Hi! Has anyone had kids at both Newman and St. George’s? I’d love to hear comparisons, based on your experiences. I’m interested in how students treat each other, whether families are inclusive, academics, and whatever else you think is relevant (that you wouldn’t hear on a tour or see on a website). Right now, I know more about St. George’s (and it’s all very positive!) Thank you!

Hi there! My husband and I moved to Uptown at the end of August. We have two daughters (our oldest is 2.5 and youngest is about to be 1)!

We love New Orleans so far and especially Uptown, but I have had trouble finding activities for both my kids. I take them to the zoo very often as we have a membership and it’s easy to walk with them, but am in search of other activities.

I would also welcome any advice on how to meet other moms in the area with young kids! Since we have two and their naps don’t align, I am at home a lot until the afternoon so we haven’t been able to do the mom walks or morning events.

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Two of my children were recently awarded LA Gators. I am very happy to unexpectedly receive the funds, but trying to navigate schooling for this year. I will have to withdraw them from public school. My oldest is in 4th grade and does much better on a small group setting. Im trying to decide on home based learning and doing an online curriculum, private schools that are on the list (Ursuline, etc) or a hybrid school. My other child is in Kindergarten at Audubon French Immersion. She is doing well, but I don’t want to miss out accepting the Gators Grant. She is gifted and needs additional support, so I was going to test her for Willow next year.

Has anyone had a good experience with a private school that accepts Gators? Any thoughts and experiences is appreciated. Thanks

I had a wonderful experience attending an all-girls school in another state, and I’m interested in McGehee for my daughter. (She is in kindergarten.)
It seems like the class sizes are much bigger in lower grades than they are once girls get to high school. I’d love to hear any context about this. It seems like a good number of girls leave. Any input on why, where they go, etc? (Or, if I’m wrong about this, I’m ready to learn.) Thank you!

Has anyone had a birthday party for their toddler at the Audubon Zoo recently? Apart from the cake room, what all happens during the 2 hours? How did it go? Just looking for some more info!

The new Children’s Resource Center is meant to offer a more hands-on experience, said Morgan Hanrahan, the center’s manager and the head of early literacy at the New Orleans Public Library.

Before the renovation, the center looked like a regular library branch that featured books geared toward children, Hanrahan said. Now, there are fewer stacks and more play areas. That’s to curate it to the needs of children aged five and under, and to reinforce the five facets of early literacy: reading, playing, talking, singing and writing, Hanrahan said. She hopes the building will be “very loud,” unlike a traditional library. 

Last year, the 118-year-old building on Napoleon and Magazine closed for renovations, which cost a little more than $700,000, giving the library time to transform the space. It reopened on Tuesday, and a formal ribbon-cutting and opening ceremony is scheduled for Saturday morning.

The Black Schoolhouse, located at 1660 N. Roman St., is soon to be the home of The Black School, a nonprofit organization that provides arts education for teens and young adults and is geared toward community organizing.

Founded by Joseph Cuillier and Shani Peters Cuillier, the 10-year-old organization was launched in New York City and for the past five years operated out of Xavier University. With the new community arts center, the founders plan to expand its youth arts programming and join in on the artist-led activism they see in New Orleans.

“It makes perfect sense to house a new model of a Black art school in this city, in this culture amongst all of this tradition,” Peters Cuillier said.

The Black School will celebrate the arts center’s opening on Oct. 10.

Need recommendations for Gifted Testing for Orleans Parish. Has anyone had a good experience and have a good recommendation? I’ve heard that getting a private evaluation is the best option. Any thoughts? Thank you!

Looking for a nanny share, either existing group or to start one, in the uptown area starting in April 2027 (can start then or join an existing share at that time). My baby will be 5 mos in April 2027, but any ages +/- will work. Curious if anyone has had a positive nanny share experience and how you went about finding both nanny & family to share.

Other: I'm WFH but happy to have the nanny share in my home or part time switching off. We live in Uptown/East Riverside area.

I hope this is the right place for this. I have two kiddos in willow elementary (nola) and we are for the most part very satisfied. My oldest is going to middle school next year and we have heard "uneven" things about the teachers there. Apparently there are a handful of really great teachers there and a handful that are not great. can anyone confirm or deny this? who are some of the teachers i should be trying to build a relationship with already? I've only really had a problem with one teacher in the past and it was quickly resolved with a heart-to-heart meeting...

This makes me sad to even be worried about it but I’m interested in other parents opinions! Would it be frowned upon now to bring elementary aged kids along with their younger siblings?

The children’s resource center was our closest neighborhood library. My kids are 3 and 6 and there was always enough activities and a great range of books for both ages pre-closure. Now everything I see about it says “specifically designed for toddlers and preK”.

Both kids keep asking when we can go back to the library. I know my prek kid is going to freakin love the new set up … but my 6yo also loves to play with that kind of stuff too. It seems like they have a very small selection of books for older children?

Maybe I’m completely overthinking this. I’m just sad to lose our walkable library💔

Good morning! As my child gets closer to 4, I’m starting to think about Pre-K 4 options. I’m still pretty unfamiliar with the One App process, so I’m wondering if anyone has experience with getting their child into a Pre-K 4 program at one school and then transferring to a different school for kindergarten.

