Coldspring

I can't believe how happy my daughter is at this school. This is her third school and by far the happiest she's been in any academic environment. Every night she and I list three good things that happened during the day, and if she's been to school, that's always number 1 on her list. The other day when I discovered that the school was going to open in spite of the snow, my daughter was so happy NOT to have a snow day. I've found all the teachers and administration to be very thoughtful and insightful. They're also very respectful of my daughter--they acknowledge her challenges in a supportive, helpful way. The other parents have been very welcoming to newcomers. It's really a fun environment on every level.UPDATE: I wanted to update my review now that my daughter has been at Waldorf for a year. At Thanksgiving dinner everyone at the table went around and said what they were thankful for. My daughter said, "I'm thankful that I get to go to a school that I love so much." But when I tell people how happy my daughter is, they sometimes counter me with "She's happy but how much is she learning?" and "Will she be prepared to go to a non-progressive high school?" So now that it's been a year I can say with absolute confidence that my daughter has made HUGE educational strides across the board. She's doing things like extended independent written tasks--things that I was told by an educational specialist that she'd NEVER be able to do on her own, without either an aide or medication. I had also given up on her memorization of multiplication facts and had her learn songs instead, but to my surprise last night she sat down and cranked out a worksheet of fraction reducing. She did it so quickly and with so much confidence that somehow she must have committed all her multiplication facts to memory. There is a lot of homework now, but she's learning to pace herself, to manage it, not to let herself fall behind with large projects. So yes, Waldorf definitely does manage to prepare kids for other academic environments without squashing their enthusiasm. Graduates of Waldorf go on to all the same schools that other kids from traditional schools go to: Poly, Friends, City, etc. My only regret is that my daughter didn't go here all along.