Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Quest Academy vs Quentin Road Christian Preschool

Hi Friends,
This is my first post. Please provide your guidance.

I am full time mom.My daughter just turned 4. As her day care was closing, I went to Gifted School- Quest Academy,Palatine. I never expected her to pass their test. According to me she is just normal kid. I dont she is the brainy kid who is into puzzles or math.
Surprisingly She passed and they gave admission into Quest for Fall 2012 into pre-k
There was near by church based preschool that friends recommended that has lot of hands on activities, like pony rides,Swimming,Soccer,Baking and has huge facility, Teachers at that church school are trained in ther church college or something. They dont teach bible, but they focus on values.

I am so torn between spending the extra 8k/per year on this gifted academy or save it for college. We are not religious, but we are fine with teaching basic values .

How important do you think is gifted academys add value at pre-k level, Cant we do the same at 3rd grade? I am an engineer and I sometimes think I can teach a lot at home, But After work, Daily chores, I dont think I have tonns of patience to sit for couple of hours to make a 4 yr old work.

Did anyone consider enrolling into these two schools?

Thanks
Confused Mom!

Hello Amma, welcome. I don't know anything about these particular programs, but I'll offer some general opinions. That's an awful lot of money for preschool. I don't think that there is a whole lot of need to pay for gifted schooling, or much formal schooling of any kind for that matter, at age 4. There is so much that you can do at home. At that age, I would encourage doing a lot of child-led activities. Go to museums, zoos, libraries, etc. They also have great classes that your child may enjoy. Spend time outside. You know what your child likes, follow her lead and have fun.

As for waiting until 3rd grade for GT services, it depends on your child's needs. Some GT kids need more at an earlier age, and I think the usual 3rd grade start of many GT programs is arbitrary. What do the schools in your area look like?

The church based preschool sounds pretty fun. It sounds like you do need day care, so I guess I'd just recommend going to visit both places, and other options if available, and see how you think your child will fit in. Are they both full-time programs?

sorry, rambling...

Thanks For the reply. You certainly have a point.
Does anyone have any opinion at pre-k Level for Quest academy?

Hi! My DS will be attending the pre-K at Quest. He's three, but will turn 4 in August. I was also surprised at the screening, although I don't really understand what it means. He didn't quite finish the test because he was so distracted but they told me he "hit the ceiling" anyway and got the max score (which was 6, they said). I wasn't surprised that he got in, because we've been told by many that he is a bit off the charts... but I was surprised at the screening itself. Do you know what the name of the test is that they did? Because I've been trying to look it up to learn about it, but I have no idea what it was called.

Anyway, for us a lot of the value in Quest is in their smaller classrooms and excellent teacher/student ratios. For some kids this matters more than others. Also, our kid is definitely a bit quirky - and Quest is the only school we've found in our area that seems like the may be able to "get" him and work with the challenges that often come with a highly gifted kid.

I agree that it is a LOT of money to spend for a pre-K. Some kids can benefit from this specialized environment, and some kids would probably do just as well at another preschool. It really depends on your kid. Our son has been (basically) kicked out of two preschools so far. So he is a challenge, to say the least. We are hopeful that Quest will be as great as they seem.

The staff have been terrific and response to our questions and concerns so far. We have our son signed up of camp in August. You may want to check that out. Maybe it is a good way to introduce your daughter to the school before she starts.

There is a kiddo in our neighborhood that goes to Quentin Road school. She is older now (pre-teen) and seems like a great kid in the brief interactions we've had with her. I think the school is very very conservative. We are Christian, but we weren't totally comfortable with some of the teachings at that school. I remember when we went to their pizza party/fund raiser, our little boy really wanted a flower for the face painting and it was a really big deal because he was told that boys shouldn't want flowers. They should want footballs or lightning bolts. There was nothing bad or wrong with the interaction, but it was very clear that these face painters (who were all older students at QR) were taught very very conservative and very traditional values.

Anyway, back to Quest... I believe their cut off is 95th percentile. The screening test is really meant to "predict" what the IQ test would be. I honestly don't know how accurate it is. Do you believe your daughter is gifted? (Is she, for example, a good reader or have other skills that pointed to likely giftedness?)

I'm sure I'll be posting more about Quest in the future here. For now, still as an outsider, I think it seems great. Everyone we have encountered has been terrific, helpful, and extremely knowledgeable about the special challenges of gifted kids.

I don't have any knowledge about either of these schools, but have hung out around a lot of kids over the years - including a lot of kids raised in very liberal left-field families (including my own lol). I wouldn't be surprised at any girl no matter what background saying the same thing - I hear it from my girls all the time! And I'm so *NOT* conservative/traditional as well as having spent major efforts trying to be sure that my kids don't grow up with gender bias of any kind

polarbear

Good point!!


Oh, and my husband reminded me that there were actually 3 scores from the screening. I don't remember what they were (and neither does he) but we were told that he hit a ceiling.

Hi,

Could you Please let me know what questions they asked during the screening of preschool. And also were the patents allowed during the screening at quest.

Regards,
Su

Hi,

I can't tell you anything about the Christian School but I do know about Quest. It is probably the best situation you can give your child if they are showing signs of giftedness. I had three children go through the preschool and the most important thing I think they got from Quest was a love of learning. If we could have afforded it my kids would would still be there. We started there for my son who just finished 7th grade. He attended Quest thru 1st grade and has gone on to have great success at the charter school that he attends. We put are daughters who are borderline gifted there for convenience because we were driving 40 min each way for my son. Anyway I feel that the pre-school years are probably the most important in developing the proper attitudes with regards to learning.

Sorry for the rambling. Bottomline if you can afford it Quest is worth every penny.

