Preschool

My children have been home with me so haven't been to daycare. They'll eventually have to go to school and I don't want the whole idea to be a complete shock to them when they really *have* to go, so I want to get them into preschool. However, even though I worked in a daycare center 15 years ago, I don't know exactly what to look for when finding a place. Any tips?

Thank you

 

FOr me, it was important to look for a preschool that was established and had a great reputation. I wanted a school that had an appropriate student/ teacher ratio. Having a good balance between structure and allowing the children to make choices was important to me. I also wanteda preschool that had an equal balance of academics and play. Lastly, and becaue I'm a worry-wart, a fenced in playgroud was a must. (And a 10% twin discount was nice!).

Good luck! Your little one's will love school!

 

The thing I looked for the most is how did it "feel" in the preschool. The one I chose just "felt" inviting to me. ardon: I also wanted bathrooms in each classroom, an indoor area to play when they could not go outside, some academics as well as lots of free play time, a good routine and a nice child/teacher ratio. Mine will start in 3 weeks and I know they will love it. :good:

 

I agree with Amy. :good: I didn't have word of mouth to go on since I don't know many in this area sending their kids to preschools here so I had to go by how I felt, and how the kids reacted on our visits. The school I picked felt very inviting to me. I also looked at how the teachers were interacting with the students and vice versa. Good luck and remember you can always switch schools if you find the fit isn't the best. :hug:

 

We've been to open houses at 3 great schools. They're all great on paper - but like pps said, it's all feel. Objectively, they're all very good, but one turned us off, one was ok, and we fell in love with one. Meet the teachers, see the space.

More objective stuff to look at... Student/teacher ratio. Academic/free play ratio. And some open-ended questions we asked when we visited: what is your approach to discipline? What do you think preschool is all about/what are kids here to learn? (So it's worth thinking about what YOU want out of preschool. Do you want a focus on "academic" stuff like letters, numbers, etc? Do you want a focus more on social skills?)

 

Great advice from the PP's. We went with word-of-mouth recommendations, and general "feel" also. But, I did look for a NAEYC accreditation, which is hard to get and maintain. (Although there are plenty of excellent schools that don't have this.)

I knew I wanted a mostly social/play-based preschool -- circle time, arts and crafts, music, recess, etc. It was most important to me that my kiddos learned to respect adults who weren't their parents, learned to sit and listen (and not climb on tables or run away during an activity), and basically become accustomed to a school setting. But I didn't really want academics at this age.

When you look at schools, see if you can observe a regular day in progress. We looked for how well the kids were taken care of, whether the teachers cleaned them properly after meals, whether they were supervised adequately on the playground, etc.

 

All of these are excellent points. I was considering putting off my higher education for a few years to get a "j.o.b." to send the boys to preschool this fall because I fell in love with an (expensive) school via their website. Great marketing, that's for sure! When I got there for the tour, it was SO far from what I hoped for that we completely abandoned that idea and decided to keep the boys home for another year. The 2-year-olds were zombies and not one seemed to be bright, happy, or engaged at all. I do think the school might be great for older kids, but it definitely was not the kind of place I would want to spend $2000 per month to send my kids to at age 2, that's for sure!

We are now revisiting the idea of touring schools for next year, and I am going to be sure to keep my mind open but also be very attentive to how the school feels, as well as how the other kids seem to be doing. Like Becca, I'm most concerned about helping my kids make a smooth transition socially and emotionally. The rest can come with time.

 

When we were looking, I luckily didn't have to look very hard. It was really between a couple of small, private preschools (would have considered public but the preschool costs the same as private preschool here, and the private schools are smaller), and one was being started at the small K-8 that my sister teaches at, so that one definitely got a closer look. Really, I just knew the minute I met the director that I didn't want to look any further.

I wanted something that was more play-based, circle time, etc., but that still taught them some of the structure and expectations of school.

It was still scary to send them last year (2 mornings a week) but they truly ended up adoring it. This year we are going back (3 mornings a week), they will be in separate classrooms, too. They are VERY excited to go back!

 

mine have been in daycare since they were 2 and they built a huge amount of social skills there - got plenty of free play time as well as did arts and crafts and colored etc...we are switching out of that daycare to a more academically driven pre-school type of setting...my son is VERY bored where he's at (and getting himself into time out quite a bit) and there is very little "structure" which he desperately needs...my son is incredibly smart (he's already starting to read words) and I feel he needs more than he's getting...don't get me wrong they also have plenty of play time, go outside daily as long as the temperature is over 25 degrees and do lots of arts and crafts but its got more structure - a 1 to 10 student ratio and its very clean, each classroom has a bathroom etc...