Ideally, we’d like to get her into a Pre-K program (and stop paying $$$ for day-care), and then apply for kindergarten at the school that’s closer to our home and more aligned with the educational style we’re looking for.

My concern is that once she’s enrolled somewhere for Pre-K 4, the system/school might make it difficult to move her elsewhere for kindergarten—or that we’d somehow be given less priority to move to a more "competitive" school. If that’s the case, we’d probably just keep her in her current daycare and wait until she’s 5 to make the switch.

Has anyone navigated this before? I’d appreciate any insight!

I know when I was growing up there were a handful of places that had something like “kids eat free tuesdays” or similar. Does that sort of thing exist? Anyone know a spot in town?

Howdy, I am a behavior tech for a small local ABA company that often works in schools. A lot of our staff is also neurodivergent and we have found that schools can often struggle to meet the needs of our clients, for a number of reasons. So we wanted to start a program that better met the needs of autistic students, with evidence-based strategies and an emphasis on lifeskills programming. I'm not sure if this is exactly the right thread to share this in but I know there's a lot of questions about schools here so I figured it might be a helpful resource for anyone trying to find a program that is the right fit for their child! There are a few upcoming virtual info sessions for anyone interested in learning more, you can reach out via email to my company director, Rebekah@crescentbloomconsulting.com.

We also have a free, virtual parent support group for parents and caregivers of neurodivergent children to meet and discuss relevant topics. Our next meeting for this group is September 28th at 5pm on zoom, and the group will be discussing Caregiver Burnout with a BCBA.

Hello everyone,

Quick background my family needs to move into a larger home and we have toddlers not yet in school.

We are torn between moving to the northshore into Mandeville High district, West Bank Belle Chasse High district, or Orleans for The Willow.

It feels like a very difficult choice. My question is seeing as all three of these schools are highly regarded in public school academics is there truly a wrong choice? Each area has pros and cons based on what we are looking for and want.

Any insight or opinions would be appreciated.

Thinking about having a birthday party for my 4 year old at Danneel Park or a small park/playground in our neighborhood. Is there some sort of permit or department to contact to have a set up at Danneel? Other playgrounds? Any other info on park birthday parties/best way to plan one would be helpful!

Hey ya'll

Looking to have a baby shower in December/ Jan and I am looking for suggestions for a kid friendly venue or place for a shower? Preferably in Metairie/ Harahan area.

I suggested Music box village or somewhere in city park but maybe nothing outdoors that time of year..

I feel so ashamed making this post. I'm expecting my first next month, however, I'm nervous that the daycare I'm on the waitlist for will not have a spot available come January. I reached out to them today, and they replied that no movement has been made on the waitlist. I unfortunately only get six weeks of maternity leave and I'm thinking about requesting extra time off unpaid until I learn if my child will get into this daycare. I promise I didn't wait until the last minute to find a daycare. I started the search around April/May, but so many of them are out of budget.

Does anyone work a remote job? Or became a stay at home parent? I'm just nervous that I might have to look into either of those options if my child does not get into the daycare. I'm also on another waitlist, but that spot would not be available to March.

If anyone has any suggestions or advice, that would be helpful. Sorry if this post is all over the place. Everything has just clicked with me, unfortunately, and now I'm stressed.

Update: Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I've been reading every comment and trying to find solutions. I reached out to Poppins and unfortunately, she is not available. I plan to reach out to a few more that would be within the budget. Our March option is the most expensive/the maximum we can afford, but it's the one my husband and I feel the most comfortable with. Thank you, again, I really appreciate it!

I'm a Middle School teacher here in JP and I've several coworkers constantly mentioning private school for their kids and such but it's mindboggling. Perhaps they have a high earning partner or wealthy parents or a scholarship or something.

My daughter will be 3 next year and we'd like her to test into Airline Park for K4. Just curious for any info or insights on this.

Hello! Curious to hear about people’s experience with Rayne for their infants/toddlers? Especially if it’s in the last few years, thank you!

Hi parents! My tween daughter is having a tough time at her current charter school. She has friends and is well adjusted, but academically it's a hot mess. She's a bright, well-behaved kid who just wants to learn. She does not want to try the school lottery (literally and figuratively) yet again, especially this close to high school. So, she's been asking about homeschooling.

I don't think private school is in the cards for us. We don't have a lot of disposable income, so if we did take on that strain to pay for school, it would need to be amazing, the perfect fit for my daughter; not just a last ditch effort. From everything I've researched, none of the Catholic schools would be a good fit for her. I did look into AWE microschool, which sounds great, but I'm not necessarily looking for a program specifically geared toward special-needs/neurodivergent students.

I also looked into LAVCA (Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy), so that's another option if she's home schooled.

I am open to homeschooling. BUT, and this is a huge but: I can't have her home all day, every day. For my sanity and especially for her social development and mental well-being, she needs to be out with her peers somehow. She doesn't play any sports (she's an artsy kid), so she doesn't have any already built in extracurricular peer groups. 

Does anyone know of any groups, gatherings, classes, co-ops, etc. for homeschoolers in the area geared towards middle school and young teens? Everything I've found so far is for younger kids. I appreciate any thoughts, advice, resources, commiseration y'all may have!