Pre-Schools?

[sleepies]

my baby is only 5 months, but im already thinking about pre-schools.

we are new to the area.

how did you find your preschool?

is their such a thing as a public pre-school?

what kind of things should you look for in a good one?

we don't qualify for "head start".

i wish wish wish that everyone could be in headstart. my first son was in that and it was fantastic

what do i do?

we aren't religious. can i send him to a religious school? ack! what do you think? what do you do?

[peacemama]

Good questions!

One of the easiest ways to find a good preschool is to go to the NAEYC website at www.naeyc.org and search for schools in your area. Very few schools are accredited by the NAEYC (The National Association for the Education of Young Children), because they have very stringent requirements about teacher qualifications, student/teacher ratio, discipline methods, etc. Most schools could never pass the requirements.

As far as public vs. private, some public school districts have Pre-K classes, but that is only for the actual "pre-k" year, the year before kindergarten. Quality private preschools can be very expensive. One option is to look for a co-op, where parents work as teacher helpers in the classroom. The other option is to just not send him - no child "needs" preschool if he has an involved, loving family and is exposed to lots of enriching experiences (like everyday life! What a learning experience a trip to the market can be!) and lots of books.

My dd has been in preschool since September and these are the things that I liked about it:

NAEYC accredited, meets all the best standards as mentioned above

Gentle discipline methods - no "time-outs" (most schools do use timeout)

Open separation policy, meaning mommies can stay if children have a hard time separating. Any school that expects you to leave a crying child is just cruel.

Emphasis on play and fun, not letters and numbers and computers

Lots of physical play - there's a great indoor play area for use in bad weather

Beautiful natural setting - the playground overlooks a large duckpond, and is equipped with great playstructures, like a wooden pirate ship, wooden train and fire truck, etc.

The best way to choose a school, once you've narrowed down your search, is to try to spend a few days observing, preferably without your child. If a school refuses to let you do this, beware! Don't worry about it now, but save this info. I've been a teacher for 10 years, and I know some stuff!

[sleepies]

thank you

since you are a teacher I guess you noticed my error (There) not (their) oh well. I didn't go to pre-school hahaha

you have some GREAT information! I am going to print it out and check out your link too!

[peacemama]

I'm so glad you found my advice helpful! Let me know what you find out!

[daylily]

Why even bother with preschool? I haven't sent any of my children to preschool and they are all able to keep up with their classmates easily. 9 yo ds has been reading at adult level since the middle of first grade. My kindergartener's teacher (Waldorf teacher at a public school!) agrees with me and says that children learn what's most important at the kitchen sink with their mothers.
But, man, I have to take a lot of flack for this. People think I'm crazy for not sending them to preschool. Once, when my sisters-in-law were grilling me about this, the only arguement I had that made sense to them was that I was trying to avoid all the birthday parties! Then they all started nodding as if I'd said something very wise. I remember a mean woman who was testing my son for a gifted and talented school (he was accepted) seemed absolutely horrified when I revealed he'd never been to preshool. Children are home for such a short time, and once they do start school, they're in to for over 20 years, I just don't see the sense in preschool.

[yogamama]

I tend to agree with daylily, but I'm sort of torn. My son will be 3 next fall and I'm considering a 2 day a week 3 hour preschool.

I'm going over all the "why am I considering this?" stuff in my own head. I don't think kids NEED preschool if the home environment is enriching and good for parents and kids. I work part time, so I really don't want preschool to interfere with our time together, but I also don't want to send him to a full day preschool and out of the loving home environment at our babysitters house.

I'm thinking about seeing if I can find a few other peopel to do a cooperative preschool using the book "Playful Learning".

[lauren]

I would agree with the suggestions Peacemama posted along with the NAEYC website. Along with the structural considerations, when you observe, note the quality of the communication between the teachers and the children. I've been in a lot of programs to observe, and occasionally will find a program that "technically" meets all the criteria for NAEYC, but the teachers will not be communicating positively with the children. The teachers have to really LIKE kids, and that, unfortunately, is not always the case. The communication should be upbeat, respectful and always directed at moving the child forward and towards problem solving--even in the midst of conflict or annoying behavior.

I struggled with sending my 3 y.o. to preschool. However, she very much wanted to go, having an older bro. who is in first grade this year (and who had also gone to the same preschool at age 4). She loves having a school of her own. The program is part of the local early intervention system, which serves children with special needs, but also accepts many (mostly) children with normal needs. It is only 2.5 hrs, 2 X per week. She looks forward to it all the time.

I think the decision about whether to send your child depends totally on your child and your family situation, rather than any particular belief system per se. A family might choose to send one of their children and not another, based on temperament, activity level, intelligence, social skills etc. A flexible approach seems to serve most families well.

It's good to think ahead!

