Treading the Waters of Preschool...Interviews, Waiting Lists and more

Mothers have many dreams and hopes for their children and one in particular is that their early school years will be approached with excitement and they will continue to see education as a challenge, a road to success and a place to have fun.  Moms also hope their children will have a supporting, learning environment filled with caring, dedicated teachers. With recent budget cuts and lay-offs, finding places for nurturing education without 30 kids to a class is becoming more and more challenging.  First time preschool hunting mothers should seek out a veteran mom, a wealth of resource when it comes to preschool, that all important first step a child will take a step into the “Big Kid” world.  

The topic of preschool may strike some as a little silly at times. The interviews, the walk-throughs, the waiting lists. There are the super-organized moms who know where they want their child to go and probably have them on a waiting list of some sort before their first birthday. There are the kind-of-organized moms who have an idea but haven’t gotten around to doing much. Then are some other moms who just don’t worry so much about preschool placement.  

Every mother would agree though, that it’s important for a child to LOVE school, love their friends, and love their teacher. With that in mind, there is nothing wrong with doing some research, testing the waters,  meeting some faces and seeing what program is the best fit for the child in question. 

Skinny Scoop, a forum for mothers and women who generate their own content, created a questionnaire regarding preschool and some of their results include the following: The first concern moms had for preschool placement was program philosophy, as 79 percent of the 80 mothers who answered the questions listed this as their first concern. The second factor, with 63 percent of mothers listing it as most the most important concern was the reputation of the program and/or director and the third most important factor, with 58 percent of mothers listing it as the most important was the ratio of teachers to children.

Visit www.skinnyscoop.com to take the quiz. 

For a list of preschools in San Rafael visit San Rafael Preschool Guide.

For a list of preschools around Marin county visit Marin Mommies.