We’ve had a couple readers ask about local private school tuitions after this recent post about a new scholarship program for private schools. Here’s a tuition roundup (If you want your school to be included in this list, just email the info to anne@southernmamas.com):

Bethesda School (grades 5-12)
-$160-$500 monthly based on income ($5,000 max annual fee)

Bible Baptist School (preK-12)
-$4,375(preK-full day; $4,675 (grades 1-5); $4,775 (6-12)

Calvary Day School (preK-12)
-$5,790 (preK-K); $6,510 (1-5); $6,640 (6-12)

Chatham Academy
-$13,241 (grades 1-5); $13,416 (grades 6-8); $13,648 (grades 9-12)

Emmanuel Christian School
-preschool (ages 2-5) $88/week

Maggie’s Morning School (toddlers, 2s, 3s, preK)
-$2,250-$3,280 (2,3 & 5-day plans)

Memorial Day School (preK-12, as well as daycare)
-$5,700-$6,700

Montessori Academy of Savannah (preschool, ages 2-5)
-$230-$305/mo for 9 AM-1PM
-$90-$120/week, full-day

Notre Dame Academy (preK-8)
-$3,900, Catholic; $4,200, non-Catholic

Providence Christian School (preK-12)
-$3,000-$4,875

Rambam Day School (2yrs-8)
-$2,925-$7,665

St. Andrew’s School (preK-12)
-$6,095 (preK, half-day); $7,275 (preK, K); $8,710 (grades 1-4); $9,785 (5-8); $10,220 (9-12)

St. Paul’s Lutheran Preschool (6 wks-preK)
-$109-$125/week, full-time

Savannah Christian Preparatory School (preK-12)
-$6,660-$6,790

Urban Christian Academy (preK-12)
-$2,225 (K-12)

Veritas Academy (preK-12)
-$1,930 (preK); $2,860 (K); $4,647 (1-6); $5,232 (7-12)

Source: Savannah Magazine, July/August 2009 issue

ADDITIONS (Thanks to our readers):

• • Growing in the Son pre-school at Savannah Christian Church
    (18months to Pre-K)
    -18 mos-2 yrs, $1,260/yr; 2 year olds: $1,935/yr; 3 year olds, $2,115/yr; and preK is $2,700/yr. (18 mos -3 years goes from 9-12pm on varying days (18 mos: W and Th, 2 yrs: Wed-Fri, 3 yrs: Tues-Fri, and Pre-K M-F) with the exception of preK which is from 9 AM-1 PM)

.

• First Christian Academy, Richmond Hill
  (2 yrs. through 4th grade)
  Two’s – 3 days $225
  Two’s – 4 days $260
  Three’s – 3 days $240
  Three’s – 4 days $265
  Pre-K – 4 days $285
  Kindergarten $390
  First Grade – Fourth $405

Does back-to-school season have you depressed about your kids’ public education options in our area? Not to mention reading those intimidating private school tuitions in the current issue of Savannah Magazine?

Good news: there’s a new tuition scholarship program targeted towards low to moderate income families who are looking for an alternative to public education. St. Andrew’s School, an independent college prep school on Wilmington Island for Pre-K through 12th grade, participates in this program.

The Georgia GOAL Scholarship Program provides qualified Georgian children from low-and moderate income families with the opportunity to attend the private K-12 schools. The scholarships are available to any child entering kindergarten and any student in grades 1-12 who is transferring from public school.

GOAL Scholarships are awarded on a sliding scale based on the availability of funds, the annual household income of applicant families, and household size. In order for a child to receive a GOAL Scholarship in any amount, total household income cannot exceed $85,000.

Click here to see a list of participating schools in the Savannah-area. For more info on St. Andrew’s scholarship program, click here.

SouthernMamas readers are always telling us how much they’d love to have a Savannah Children’s Museum.

Here’s your chance to help make it happen. Work is under way to build a Savannah Children’s Museum, which will be in railroad buildings adjacent to Battlefield Park and the Roundhouse Railroad Museum downtown. Estimated completion date is late 2010.

