do. We have grown alto and the traffic is maddening to us that know the difference but I'm sure the city will catch up on the roads eventually. The town id 5mi by 5mi so it can't take to long to get anywhere, it just seems like it some days.

[Randie38]

to idaho eagle : Fernan is a wonderful school serving many working families as well as lakes. Perhaps both of these schools would rate higher if the people in this area actually were more interested in maintaining a excellent school enviroment instead of what the riverstone project looks like. The money given to the condo developers for landscaping would have been much better used in our school systems, but as usual the working familys that are the backbone of this community are ignored. By the way I am a homeowner whose taxes would have gone up if the school levies would have passed, so Idaho Eagle you can be sure when I am ready to purchase our next home I will make sure it is not from you!!!

[mejaka]

Randie, IdahoEagle didn't comment on Lakes MS, but I did. My experience with the school includes one son who spent 7th grade there (because the school we were supposed to attend was full; we arrived in September) and many days of substituting. As I said, many wicked-good teachers there but the administration has some interesting practices (those one-day-a-week assemblies where they have some kind of contest and get the kids all wired right before first period--I think they do it for morale but they are out of their minds!) and the student body has more than its share of stressed-out homeless kids and of tough kids from hard backgrounds, which makes for a different atmosphere in the school and forces the instructors and staff to spend more of their time on morale, discipline, counseling, remediation and mediation and leaves them less time for teaching.

I like Lakes; I enjoy teaching there. I was enfuriated by a letter to the editor (last levy) in which some idiot gave himself a "self-tour" of the school on a Saturday (which means he peeped in windows, at best) and determined that updating or replacement weren't necessary. Is he kidding? The heating system alone is a complete nightmare.

I've taught in Fernan, too, but not enough to have an opinion there. I hate teaching gradeschool (in fact, I quit taking gradeschool assignments last year).

An awareness of differences between schools--even differences in quality--doesn't make someone an enemy of the schools they have concerns about.

[setlngdwn]

What is your opinion of the CdA Charter Academy? Thank you.