SAHM Tips About Preschool

My oldest starts preschool tomorrow. He's doing a two-day-a-week program during the summer. He'll do a three-day program starting in the fall. I'm very excited for him to start for a few reasons.

First, I think he'll really like the school aspect of it. He's a pretty inquisitive kid, so I think the learning side of preschool will really appeal to him. I can already envision him telling me all the cool things they did as soon as I walk in the door after work.

I'm also excited to see how he does in the program. He's a fairly advanced 3 year old (of course, all parents say that), but I'm curious how he'll do. I'm really looking forward to seeing him progressive with his gross motor skills like writing, using scissors, etc.

And for me, it's just cool to see him growing up and moving on to the next phase of life. Since he's the oldest, he gets to meet all of these milestones before his sister and brother. So everything is new to him and to us as parents. I like moving forward and seeing what lies in front of us.

But, at the same time, I have no idea what I'm doing here. Is there a certain preschool protocol that I need to know? What do you all, as SAHMS, think I need to know as my son heads to preschool? And don't worry about thinking your advice is too silly or too minimal. At this point, I need all the help I can get.

Choosing the Right Preschool

The biggest stress in our life right now (other than the impending birth of baby #3, of course) is choosing the right preschool for our 3 year old. There are actually a lot of options in our town of 90,000, probably the by-product of living in a college town with a strong emphasis on education. But the number of options is actually causing us problems.

The biggest issue we have is the school's ideology. We're still trying to decide between a playschool that focuses more on the power of learning through play and a more advanced preschool with certified teachers, a strong curriculum and a focus on academics.

At this point we're not looking for a program that is too focused on academics and assessment. We're still 2 full years away from school, so it's not as important for him to be school-ready right now. Plus, we're of the belief that toddlers learn more from playing and imagination than anything else. And the literature seems to back us up (see this article from the New York Times and this research from Colorado State University).


Anybody else have this sort of preschool dilemma? What did you decide to do?