DD7 goes to a private.
DH drives her in the AM usually. This adds about 30 extra minutes of driving onto his day.
I do afternoon pick up which usually involves checking in with a teacher if available. (DD is accelerated in some subjects and is in enrichment for others. So I feel like I need to touch base more often than most parents.) Afternoon pickup takes about 60-90 minutes round trip.
I volunteer at the school about 5 hours a week. It breaks up the driving and helps me stay informed on what's going on. Okay, I spy on dd a little too.
Legally, we are entitled to public bussing. Originally the bus drop off time was 4:10 which is about we get home if I drive. So we were really happy to use the service. For some reason the routes have been combined and the new drop off time is 5. She's the youngest and the last stop. Because of her age, I have to meet her at the bus stop. Now with the later time, evenings were getting to stressful. So I am back to driving every afternoon.
So the time feels like the biggest sacrifce to me because we deal with it everyday. It impacts us financially too. I don't think I could handle working full time and be at the school as much as I am. (I have small part time job...)
We do get help with the tuition bill. We try to live frugally. We drive small, older cars. No wii or disney trips...
We are also all taking music lessons. DD practices after dinner. Sometimes I practice with her, and sometimes by myself. DH tends to practice after bedtime. So there's another 3*30 minutes of our day.
I don't really know if HS would be more, or less of a sacrifice in terms of time and money. I'm guessing HS for us would mean me not working at all. There aren't any gifted schools in our area, public or charter. I'm sure if dd was schooling for "free" we would end up spending more on music and dance lessons and probably add robotics or something else spendy. DD's GPs are a lot more sympathetic to large tuition bills than they would be to HS - that's just us, but there it it.
