Janet Klinger is a Seattle family photographer who intuitively captures the best in people; whether family, child, teen, high school senior portraits, or dynamic professional and actor headshots.
Many people from my “Mom’s group” have requested that I post responses to my request for
input on 3 grade schools: Meridian, UCDS and Bertschi.
To See where our family is now in school, check out this follow up post
If you have further input, please comment below!
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Before meeting my daughter Ellie in 2004, my photo studio’s motto was “Elegant Weddings, Distinctive Portraiture”. But now…
Growing with Ellie has emphasized for me the warmth and humor of capturing life’s little moments. That, and having a history with client families including coverage of their wedding, pregnancy, birth, newborn, growing years, three generations, high school seniors, and plain old LIFE gently tugged me to re-evaluate my business emphasis. Now my motto is “for your extraordinary life”. Mine has never felt more extraordinary since Ellie completed our home. I’m in love, more than I ever imagined.
Hi Janet,
Ellie is so beautiful! Definitely looks like her mom! Hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season! You’re an inspiration – wonderful business woman, wife and mom!
Hope to get together in the new year!
Susie Hamidi
http://www.susiehamidi.comReplyCancel
Marion DeForest - I have two kids at Meridian, and they are both thriving. One child is bright & high-level and is continually challenged academically, and the other is a bit slower academically but is also nurtured and supported. You can’t beat the setting — the Good Shepherd Center has the Senior Center, Seattle Tilth and lots of great nonprofits that Meridian partners with, and the playground has REAL grass (plus bunnies, birds and apple trees.) The kids seem kind to each other — older kids always seem to be watching out for my Kindergartner; it’s really sweet. Good luck with your decision!
mom - are we the only ones? we really loved the independent schools – low teacher/student ration (i.e. 15 kids to
mom - got cut off above… anyway, we loved the independent schools, we have toured them and applied for our child in 2007, 2008 (rejected both times) and now 2009 – our K year. but saddly, we were rejected from all 8 that we applied to; yes, we made the waitpool for 3 schools, but i think that is fairly useless. is anyone else in this situation: had your heart set on private school and were in love with the 15 kid class size, spanish starting in K, etc but then got turned down everywhere? we really feel awful about it because our child has some unique needs (reads at a grade 2 level and is 4) and none of the 8 NE cluster schools (while all have their strong points) seem like a fit from our perspective… it is just that a K class with 30 kids and no enrichment can’t possibly match the strengths we saw in the independent schools like Bertschi or UCDS or Meridian or SCDS… just curious if anyone else got rejected and what your thoughts about it are.
Janet Klinger - Have you heard of 826 Seattle? “826 Seattle is a nonprofit writing center that helps students, ages 6 to 18, develop their creative and expository writing skills. We are dedicated to providing students with access to writing workshops, publishing projects, and one-on-one help with homework and English language learning, all free of charge.”
No matter what school your child goes to, no matter how they place on the spectrum, who wouldn’t love this idea? From what I hear, the volunteers are Pros in the writing industry. Don’t take my word. Visit the website, and then the Space Travel (Wild!) storefront in Greenwood to experience 826 yourself. http://www.826seattle.org/
Michael - Which school did you ultimately choose?
Did you consider SCDS too?
We are just now going through this process for our child who will be a Kindergardener in fall 2010.
Thanks.
JanetKlinger - Hi Micheal,
Seattle Country Day School is also a wonderful choice. We didn’t consider it because we didn’t want Ellie to go to an ALL high achiever school as we find so much value in other achievements too. The school is extremely impressive in so many ways. We just didn’t want intellect to be THE value. I don’t mean to imply that is the only reason people go to SCDS, simply that our family full of artists, writers, an animator, architect, etc has chosen to emphasis community with all our neighbors, enjoying many different aspects of development. Congratulations on choosing this highly esteemed school. If it was in my neighborhood, I can never say never… We chose Meridian School. See the follow up post at http://www.janetklinger.com/blog/2009/10/seattles-meridian-school-feels-like-home/
Bindi - We would have loved our 5 year old to go to UCDS but he was rejected for kindergarten next year. We have been waitlisted at SCDS — do waitlists really work? Is there a better chance of kids getting in at Grade 1 level, through attrition? Our public school isn’t the best..
Christiane - Bindi,
We’re in exactly the boat — we’d have loved UCDS for our kindergartener, but were rejected.. I’m keen to know whether people who are waitlisted at SCDS ever make it.. our public school isn’t great either.
The Meridian School- To Go or Not to Go | Seattle Wedding & Portrait Photographer Janet Klinger's Photography Blog - […] The angst was our own; a result of many fine private schools to choose from. (See this past post for a few others great Seattle private school choices.) Sad at lost opportunity and confused by the transitions and chaos (at least during 2009 and 2010) […]