The museum will be owned by the city of Savannah and will be operated by the Coastal Heritage Society.

The Coastal Heritage Society plans to hold monthly volunteer work days to complete the outdoor courtyard and carpentry shop play space. These spaces will provide unique and engaging outdoor gross motor activities for children of all ages as phase 1 of the museum.

Work on the monthly volunteer days will include building benches, planters, a maze, laying sod, and preparing the outdoor space. Become a member of the museum’s Workers of Wonders (WOW) team to bring the Savannah Children’s Museum to life. People of all skill levels are needed.

The first volunteer day will be 9 AM- 3 PM Sat. Sept 19

For more information, to volunteer or donate supplies contact Beth Parr, 663-7466 or bparr@chsgeorgia.org

If you would like to be on a mailing list for updates about the museum, click here.

The Lowcountry Down Syndrome Society (LDSS) has created Savannah’s first Summer Camp for children with Down Syndrome.

The six day program will be held 9 AM-12:30 PM on July 27, 29, and 31 and August 3, 5 and 7.

Camps are funded in part by the money the organization raises through their annual Down Syndrome Buddy Walk each October-requiring participants to pay just $30 for the three day camp. Educational and recreational activities are scheduled for children ages 3 to 6. Speech, physical and occupational therapists are on board to assist the children in their continued growth and development, while having fun.

For more information or to register, contact John Bogardus at (912) 728-8505 or click here.

For more local summer camps, click here.

We’re often too busy to savor the beauty of being a mom and spending time with our kids. A Waldorf-inspired parent-tot program on Tybee Island helps moms slow down for a few hours each week and appreciate our role while our children enjoy creative play, meaningful imitation and oral learning.

The parent-tot program for toddlers, ages 1 to 4, is in the home of Bridget Lawson, who is Waldorf-schooled and trained. Tots and moms bake bread; watch puppet shows in Bridget’s sun-dappled playroom, equipped with Waldorf wooden toys (and pictured here); engage in crafts, morning circle time, story, outdoor play; and enjoy an organic morning snack.

Tots even grind the wheat to make the bread, as pictured below.

My son and I are relishing Bridget’s first session, which has two more classes, 9:30-11:30 Fri. March 6 & March 13. We drive away from each program feeling happy and renewed, with our bag of fresh wheat rolls we made together.  The next session starts Fri. March 27 and will run for eight weeks ending on Fri. May 15.

Beginning the week of March 9 is a separate four-week Waldorf-inspired parent-infant program for infants ages 6 weeks to 10 months.  The Nurtured Newborns Class at Bridget’s home will include observation and discussion of infant behavior, simple circle games and lullabies, snack for the parents and a sharing of insights from recommended study books.

For registration and cost info. on either program, call 413.575.5338.

The aim of Waldorf is to produce lifelong learners and teach through movement and example.

In the past 20 years, Waldorf has become the largest private-school movement in the world, according to Mothering magazine. Waldorf methods are now being taken up by a growing number of homeschooling families and public charter and magnet schools nationally.

Read more about the Waldorf educational philosophy here.

All I can say is I am relieved my son has two more years until he’s eligible for Georgia’s free pre-k program because it’s going to take me that long to figure out the application process.

We continue to receive questions from SouthernMamas readers about the free pre-k application process, currently under way @ Savannah-Chatham public schools until March 16. Children 4-years-old prior to or on Sept. 1, 2009 are eligible for free pre-K in Georgia.

Private child-care facilities also offer the free pre-k, but many have a different application process. If, for example, you are interested in a private child care that has it, call the school to find out when their applications are due.  Savannah Youth University and The Children’s House take applications around mid-February. YMCA Childcare Plus starts accepting applications Feb. 15.

Many are on a first-come, first-serve basis, such as Maggies’ Morning School ,which is already full and only accepting waiting-list applications now.

