School started three weeks ago and already my daughter's desk has been moved twice. Her teacher emailed me that Lauren talks/socializes excessively, and it's starting to affect her use of time and finishing tasks.

She is nine and ADHD. We do not use meds. I think she talks excessively because either she is bored or does not comprehend an assignment and uses her social skills as a way for her to cope/avoid...?

The school knows she has ADHD. But I am questioning the effects of public school and its entire philospohy. We are in one of the best public school systems in the country -- but I don't know if it is best for my daughter.

I've been reading about Waldorf School and am wondering if anyone on the forum has any experience with this school? I am going to attend an open house in a few weeks, but thought I'd throw the question out there.

Waldorf's third grade class here has seven students. They are working on planting gardens, learning plastering and making soap as well as age-appropriate academics. Quite different than the left-brained world of public school. Any experience with Waldorf?

They come from germany and a lot of people I know that went there are nice and cool people. However they do have a strong spiritual touch and there are critics to some of the things they are doing there...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_schools
The german article is pretty good, too bad it's not all in the english version :(

Yeah, thank you for the link. I know that its strong German-based philosophy is a turn off for some. Also, the kids don't have homework and there are no text books. The school here only goes up to 6th grade. So it may be a difficult transition going to a more conventional middle school.

Oh, ok. Well that's one of the points that are being debated over here, that their style of taking care of the children doesn't prepare them for the performance oriented society we have. It's a whole philosophy behind those schools and you should read a bit about it and see if that matches.
So chances are that when you take him out after the 6th grade it's really going to be a big leap he has to make.
One of the things I did like was that they only have one teacher, at least until 8th grade. I was fortunate enough to spend 2 years in a school in switzerland where this is the norm (also much smaller classes) and both helped me a lot.

It is a cult. They have some very strange beliefs. It is not just an alternative teaching method.

http://www.waldorfcritics.org/active/concerns.html