Today the Florida Department of Education released their School Grades for 2012. You can follow the link below to view all of their listings and historical information for all Florida schools.
http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/
Mark.
Category Archives: Schools
Apartment Living
The end of October marks the end of our current lease, and the beginning of our new one. We have always lived in a house, both in Illinois and Wisconsin. In Wisconsin we were so fortunate to have an absolutely fantastic landlord, and the last house we vacated, well, we really had a problem leaving! It was the best house we have ever lived in, and we were voluntarily leaving it and heading into the unknown. There are still times now when I really miss it, but I also realize that it is way too big for us now, as we have a lot less “stuff”.
We are generally happy with the apartment complex we chose, and apartment living in general. Maintenance is fabulous with responding to service requests, even with items such as changing the fluorescent bulbs in the kitchen, and providing air filters for the air conditioning unit! These are things that we had always taken care of ourselves. It is also so nice not to have to put forth the time and energy into maintaining the lawn and landscaping.
Recently we have started talking about making the move into a rental home, for a few reasons. One, we miss the ability to grill whenever we wish. Yes, there are both charcoal and gas grills available, but it requires a walk to the pool area and the hope that no one is using the grill at the moment. Two, we miss our outside decorations for Christmas. We had quite the extensive display in Wisconsin, but only chose to move two to Florida: our countdown clock and Rudolph. And three, we really could use a larger living space. There are purchases we’d like to make but we really have no available space to place them in. We really have to think out what we buy. Not to mention the seasonal dilemma of where to place the Christmas tree. In general I think one loses some privacy living in an apartment, and we’d really like to gain that back.
We don’t, however, foresee this happening prior to 2014: our lease is up shortly before Thanksgiving 2013, and we have no desire to move over the holidays. We have so been there, done that, and no desire to do it again! There is also the question of the extra expenses required to maintain a rental home, including lawn care, pest control (we currently pay $1 a month for pest control, and I KNOW that would significantly increase), possibility of purchasing a washer & dryer (included in our apartment), and pool maintenance. I think we would need to find a rental home that offers a significant savings over the amount of rent we pay, and of course it would need to be in the same school district for our children, as we refuse to have our daughter switch schools half way through. Yes, there is school choice, but there is always the possibility it could be rejected, and we’re not willing to take the risk. She needs the stability of staying at the same school with her friends.
We have no regrets about the decision to move into an apartment, and we really feel fortunate as the office staff really does cater to its residents, but we also recognize that this is probably not a long term situation for our family. We will stay in the area as we love Clermont and what it has to offer.
Happy Day!
Dear Wishes and Pixie Dust Readers:
It hardly seems possible that one year ago today we arrived in our new home state. What began as nothing more than a dream culminated into major life changes and experiences. While we absolutely love living in Florida, there is one thing we have observed, and that a friend mentioned as well: there is no perfect place to live–there are trade offs in any location. We’ll be talking about some of those trade offs in this post, and our overall feelings about our relocation.
Do we have any regrets, and would we do anything differently? The one major concern we had was Ben’s schooling, and as it turned out, we had a right to be concerned. We researched the schools, talked with the staff at the school prior to the move, and as much as we wanted to believe the schools would be comparable to Wisconsin’s, unfortunately they simply fell way short in terms of following the IEP and providing flexibility to his day. We pulled him out of the public school after Christmas, and he is much happier with homeschooling.
Should we have waited to move until Ben finished middle school? Maybe; but then we would have been pulling Catie out of high school mid-way through. There really doesn’t seem to be a perfect time to uproot a child, and overall we think we made the right decision to move when we did.
One item that we didn’t move, that we now wish we would have, was our mattresses. We went on the belief that we would be able to purchase mattresses at a fairly decent price: Florida seems to be full of mattress places offering incredible deals. However, we soon discovered that those “deals” were simply a means to get you to enter the store and purchase a more expensive mattress. In this case we discovered you truly get what you paid for, and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We ended up spending more on mattresses than we anticipated and putting them on credit, but are happy to say our last payment is due the first week of August.
It was very overwhelming to walk into Target our first night here, knowing that we needed to buy EVERYTHING. In retrospect, we should have kept a list of everything we discarded but needed to purchase again; it would have made shopping a lot easier. We are still buying things for the house simply because they are items that aren’t used regularly so we don’t think of them when we go shopping.
One major regret we have is moving so far away from our son Nick. We knew it would be hard, but that sure doesn’t make the reality of it any easier. With the cost of airfare, and his limited availability due to work and school schedules, we only are able to see him two to three times a year. If you have children, you realize how incredibly painful this is. We were blessed with the opportunity to witness his marriage last month and attend the reception; but we weren’t as involved as we would have liked to be, given the distance between us.
So what’s good about Florida? The sunshine, of course! It is incredible to walk outside in February and have it not be blowing, snowing and bitterly cold. This is our first full summer here, and it seems to flip flop from being incredibly rainy to incredibly steamy. Summers are brutal, no doubt about it, but we’ve learned to adapt (massive amounts of air conditioning and drinking water) and just wait for the cooler months to come. Honestly the only time it really affects us negatively is when we do Disney and/or spend any quantity of time outdoors, but we prepare for it, and really, it’s fine.
