Will sending my toddler to private school help prepare her application to Hockaday? (Dallas: daycare, house)

[AshMarieS]

So, I'm new here and honestly only joined to ask for some advice.

My daughter recently turned 18 months old and has never been to daycare. She is very bright with an extensive vocabulary for her age and is learning more everyday. Ever since I found out that I was pregnant with her, I began searching for the perfect schools to try to enroll her in...dream schools. I do have a problem with letting myself get carried away and dreaming a bit too, at times, but I really feel that I want to do WHATEVER I can to get her into Hockaday or a similar school.

My question is: Will it look good, to Hockaday (or any private school), if my daughter has attended a private school for two years. There are two private schools with toddler programs that I have my eyes on (in East TX).

Also, what else could I do to prepare her for the application process, when the time comes? I know it may sound a bit premature, but I heard that most parents begin the process at the age of 3.

Thank you.

[TurtleCreek80]

Oh Lordy....

All I will say is that the preschools typically considered "feeder" schools into Hockaday are Alcuin, DaVinci, and Meadowbrook. I doubt any toddler program in East Texas would compare to those three schools. Alcuin has a program that starts at 18 months.

As for what else you can do to prepare, sock away as much money as you can. Hockaday runs $25k per year for PK-4 and almost $30k for grades 5-12. Tuition goes up close to a grand every year.

Good luck to you and your perfect genius princess....

[BLDSoon]

Originally Posted by AshMarieS

So, I'm new here and honestly only joined to ask for some advice.

My daughter recently turned 18 months old and has never been to daycare. She is very bright with an extensive vocabulary for her age and is learning more everyday. Ever since I found out that I was pregnant with her, I began searching for the perfect schools to try to enroll her in...dream schools. I do have a problem with letting myself get carried away and dreaming a bit too, at times, but I really feel that I want to do WHATEVER I can to get her into Hockaday or a similar school.

My question is: Will it look good, to Hockaday (or any private school), if my daughter has attended a private school for two years. There are two private schools with toddler programs that I have my eyes on (in East TX).

Also, what else could I do to prepare her for the application process, when the time comes? I know it may sound a bit premature, but I heard that most parents begin the process at the age of 3.

Thank you.

My advice is put her in a pre-school program ( any good pre-school program) THEN judge how bright she is. Parents especially new ones seem to over-estimate just how clever our children are because we are so amazed by what their little minds and bodies can accomplish...often more than we thought they could.

What we do manage to forget however, is how smart everybody else's child is. And in the case of schools like Hockaday, your kid will be going up against the spawn of the very brightest. ( and richest, but i digress)

My child did not go through any of the programs mentioned above but managed to get admission to one of 'those' privates. She did however go to a very good program locally that is a franchised child care provider. Those are very dependent on how well the national curriculums are executed in a particular school so do a lot of research.... talk to a lot of parents.


At the end of the day though it heavily depends on the individual child. A truly bright child will thrive in any pre-school setting. If you want to stack the deck go to the pre-school programs mentioned above but if that isn't possible, simply get your child in the best program you can, and when the time comes apply and wait/hope. But to avoid disappointment and self doubt...reserve your conclusions about how smart your child is, until you have a good idea, of how smart everyone else's child is and have taken at least one evaluation test. There are a lot of little geniuses out there vying for the same spots. Good luck.

[numbersguy100]

If your kid is smart she will succeed in lots of places, not just Hockaday. And I agree with BLDSoon that you don't have any idea at 18 months whether your kid is as smart as you suggest. I'm not saying she isn't - just that you have no way of knowing this for sure. This is the one (of many) reason my wife and I didn't look to the N Dallas private schools that go PK-12 because we feel preK is way too young to know enough about your kids to make a 13 year schooling decision. The school changes between middle and high school, while stressful, frustrating and time consuming, allow you to change course if you find out your kid has different needs than you originally thought.

[jdallas]

FWIW, we have a woman in our office that went the Hockaday middle/high route combined with SMU and she's about as bright as a bag of hammers so be careful about managing your expectations with special snowflakes.

[numberfive]

There's some great advice in here. I think it's human nature to want the absolute best of something, but there are very real diminishing returns on them.

In the photography world, there's very very little practical difference between a $1000 DSLR and a $5000 DSLR. They both take excellent photos, very much dependent on the ability of the photographer.

Likewise, there's very little practical difference between an excellent school and another excellent school that costs 3 times as much. Mediocre kids will still be mediocre, and star performers will still be star performers.

Kids aren't rejected from ivy league schools because their parents didn't choose the "proper" preschool.

AshMarieS, if it's possible, don't sweat the choices between top schools. There's no such thing as the perfect choice, you can drive yourself crazy trying to get it. And with parenthood, there are plenty of other opportunities to be driven crazy.

[kira kira]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Good luck to you and your perfect genius princess....

Was that really necessary? You are a much better contributor than that.

[numberfive]

You also asked what to do to prepare her, and my advice on that doesn't change based on the school you're targeting:

Give your child:
1. plenty of rest, healthy diet
2. room to play and be silly, explore
3. freedom to make mistakes and be independent
4. minimal "screen time" with tv/tablets/phones/etc
5. plenty of attention, join in their successes/excitement
6. a loose but regular schedule

And overall, BE PRESENT, and read to them every day. I get the feeling you're doing most, if not all of this, already. And if that's the case, admissions will be a breeze.

[MKDFW]

Originally Posted by AshMarieS

So, I'm new here and honestly only joined to ask for some advice.

My daughter recently turned 18 months old and has never been to daycare. She is very bright with an extensive vocabulary for her age and is learning more everyday. Ever since I found out that I was pregnant with her, I began searching for the perfect schools to try to enroll her in...dream schools. I do have a problem with letting myself get carried away and dreaming a bit too, at times, but I really feel that I want to do WHATEVER I can to get her into Hockaday or a similar school.

My question is: Will it look good, to Hockaday (or any private school), if my daughter has attended a private school for two years. There are two private schools with toddler programs that I have my eyes on (in East TX).

Also, what else could I do to prepare her for the application process, when the time comes? I know it may sound a bit premature, but I heard that most parents begin the process at the age of 3.

Thank you.

To answer your question directly, yes, she should attend a private school. It will help, but there are no guarantees. It depends on the CATS score, student evaluation at Hockaday, student report from the current school (when you apply to Hockaday), and parent interview. You may also want to consider Greenhill. As for the "feeder schools" to Hockaday, TurtleCreek80 is spot on. I would add Temple Emanu-El (a Jewish school) to the list as well.

The fact that you are focused on education is a very good thing.

Good luck to you, and your daughter.

[DFWmomdad]

We full time working parents started our daughter in preschool when she turned 2. She got into Alcuin at that age but we declined and enrolled her in a no name preschool (more like playschool) within walking distance from our house for convenience and it worked out well. She still got very superior results in CATS test but placed in wait pool!!! Just wanted you to know that there is no guarantee that 99 percentile kid will get admission! There are many variables that school is looking ....school don't want all wall flowers/leaders/art focused etc ..they want a mix of everything to make up a class. Even with excellent CATS score/ test at school/ super interviews etc, there is no guarantee.