Considering Pre-School

Mariah - posted on 04/19/2010

Even if there was a 2-year-old preschool program around here, I would not put my son in it. I believe in starting early with a lot of concepts, but I also believe in letting them be babies for awhile. I'm a teacher who strongly believes in preschool. I teach K-8 and when my kindergartners come in, there's always a few who have not had any sort of schooling prior- no preschool, headstart, day care even... and those kids have a tough time at first. However, preschool can wait until 3 or 4 years old. Let your kids be kids!

Amanda - posted on 04/19/2010

I think it's a good idea and I will be doing it myself after New Year's. It's generally only for a couple of hours and a couple of days a week. I think it'll put kids on the right track for learning and developing socially with other kids the same age.

Emily - posted on 04/18/2010

We don't have schools for children at the age of 2. However, when she is three we will be sending our lil one to the same preschool we have our oldest at. I love the little private preschool she goes to. That being said, I know you can turn anything into an educational experience. For example, going to the zoo or even the park. You can talk about birds and animals. You can count the number of leaves that you find as you walk. Anything can be a lesson.

Kelly - posted on 04/17/2010

Where are pre-schools that have 2 year old classes?

Angela - posted on 04/17/2010

I know here you can't start pre-school until age 3. My daughter's daycare is also a pre-school, though the kids in the pre-school classroom are 3 - 5. They do a watered-down version of the curriculum for the toddlers and she LOVES it!

Liza - posted on 04/14/2010

I'm a working mom and send my son who is 20 months to daycare Mon-Fri. Many daycares offer part-time schedules for kids 2 days a week up to 5 days. If you find the right daycare it is really a wonderful experience for the kids. They learn a ton and it is actually a pre-school, plus no potty training necessary for the little ones. Another tip, many daycares are struggling right now since parents have been laid off and pull their kids out. My son's school works with parents to set a schedule and payment amount that works for them, so I wouldn't forget to try to negotiate.
Just another option to look at for the kid's interaction, learning, and fun even if it's not full time.

Samantha - posted on 04/14/2010

I thought that children had to be 3 before sending them to preschool? Do they have to be potty trained? My daughter will be 2 in August and she is really advanced for her age, she is already counting to10 and doing most of her abc, and she is really talkative.

Nicole - posted on 04/13/2010

my son will be 2 this august also and i thought about pre-school too but he is not potty trained so i think i may wait til next year. i think most kids wait til 3 to start pre-school anyway, right?

Candice - posted on 04/12/2010

im a lil nervous about sending my lil one to preschool, he'll b 2 at the end of august, i'm still tryin to get him to drink outta a sippy cup, working on potty trainin and by the end of the week he'll b in his toddler bed. we do go to playgroups tho mon-thrus and fridays i do a mommy and me learning day, where all day in bits we do some learning, letters, numbers and words, he says motorcycle clearly and bicycle and other vehicles and ti's clear enough for other ppl not family to understand. he can count to 5 and knows from a-g of his alphabet, he knows the letters and says them. i want him to kno from 1-10 and his whole alphabet b4 i put him in anything school related. and hopefully send him to a private school for kindergarten. which by then he'll kno more. i dunno, maybe 'cuz i'm a single mom and a stay at home mom doing my own school work at home i think of it differently.

Gemma - posted on 04/12/2010

my lil boy will be 2 middle of august and ill be sending him to pre school i think it will do him good to be around other children his age,at the mo he goes to tumble tots on a thurs morn for an hour but its not really interacting with the other children very much,but ill have to take him out of that as i cant afford both!

Beth - posted on 04/11/2010

I'm mostly a stay-at-home mom and am looking forward to my son attending his "Playtime Pals" pre-school beginning in September. I think it will be good for both of us, and it's only twice a week for about 2 hours each day!

Tammy - posted on 04/10/2010

I am considering home-schooling too, since I doubt I can afford to send my daughter to the elite private school that I want her to go to. But just in case a miracle comes about (generous in-laws, perhaps?), the school requires the child to have been to a structured pre-school for acceptance consideration. So I am going to send my daughter to the pre-school in conjunction with our house of worship. I am going to wait until she is 3 years old (she is now almost 2), though. I want her to be daytime toilet trained before I do that. I also want her to be able to communicate what she wants, if something is bothering her, which I think is very important before I let my baby lose into the "wild". As for now, she goes to a Mommy & Me type kid's gym 3 times a week; one one hour structured class and two one hour play times. She loves it and has learned so much! And I think it will better prepare her for the much more structured pre-school alone without me with her all the time.

Meagan - posted on 04/10/2010

I don't plan on doing preschool as we are going to be homeschooling, but I'm starting an at-home preschool program after our second is born in September, so probably around Nov. 1. The curriculum I'm planning on using is the "Letter of the Week" curriculum. It's very gentle and only takes about a half hour total/day. It's also completely free if you have a halfway decent library. Here's the link:

http://www.letteroftheweek.com/Preparato...



ETA: I will also be using several of the ideas and printables from this link: http://www.first-school.ws/INDEX.HTM as well as the online games from http://www.starfall.com.

Kasie - posted on 04/09/2010

Yes I have considered sending my daughter who will be 2 at the end of August to preschool this fall also

Nicki - posted on 04/09/2010

i am a stay at home mom. in sept i am sending my son to preschool 3 times a week for like 3 hours in the morning so he can get out and play with kids his own age. i was doing the gymboree but the only have morning classes for his age and he actually takes a morning nap so we canceled it. right now he plays with 4 9-11 year old girls on the block. we are actually gonna send him to their "summer camp" 2x a week for like 2 1/2 hours to adjust him into to going. (which i dont think he will have a big problem but i could be wrong). this is a real preschool and not day care. they have different classes (ie: science and music). is this your first. it is mine