preschool tips?????

I am beginning the process of looking at two day a week preschools for J & T. I really believe the social interactions (aside from with me) would be good. I am looking at 2-2.5 hours a day two days a week. I have looked at one so far and plan to look at two more. I am sooooooo picky. Can anyone shed light onto things that they found were good in the preschools they picked. Thanks for your help. Tara

 

I am beginning the process of looking at two day a week preschools for J & T. I really believe the social interactions (aside from with me) would be good. I am looking at 2-2.5 hours a day two days a week. I have looked at one so far and plan to look at two more. I am sooooooo picky. Can anyone shed light onto things that they found were good in the preschools they picked. Thanks for your help. Tara

 

Mine go one day a week for 3 hours, but next year will go 2 days a week for 3 hours. The preschool mine go to is an accredited preschool and has a "learn through play" philosophy. They do have a color of the month, a theme each month, etc. but they don't do worksheets or anything like that. So if this month's color is red, they might do an art project using red paint, use red construction paper or use red crayons. Their class has 8 kids and 2 teachers. They send a little report card home each week telling me who they played with, how much snack they ate, what activities they participated in, etc. They serve healthy snacks and only give water as a drink (not juice or soft drinks). I don't know if that helps you, but I'm really happy with our school.

 

I know I am in the minority here but all I really wanted to know was that my children were safe, happy and excited to go every day. My point in sending them was to be with other children their age and to learn to follow direction from people other than myself. I am not overly concerned with the curriculum although they do attend an accredited school.

 

I don't know if I'm much help because we pretty much decided we were going to send the girls to our church affiliated one. So we never did shop around. I would look for licensed teachers which is what our teachers are and accredited preschool like the above pp mentioned. Our girls are in the 3's two day a week class. I love our school and to me they incorporate our religion with class teaching. The girls are learning to write their own names. They had different lesson plans for each week and the letter of the week. Last week they were learning how to cut and paste things in order. Our girls have learned so much in the 5 months they have been going. They have a class size of 15. It is very structed. The first thing they do is hang up their coats and put their folder in a bucket and wash their hands once they go inside the room. Then they begin their morning. Good luck with your search.

Elizabeth

 

Just saw a segment on Good Morning America regarding "preschool 101" some questions to ask for 3yr preschool and what to look for.

1)Are they state licensed? This will ensure that then follow minimum safety requirements on site.

2)Does a child need to be fully toilet trained? Most do not allow pull ups.

3)Look for child-teacher ratio of less than 1 teacher per 8-10 children.

4)What is their discipline policy?

5) What is the structure of the day?

6) What is parent involvement?

 

Preschool for 3 year olds should be play based. I chose one because they had more than one classroom at a time, so the boys could go at the same time, but be in different classrooms if I wanted.

How do they handle accidents? Our will change them, and encourages the use of underpants, and basically just want to know if they have self-help skills--they will work on it with them if they aren't 100% trained.

Take the girls and visit. Are the kids happy and playing? Are they waiting around, or is everyone busy?

Also, ask what they do if they notice problems, like if they notice a speech problem, how do they handle it? You might be surprised at the answers here.

Finally, ask around. When you come in contact with people in your area with young children, ask where their kids went to preschool, that is usually the best way to find the good ones.

OK, one more, while my preschool is in a church, it is not affiliated with the chuch, basically, they share the space. You might want to look more for a "Nursery School", since that is generally the term for the more traditional preschool setting that you are looking for.

 

Some great advice I read said to visit some places and look for staff who seem to really love the children. I'm with Dianne - "academics" weren't a high priority for me, although our pre-school does teach them a lot. The emphasis is on learning through fun.

 

I just put my single child into preschool for two days. He loves it. He will be 3 on april 1st. It is good for him to get out,, I totally support it. He goes from 9-11:30, 2 days. GOOd Luck!!

 

I just enrolled my girls in fall preschool. They turn 3 in June.

I had been paying attention to local preschools as I had been driving around soI knew which ones were nearby. I checked for internet sites and ruled out any which didn't have a site. I also talked to other moms in my neighborhood and asked what they liked. And, because my girls get speech help from the school district, I asked the therapist to check around.

I came down to 2 that I visited - one in our community center and the other in a local church. I chose the latter becauase of the location, the larger facility and the curriculum. Turns out, dh waited 1-1/2 hours on 1/16/07 (when enrollment started) to enroll our girls for fall! Guess that means it's good.

 

With my three sons, I've had experience with four preschools. They all did things differently, and most were beneficial.

The only thing that bothered me was the one that went from being a traditional preschool to a daycare/preschool. Kids arrived at all different times and came on different days, some stayed for breakfast/lunch and naptime and some didn't. The flexibility was great for working parents who needed it as a daycare facility, but it wasn't the type of traditional structure I was looking for. So we left that one after a couple months.

When my boys were three, it was important to me that they had warm, caring teachers and a family atmosphere, since they'd never been away from me, and we found that. For the four-year-old class, it was more important to me that they be challenged a bit more and not coddled quite so much, to prepare them for being away from me all day when they start kindergarten, and we found that.

As far as specific curriculum, I didn't worry about it. I liked the teachers and the classrooms, I visited a class in session and liked how the kids behaved and followed directions, and that was what mattered most.