It’s incredible as well to be able to visit Walt Disney World on a weekly basis. We know some people judge us on this, and think, wow, must be nice to always be on vacation. Well, that would be nice, but it’s not our reality. We tend to go on Wednesday late afternoon/early evening (due to Catie having early release at school) and on Friday night or Saturday. We are not there every day, nor do we wish to be. School and work priorities always come first. We love being able to go for an evening, or an afternoon, take in a few attractions, and leave.
We absolutely love the city we live in, Clermont. We researched the area, and knew that we wanted to be close to Disney, but not too close that we were experiencing the tourist mania that exists in Kissimmee and the surrounding areas. Walt Disney World is approximately a 35-50 min drive, depending on traffic and which park we decide to go to on that particular day.
What do we miss about Wisconsin? The food. Florida seriously lacks a decent dairy department in the grocery stores, and we really miss the local restaurants that were a part of our lives for 13 years: places that either have not made it to Florida, or only exist in our city of Fond du Lac. We don’t believe, however, that food is a compelling reason to stay in Wisconsin, and it always gives us an excuse to return in the summer! (Not that we needed one with Nick, but you get our drift!)
So overall, we feel we have adjusted fairly well to southern life, but it has taken most of the year to feel this way. We renewed our lease for our apartment, so we are committed to stay until November 2013–look for a separate post on our lease renewal in the next couple of days. Life in Florida has been an adjustment, but we are all happy and feel that there are a lot more opportunities here given our children’s interests, and their abilities to pursue those interests.
Thanks for following along over the past year or so, and look for future posts on life in Florida!
Homeschool Evaluation
When we first withdrew Ben from the public middle school, it was intimidating to have the prospect of his evaluation hanging over our heads. Florida statutes require the homeschooling parent to maintain a portfolio that contains two parts: a daily log or record of activities and lessons, and sample work showing evidence of adequate progress during the year.
Ben had such a negative experience in the public school that we knew it would not be successful for him to enroll in virtual school right away . He needed time away from the school environment to decompress and feel safe. We were uncertain as to how homeschooling would develop-if he would thrive or if it would be a struggle every day.
We based his curriculum on what he would have learned in the public schools, in case we made the decision that he would return to public school in the fall. We purchased the same textbooks that he was using for Geography and Science (approximately $125 for both), and pulled lessons off the internet based on Florida State Standards, found here.
As May approached, we made the decision to enroll Ben in virtual school for seventh grade, based on the concept that it would better prepare him for entry into high school. Homeschooling families have one year to complete an evaluation from the date on the letter they receive from the county that states they are homeschooling, but we wanted his evaluation to coincide with the end of the school year, so we scheduled it for June.
We met with a licensed teacher at the Tavares Public Library, who reviewed his portfolio and chatted with him. It was a very relaxed environment and we discovered it provided a nice way to give closure to the school year.
We did have a chance to talk with her about virtual school, and now we’re thinking perhaps it’s not the best way to go with Ben. We have approximately one month to think about it, before we need to confirm his enrollment for the fall, but we’re thinking it may be a better option for Ben to continue homeschooling with our own curriculum.
Looking back, we don’t regret the decision to enroll him in public school. If he didn’t have the experience, he would have wondered what he was missing out on, and to be honest, we as parents would not have believed how the school system works (or fails to work in this case). It would have been an easy choice to keep him in the school system, because frankly, homeschooling is an intensive daily process and a huge time commitment. However, we feel we made the right choice; Ben has really blossomed over the past five months, and we believe he has learned more at home than he ever would have in the public school.
The Lazy Summer
Now that both of our kids are officially done with school for the year, we can sit back and breathe a bit! Our daughter finished the year in a Florida public school, our son half a year. We’re happy with the gains both of them have accomplished.
We are looking forward to having the entire summer to enjoy-last summer it was segmented due to the move; by the time we arrived in Florida the kids had less than a month of summer left due to school starting in August. This year we dub it “the lazy summer”, because that is what we hope it will be–lazy summer afternoons relaxing by the pool or playing at Disney. It almost seems wrong to label a summer here as lazy; there is so much activity that can be done, and we certainly have no intentions to stay inside and be lazy in the traditional sense.
For us, lazy means enjoying the day with little schedule interruptions, and no real desire to get it all done or see it all. The summer heat requires that we slow down, and the beautiful Florida weather reminds us that if we don’t get it accomplished today, there’s always tomorrow, next week, next month, next February. For us, it has been an absolute wonder, and really, a dream come true, to live in a state that has awesome weather year round. We never turned our heat on this winter, have no idea if it works or not, and did not wear our winter coats at all.
The one thing we have discovered is that if the weather turns cold or rainy, unless we are running errands, we don’t have to go out. It sounds like a simple concept, but one that didn’t occur to us right away. The mantra is, if you live here, you go to Disney. All the time. Well, it dawned on us after one particular cold and wet day at the Magic Kingdom, that we weren’t really having fun, it wasn’t a magical time, and we didn’t have to be here! The luxury of living so close to the magic is that you can pick and choose when you experience the magic! This Friday our current plan is to go to Hollywood Studios, but if the rain continues, then we will switch to Plan B and do something else, indoors.
Watch for more regular posts coming out this summer. Ben’s homeschool evaluation is next week, so we’ll blog about that; we will be travelling back to Wisconsin at the end of this month for Nick’s wedding, and a special one year blog post will appear on our anniversary, July 25! We are excited to share it with y’all!
We have also set up a Facebook group for our blog: Wishes and Pixie Dust– if you’re interested in talking Disney, let us know and we’ll be happy to add you!
Wishes And Pixie Dust 