Perhaps the most confusing is Charles Ellis Montessori Academy, part of the Savannah-Chatham public school system. Although Ellis doesn’t have a designated attendance zone for its higher grades, it does for free pre-k. That means they have TWO pre-k lotteries. One for those fortunate people living in the attendance zone and another for those of us outside the zone. The first lottery group gets first dibs on free pre-k slots. Those in the second group don’t have much chance.

For more info on the free pre-k program, click here.  Good luck to those you immersed in the process.

Now that the application process is under way for the funded (i.e. FREE) Georgia Pre-K program (Feb. 2-March 16),  SouthernMamas.com is receiving scores of questions about how the pre-K lottery system works. We’re trying to figure it out, too.

Children 4-years-old prior to or on Sept. 1, 2009 are eligible for free pre-K in Georgia. You can only apply to TWO different schools and your first choice must be the school in your public school attendance zone – which is a real downer for those of us in a designated zone with a less than desirable elementary school.

SouthernMamas reader Jennifer Rodgers emails:  Where can I get a list of the designated attendance zone?

Answer: Click on this school locator and put in your address. If you have any questions, call the Savannah-Chatham School’s pre-K program director LaWanda Ransom @ 912. 395.1154 or 912. 395.5635 or email her @ lawanda.ransom@sccpss.com

Private schools also offer the free pre-K program including Maggies’ Morning School and Candler’s The Children’s House.

The lottery is held @ the school sites @ 10 am March 18. You can attend the lottery drawing to see if your child gets in to the pre-K program of your choice or wait to be notified in writing of acceptance or waiting list status during the week of March 23.

For more info, read past posts on this subject here and here

Interested in sending your child to St. Andrew’s School?

The independent college preparatory school on Wilmington Island has several open house dates for Pre-K 3 through Grade 12 including:
Tues., Jan. 13 at 9 a.m.
Fri. Jan. 16 at 12 noon
Mon., Jan. 26 at 9 a.m.
Wed., Jan. 28 at 12 noon
Thurs., Feb. 5 at 9 a.m.

Call 897.4941 to reserve your spot or for more information. To find out more about the school, click here.

Dyslexia is one of the most misunderstood learning difficulties.

But help is available. The Reading Quest Learning Center in Pooler – a new sponsor of SouthernMamas – specializes in dyslexia and non-medication programs for ADD/ADHD. Recently, Reading Quest also added a program for autism.

Lesa Hall, who holds a B.S. in Education and has 15 years of teaching experience, founded Reading Quest Learning Center in May 2006. She uses the Davis Dyslexia Correction Program that addresses the learning styles of children and adults with dyslexia and ADD/ADHD.

The center’s philosophy is that dyslexia is not a disease, defect, or malformation of the brain, but a highly creative thought process and a special way of reacting to confusion.

The goal of Reading Quest’s 5-day intensive/one-on-one dyslexia program – which is also open to adults – is for the student to acquire the basic tools of literacy including:
-The ability to recognize and correct disorientations at will
-The ability to focus attention
-The knowledge of how to eliminate confusions in words and symbols
-Increased self-confidence and ability in reading writing math or physical skills

Reading Quest is offering a free consultation and assessment with a 10 percent discount off the program fee.

Read more about Reading Quest’ s dyslexia sessions by clicking here; by calling 912.330.8577 or emailing lesa@readingquestga.com.

The center’s new autism program is for children 8 and older as well as adults. Non-verbal students are accepted. For more info on the one-on-one, 4 to 5 week autism sessions, click here. Call 912.330.8577 to schedule a free presentation of the program.

Babble.com has an interesting and quick Q&A today with Sanda Tsing Loh, author of the new book “Mother on Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting.”

Loh , a writer, performer and NPR essayist, is now a staunch defender of “those scary, scary” public schools. She points an accusatory finger at moms like me who are leaning toward choosing private schools (if we can save enough money by the time my son’s ready and if we don’t make the lottery for the public school Charles Ellis Montessori Academy).

