Choosing a Preschool

"If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, 

for the children are the makers of men."

-Maria Montessori

I don't know about you, but trying to decide on a preschool almost made me need a Xanax.

Here was the Micaela method of choosing a preschool:

1. Google preschools in my area.

2. Open up tabs for all the schools.

3. Try to learn about the schools.

4. Try to figure out how much tuition was for each school.

5. Get depressed about how much private school costs.

6. Give up.

7. Repeat a month later.

8. After five rounds of this, I walked into the closest preschool and enrolled.

My husband kept asking me what was taking so long. There are so many things to consider, that's what! There are so many things you have to think about when looking at preschools, and I eventually just got overwhelmed and enrolled in the first one I toured, even though it's not as high quality as I would like.

What you have to consider when choosing a preschool boils down to four main things: location, cost, the quality of the school, and the type of school. 

Let me explain the last two points. Unless you live in NYC (in which case, you most certainly will need a prescription for Xanax), there are probably five main types of child care centers in your area: traditional, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Head Start, and family child care. 

• Traditional: The classrooms are usually divided by peer grouping (children are the same age). Rooms usually have the same learning centers: blocks, math and science, library, art, dramatic play, and music and movement. These schools usually follow the same general schedule: choice time, circle time, small groups, playground, lunch, nap, choice time, playground. Children learn from the materials in the room and from lessons teachers give during circle time and small groups.
• Montessori: These classrooms use family groupings, so three-year-old children to six-year-old children are in the same room. Rooms are loaded with didactic materials and life skills experiences (they even wash their own dishes). The children decide what they learn, when they learn. The schedule is generally choice time, playground, lunch, choice time. Teachers walk around the room observing children. If they see a child struggling with a task and don't think the child can do it himself, they will help the child with statements and open-ended questions that prod the child to successful completion.
• I know this is boring, but stay with me.
• Reggio Emilia: This promotes beauty, community, self-expression, and exploration. Learning is based on long-term projects. Teachers closely follow what children say and do in order to figure out what they want to learn about and then provide materials to get the children there. The classrooms provide basic didactic materials and change in order to put in centers based on the children's projects. 
• Head Start: This is a wonderful federal program for low-income families. Head Start tries to address not just the educational needs of its children, but adds health, nutrition, and parent education and involvement. 
• Family child care: Someone prepares a part of their home to be like a small traditional or Montessori classroom. Usually it's one person handling a few children. Schedules and learning are all up to that provider. These are best for infants and toddlers because they do best in home-like environments. These also tend to be a little cheaper because you don't have to pay for administrative costs, building costs, etc. You are basically paying for the provider's time, and the equipment and materials.

Quality mainly boils down to the education of the caregivers, the quality of the classrooms and playground, and the ratio of teachers to students. 

• Ideally, you would want your child's teacher to have a bachelor's or master's degree, but most teachers usually aren't that qualified. You also want a teacher who has several years of experience. Sadly, many teachers are fresh out of high school with little or no experience. 
• Classrooms should be clean and full of equipment and materials in good repair. Bonus points if the furniture is all solid wood. Playgrounds are great if they are less like one big hunk of plastic and more like an outdoor classroom with different activities for children.
• The fewer children each teacher has to care for, the more attention each child gets.

So what kind of school do I recommend? If there was a Montessori school close to my house and it wasn't expensive, that is definitely where my children would be going. Montessori and Reggio are incredible. The first time I walked into a Montessori room, (this is going to sound cheesy, but) I felt like my soul was at rest. It was beautiful, it was peaceful. And the Reggio school here is so beautiful it left me speechless. If you ever have the opportunity to tour a Reggio school, do it.

I hope this post gave you helpful information without making you feel even more overwhelmed!