Regards,

Bill

I take it the $8000 is above what you would have to pay at the christian preschool? Personally with a few exceptions i can't see a four year old needing any more than a free play type setup and lots of conversation. I'm not saying slow her learning down - just don't push it.

Also would the quest preschool actually meet all your needs for daycare or would you end up juggling pick Ups drop offs and holidays?

I live in Lake County so I have heard of Quest since it's probably the closest gifted school to where we live. But personally having an almost 5 year old and a 3 year old I would never spend that kind of money on a preschool program. I know every child is different but I have noticed that our boys learn a lot more and faster informally outside of any classroom by just absorbing information and playing games. They do not enjoy formal schooling. And there will be plenty of years for that in years to come. So I am in the "save for college" camp.

My son chose to take his EXPLORE test at Quest Academy for last two years. He likes the facilities, teachers, environment, and the book store there.

If your daughter is aiming at top high schools such as Whitney Young and IMSA, then it might worth the effort to start early.

I recently learned that in Finland kids don't even start school until 7 and their education system even blows Singapore's out of the water. I am therefore not convinced at all about the merits of pre- school over daycare.

Neither of these two countries are famous for gifted education.

I grew up as a kid in what used to be Czechoslovakia. We didn't need to recognize any numbers or letters until we'd turn 6 and start 1st grade. Yet we used to rank really high in all the math, science and other Olympiads, and numerous gifted and talented people emigrated outside of the formerly communist country. Now the country's education system places a lot more emphasis on early education ... starting a lot of academics in the last year of pre-school (which would be Kindergarten in the US) and the overall results are getting worse year after year after year. I had no idea how to read, write, what numbers look like and all I could write was my name backwards entering 1st grade and withing the first couple of months I got well ahead of my class. So personally I don't find preschool academics that important. As long as there's no serious learning disability or other health concern, I believe the giftedness will come up real quick at school anyways. I just don't think gifted-preschool is a practical way of spending money. I'd save it for college or save it for extra curricular once the child is a little older.

I am not sure what makes you so biased on simple fact? For gifted math kids, CZE has only 3 gold medal winners in IMO, compared to 96 gold medals from USA., 80 from Russia, and 124 from China.

Communist or not, gifted education is not much different 20/30 years ago. Congress passed first act regarding gifted education in 1988. First national GT research institute was established in 1990. The famous book "A Nation Deceived" was published in 2004.

If you only trust the educational system that raised you 20/30 years ago, why do you bother to come to the gifted forum?

erich - I am not biased. I just gave my personal experience and pointed out the fact that over there starting with academics later did not negatively affect the future results. I am not really trying to compare medal counts. Besides, the country has 10 million people (used to have just under 15 million before the split) doesn't quite compare to Russia, USA or China. The truth is, there were and are plenty of gifted people who never suffered due to lack of early academics.

I do believe in exposing all kids and especially gifted kids who crave to learn and explore to the outside world as much as possible so they can absorb all the information and knowledge they want but I don't necessarily believe they need to do that in a formal pre-school setting.

I'd toss in that deeper reading of the Finnish school system reveals that they don't need to be famous for gifted education. What they have is a very strong support for individual learning. Preschool and nursery care are focused on building school and social meta-skills and parents are encouraged to send their kids to those. They have mixed grade classrooms, continuing education and support for teachers, very high hiring standards for teachers, acceleration happens in the classroom; teachers will often stay with the same group over years to help nurture and maintain their knowledge of the kids abilities. They do allow early entry for kids who have a passion to study. And quite a few graceless schools, free movement between schools, etc.

Should "graceless school" be "gradeless school"?

Maybe it's what the Christian Preschool calls the non-Christian Preschool.

That was my first thought too!

Eek, I've been iPadded! I don't like auto-correct. I don't mind suggestions, but to change it out. Yes, gradeless was the intended word. (Just turned it off, yay)

Please do some simple fact check before elaborate the argument. We have countries similar the size of CZE produced tremendous math talents:

Hungary 77 IMO gold metals,
Romania 73,
Bulgaria 53,
Korea 50,
Vietnam 46.

Unfortunately, CZE ranked closer to these following countries in terms of math talent performance: Argentina, Peru, Mongolia, Georgia, Greece, and Mexico. If you are not biased, please compare math education in CZE to those countries.

http://www.imo-official.org/results_country.aspx?column=awards&order=desc

erich - I was just giving an example. Math and science was the first thing that came to my mind because that's the gifted school I went to. Nothing else behind it. You're reading too much in what I wrote and I only mentioned all of it in respect to the comment about Finland. Nothing more, nothing less. Not all gifted people need or want to win a medal.

But back to the topic of early academic education ... forget Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic ... Bulgaria's compulsory education starts at 7 years old, Romania's "School Preparation Class" is for 6-7 year olds, Hungary's primary education starts after they turn 6 or when they turn 7 if their birthday is after May 31st (though their last year of preschool is mandatory)... so the medal count you posted still supports my point of early academics not being that necessary. The preschool / Kindergarten age kids focus on learning social skills but academics don't usually start until they enter elementary school.

Now that's funny

Russian and Chinese primary education start at age 7-8. But traditional home schoolings start as early as 2-3 years old. So when they show up for grade 1, most kids already mastered arithmatic (equals to grade3-4 level in US).

Both countries have tradition of identifying and honoring gifted kids in school. Their governments allocate more resources for those kids. Both have easily accessible local public schools specialized in gifted education, some with a shortened primary+secondary schooling (typically 12 years reduced to 8 years).

I wish that US have a supporting system for gifted kids as good as Russian and Chinese, so we parents can sit back and relax.