Should we feel “judged” or “disrespected” or “guilty” for choosing private schools over public?

That depends, according to Loh. If you are disgusted with the state of public education, the best solution is getting involved and making improvements as a public school parent. Loh says she has a big problem with “The very elite, wealthy blue, blue Democrat, Manhattan or L.A. people railing against the educational system” while sending their kids to exclusive private schools.

“They could make it (the public school system) better. All the money they’re dumping into the private schools, all the favors they’re doing for private schools — speaking at commencements, the fund raising, teaching the little Latin class, dumping all their resources into the private schools — then looking critically at all of us people out there in the not-so pretty schools. Those are people I would judge most harshly,” Loh says.

She also defends the stereotypical PTA mom who makes school fund raising her life’s mission, leaving other parents feeling inferior.

“It’s the moms at public schools who are doing all of it: cutting out cute heart-shaped figures, bringing snacks for field trips, figuring out the system, selling the wrapping paper, writing grants for the violins, getting money together for a music program,” Loh says. “So the PTA mom is glaring at you. . . leave her alone, she’s getting a new gym built!”

Read the Q&A here.

Below is a blurb from Amazon about her book. It sounds like an interesting, albeit guilt-provoking, read.

“Prompted by her own midlife crisis, Loh throws her frantic energy not into illicit affairs, shopping binges, or exotic trips, but into the harrowing heart of contemporary, dysfunctional L.A. life when she realizes that she can’t afford private school for her daughter, and her only alternative is her neighborhood’s public school, Guavatorina, where most of the kids speak Spanish and qualify for free lunches. “

Starting Sept. 15, Telfair Museum of Art will offer youth studio art classes for a variety of age levels, including as young as 5. Check out all the classes by clicking here.

Sessions include:

• Home-school art: painting – art fundamentals for Savannah-area home-schooled children.
• Photography, drawing, mixed media.
• Multi-media Saturday series – painting, sculpture and drawing.

To register, call 912.790.8823.

Don’t forget, the next Toddler Third Thursday @ Telfair’s Jepson Center of the Arts is 10-11:30 am Sept. 18. Toddler Third Thursday is designed for preschoolers ages 3-5 and their adult companions.

Toddlers explore artwork and partake in a fun-filled art project relating to their tour. Colors, shapes and material vocabulary are encouraged. Each month brings a different tour and project. This month’s is s farms and barns art activity based on the work of William Christenberry.

Kids also get time to play in the ArtZeum, the Jepson’s interactive children’s section, and can take home their art masterpieces. Admission is $4 per child with adult admission fee. Call 912.790.8823 to register.

You spent all summer cultivating your child’s love for the ocean.

Now you can celebrate that nautical love @ Gray’s Reef 2008 Ocean Film Festival. The festival has a special program for kids – Seaside Saturday. It will be 9-10 am Sat. Sept. 20 @ SCAD’s Trustees Theatre – Broughton Street. All children are invited to attend this FREE! event with their parents.

The event includes these kid-friendly films:

• Sanctuary Sam – (1 min) – The National Marine Sanctuary System’s “flippered” ambassador delivers a message.
• Water Detectives – (11 min) – Children of one Mexican town teach the adults how to conserve water.
• Ride of the Mergansers – (11 min) – Baby mergansers get their first look at the world.
• Always Ready – (4 min) – A kid-sized view of the U.S. Coast Guard produced by 8-year-old Herbert Gilman.

For more info, click here.

Time to register for fall Kindermusik sessions, which start after Labor Day in Savannah, Richmond Hill, Wilmington Island, The Landings and Rincon.

Attention work-outside-the-home SouthernMamas who have difficulty finding weekend mommy-and-me activities: Saturday Kindermusik sessions will be offered in Savannah, starting Sept. 20!