[Alenushka]

My preshool bias

I always wanted to send my kids to pre school nd to a public or private school later.
I wish my mom sent me to part time pre school. I had fun at home and we did
project and books etc. etc. it was blast. But I never learned about group dynamic
even though I had friends. But playing in the yard with the friend is very different
form dynamics of the class and I simply did not know how to deal with all of it when
I went to school at the age of 7 (In Russia). It was painful. I did not know how to
deal with rules and unpleasant things. It took me a while. My brother was home
home schooled after 4th grade. I think now my mom and brother would have been a
poster family for unschooling. It is true he could breed rare fish at age of 11 because
he studied genetics on his own but he never learned things such as rules, duty and
structure. He is not capable of supporting himself right now , at age of 30. I have to
pay for his dental bills. I am sorry for the long post, but I just want you to see, that
like everyone else I have my biases. Maybe if my brother was different, I would
have selected a different pre school for my child. I interviewed many preschool
before I found one I loved. I liked some co-ops , but I needed occasional extended
hours so I can do some work. Then I went to some highly recommended academic
pre school where it was promised to me that my son would go to Harvard later in
life: . I do not have money for Harvard and I do not think it is right to put
this kids of pressure on the kid. Then I went to several free play preschools. Well,
pre-schools are expensive in Bay Area and I was not about to pay $600 for free
play. This is what I do at home. And then finally, ta -dah, I found a happy middle. It
was a JCC preschool (I wanted a Jewish school) which used Emilio Reggio system.
It is child lead curriculum. they have some general goals and activities but they listen
to the kids. They spend at lot of time outside. Tthey have -pre reading program,
music and gymnastic lessons. Let me give you an example of what they did. Lets say
kids are playing outside and turn on the water. One of the kids says, "Look, it is a
river!" The teacher will ask "Who lives in the river?" some other kids says "Otters"
after that snake break they will go back to the room, pick a book about otters and
beavers and read together. Some kid will say how cool the dams are. So, next 2
weeks they will built dams, make a rainbow river art project and visit the local lake
to learn about ecology and water bugs. My son had tons of fun and learned a lot. I
was amazed when he explained to me how rain happens by using word like
condensation an fully understanding what it means. Our preschool was very very
hands on. I also agree with the poster above that regardless of the system, the wart
between teacher and kids is very very important. We notice it right away during our
pre school tours. sorry for the long post. Good luck

[lauren]

I have heard wonderful things about the Reggio model, but have never observed a school first hand that uses it. The one you described sounds wonderful! Where can folks can more info. on this philosophy?

[Alenushka]

some sites

Here waht I found about it on the NEt
http://caeyc.homestead.com/reggio.html
http://ericeece.org/reggio.html
Our school was very devoted to it. Director and 2 teacher went to Italy for seminars and workshops. This was another thing which impressed me about our preshool. All teachers had a minimum of BA in Early Education and administration provide continuous education to teachers and seminars for parents. teacher aids were great. It was a right preshool for my son because it had right combination of stucture and free activities. I could ffel the enthusiams in the air1 another great thing was combination of routine and unexpected. The shcool followed Jewish holiday calndear, so certain thing were expected but practicaly all toher projects were kids lead. Someitme we would receive request for empty milk container because kids were buiding watterfall, sometime request for broking things becuase kids thought that a mechanical dragon was a great ide etc

[Alenushka]

The other thing that I thought was very neat and helped my son to become interested in writing later was their diary for older kids. Obviously, 4 y.o do not write but they can draw. so the drew in a large diary what they wanted to express for a day. If they wanted to name it, the teacher would write it for thme. I liked that teachers did not correct the names of the pictures. Sometime it was something "this thing in the sky " ot my "blue water". then in pre- K some kids would write simple word if they felt like it, and again, no correction were made until kid was interested. and i loved the amount of time was spent outside playing, taking care of plants and pets. My son also bcame interested in photogrpahy becuase they were all allowed to help teacher with picture taking.

[Alenushka]

death and pre schoolers

I wanted to give you an example os what was hapening in the pre school which completely convinced me of their commitment to listne to the children, their true interest in child's expressiona and desire to provide the childrne with tools of the learning and expression. It is not that difficult to follow kids lead when kids wnat to talk about dinasours and learn about river otter. But in our pre shcool teacher belived that no issue was too serious for childrne to discuss. Including death. I alway had a feeling that death is denied at all possibale cost in US. They ton of effor is spent to live as long as possiblae and to saty as young as possibale. Thus I was shoked witth the approach of our teacher (plesantely shoked) In one month several childrne suffered los of granparents, a baby (6 month of pregnancy) sibling, cat (my son etc. So, our teacher had a dicussion about death with kids during which childrne expressed what they felt and thought. then theyr read books about death. and later, in art room many childrne drew and sculpted what they felt. Our son drew a wonderful picture of what he felt was our cats resting place. In our monhtly neslater my sons teacher printed what children said and it was truly amasing.

[bestjob]

In Canada, YMCA Nursery Schools are based on the Reggio Emilia model. We love the one our kids go to!