Would you choose not to send your child to a private school solely because they use EM?
There's a private school that I love in every respect except that it uses EM for K-5. It switches over to a more traditional math curriculum starting in 6th grade. This school is well-respected academically, and they say they are pretty flexible with where a student is in math. There are a couple of multi-age classrooms, and they tell the story of a middle school student currently learning trig from the high school math teacher, etc.
We're tentatively planning on switching from our current montessori charter school to this other school for middle school, when dd enters 6th grade, but we have younger kids who we are considering also switching to the elementary school. If one ds stays two years ahead of grade level as he is now, he should be ready for 6th grade math in 4th grade, just when we'd be switching to the new school, but we also have some younger kids, who would be starting from the beginning with EM, if we were to switch them as well. It's hard for me to fathom because we're a much more mathy family than language-y. My current preschooler is potentially just as talented at math as his older brother, and I'm wondering whether his math education would suffer significantly in comparison with the math his brother has been able to do in the montessori school. At the same time, I'm guessing there are a number of other subjects, particularly those in the realm of language arts, that may be taught "better" at this private school.
I said I'd never do it, switch to a school with EM. Would it be a dumb decision? Should I try to keep the younger ones in the montessori school until they are ready for math beyond whatever 5th grade EM is?
Is it possible to accelerate through EM without afterschooling math? (I'm not opposed to afterschooling the math, but it would still be a chore. I'd have to approach it in a much more organized fashion than what we do around here now.)
Thanks for any thoughts