Kindermusik classes are available for children ages 0 to 7. Classes are divided by age including the “Zoom Buggy and Dream Pillow” class for ages 0-20 months; “Milk and Cookies” for ages 18 months to 3.5 years; “Hello Weather, Let’s Play Together” for ages 3 to 5; and Family Time classes for newborns to 7 year-olds and the whole family.

Kindermusik also has a baby sign language class, “Sign and Sing,” for hearing children ages 6 months to 36 months and their parents. You and your child will learn over 150 signs to help you communicate.

Browse the local Kindermusik Web site and register for the Fall’08 session. Be sure to tell them SouthernMamas sent you!

Would love to know your thoughts on my column today in the Savannah Morning News Accent section. The subject: to spank or not to spank? You can read it here.

The column prompted several emails from anti-spanking advocates, including the folks @ the Center for Effective Discipline, which subscribes to the belief “Spare the child, lose the rod.” They pointed me to a Q&A for parents with experts answering parents’ questions about discipline. Read it by clicking here. Their Web site also offers a theory on the origin of Biblical quote “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” Read it here.

Check out an extremely detailed debate about spanking between parenting expert John Rosemond, pro-spanking, and the Center for Effective Discipline, anti-spanking. Click here to read it.

How’s your child’s day-care?

State inspectors have issued more than 800 citations for violations at 85 licensed day care learning centers in Chatham County since June 2007, according to this article in today’s Savannah Morning News.

The good news is there were also seven local day cares that received NO violations during the same period.

Here are the day cares with serious problems, according to the article:

CHILDCARE NETWORK NO. 20, 12441 WHITE BLUFF ROAD

ANGEL’S CHILDCARE & ENRICHMENT CENTER II, 409 E. 39TH ST.

DUTCHTOWN CHILDREN’S CENTER, 911 DUTCHTOWN ROAD

THE STARTING POINT DAY CARE, 1929 SKIDAWAY ROAD

ELF’S CHILDREN CENTER, 4802 KIM ST.

Centers not cited include the following:

ABC Child Care Center #1, 1106 E. 48th St.

Kicklighter Academy, 7219 Seawright Drive

Sanctuary Child Learning And Development Center, 8912 Whitfield Ave.

The Lady Bamford Early Childhood Education Center, 1410 Richards St.

Wesley Community Centers CC, 1601 Drayton St.

Savannah Morning News also put together a database of state violations issued to Chatham County child care learning centers. To see if your child’s day-care received state violations, click here.

The Sandbox, an interactive children’s museum on Hilton Head Is., is more than just a fun place to visit with the kids.

The Sandbox also will offer a music enrichment class and dramatic arts class for kids September thru October.

The parent-accompanied classes are taught by Beth Green, a professional children’s music and drama educator, entertainer and children’s choir director known as the Music Lady. The 45-minute classes are from Sept. 2-Oct. 7.
The musical enrichment class, for children 1-3 years old, is 9:30-10:15 am Tuesdays. The dramatic arts class, for children 4-6 years old, is 10:30-11:15 am Tuesdays.

Each class is $25 per child for the six-week sessions. Family rates are available when registering three or more children. Registration is required and space is limited. 843.842.7645

You’re invited to the release of the loggerhead sea turtle, Squirty 1:30-3:00pm Thurs. Aug. 7 @ the Tybee Island Pier.

Burton 4-H Center on Tybee Island has raised Squirty since he was one week old and weighed only 20 grams. He arrived as a straggler hatchling so he could be an ambassador to children. Since then, 12,000 students have seen him and learned more about endangered sea turtles. Squirty is now almost two years old and weighs in at an impressive 19 lbs.

Squirty’s “bon voyage” party Thursday will include educational booths with info about sea turtles and other animals; food and T-shirts for sale to help raise money for 4-H’s next sea turtle; and a 2 pm demonstration nest and contest. Then, Squirty will make his way to the ocean.

Burton 4-H Center is accepting donations to help fund the release. Donations can be made by clicking here

A big thank you to SouthernMamas subscriber Deborah Evans for letting us know about this fun event.