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Main Page Site Index Getting Pregnant Pregnancy Parenting Pregnancy and Parenting Journals Fertility Nutrition Pregnant Moms Morning Sickness Women's Health Child Health	The Search for a Quality Preschool by Michele Eliott It's that time of year again... Thoughts of the next school year are on the mind. Obviously, the Christmas trees have just been chucked out the front door, decorations are finally wrestled with and tucked away, and the New Years' Eve stains are finally out of the carpet. Now it's time to tackle the bigger issues - your child's preschool future. This is the time to gather your questions, search through your phone book, and to ask as many parents as possible about their experiences with their children. Telephone tag with the preschool directors will start, and the magical interviews and classroom observations will begin. I tackled this seemingly insurmountable task just over a year ago. I was scared to death that I would make the wrong choice, inflicting a negative experience on my child, harming him for life. Add to that the fact that my *baby* was growing up, and that this would be the first true sign of independence, and I'm coping with a monster of a task. I started off with one basic premise - there are plenty of good preschools. Finding the right preschool usually means throwing away preconceptions and preformed opinions, and really studying your own child. You have to, quite literally, step back, and analyze your child as an outsider would do. You can assess your child's strengths and needs very simply, thereby determining what type of preschool s/he would thrive in. Ask yourself the following: What type of energy level does your child have? Some kids have a tap of inexhaustible energy, constantly flitting from one activity to another. If you walk into a preschool and observe that the facility doesn't give him an opportunity to run around, it's best to move on. Likewise, if your child is quiet and shy, s/he might tend to do better with a smaller group. How about his/her adaptability level? Some kids can jump into a new school and hit the ground with both feet running - transition is not an issue. Others hold back and size up a situation before plunging ahead. In the latter case, it's critical to find a program where the teachers make an effort to involve them, while not pushing them intensely to adjust on the first day. Some kids simply take longer to make the transition. What kind of sensory threshold are we dealing with? Many young children crave commotion, and the opportunities that busy preschools offer. Others have a lower tolerance for noise and commotion, and become easily overwhelmed by a chaotic playroom. If this is the case, you might want to look for a facility that has opportunities for quiet areas, where your child can retreat for some "private time", such as a reading. Does my child crave predictability? Some kids crave schedules, and must have one in place every day. They eat, sleep and conduct their play activities by the book, day in and day out like highly organized individuals. Most preschools follow a daily schedule that children craving regularity will find comforting. However, if you forsee your child having problems adjusting to the new schedule at school, it's best to find a teacher who's flexible enough to let him roll slowly around to the new schedule. I started the process in simple, manageable steps. Taking each step at a time, I felt more in control. I prepared a list of questions and photocopied it for each school I wanted to investigate. The name of the school, person I spoke with, and any piece of information I could gather outside of the written questions was written down. This allowed me to keep everything straight in my mind - let's face it, after four calls, everything starts to blend together. Some of the questions you might want to add to your list: What are the school's hours? What do full and part time programs cost? What type of program is offered? Is potty training required? What is the student/teacher ratio? What educational requirements are the teachers required to have? What are the director's credentials? Is anyone on-site trained in first aid and CPR? What is the application deadline? What is the vacation schedule? Is the school licensed and accredited to NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children)? Is there flexibility for the initial adjustment period (the goodbyes for the first few classes)? After my telephone interviews were completed, 80% of the schools were eliminated. I scheduled appointments for observations, and went in, with my son, to check each facility out. After this process was completed, only one school stood ahead of the rest. One last word for those of you ready to pounce on this project …. Nothing is foolproof, including this method. My first exhaustive search and placement rendered poor results, in spite of the outstanding performance the school demonstrated. When school started, I ended up pulling my son out of the program - my impressions from this interview and observation process were quite different from the reality I met on that first fateful day. No matter how hard you research, what you come up with, or how determined you are that you've selected a winner, you still have to listen to your heart. We started, back at ground zero, expanding the distances we were willing to travel to drive him back and forth, and found a phenomenal school - one not even on my initial search. At four years old, and with three months of preschool experiences under his belt, my son is now a champ at this stuff. The learning experiences extend far beyond the actual curriculum. A shy, quiet, introvert has been transformed into a socially interacting little boy who has learned to speak up to others with his needs and desires. I wouldn't have it any other way.