Hellobee Boards

I agree that staff turnover/attitude has a huge impact.

I would think about what you like/dont like about your current place and then go from there.

A few things we like about where they are now:
- Extracurricular - Chapel once a week where they do skits, music man comes once a week for song time, good playground (and a gym for rainy days), extra fee based things like ballet.
- Lunch room so they get out of the classroom often
- Good ratio (2 teachers plus a floater)
- move up cycle annually.

What I wish for:
- More toy/book rotation. At the end of the year, she's bored with what they have in the room.

I wanted a teaching style that was more play focused, a stable staff that seemed dedicated to early learning, and some where walkable from home.

We are going through this exact same situation right now and it's been hard for me to narrow down what we really wanted. LO has been at an amazing nursery school this year but it was not without some issues... the school is very unique (it's a nature-based preschool and a bit on the "crunchy" side) but had a tough time getting its administrative "act" together this year. Also, it's a bit of a hike to get there and the prices also increased more than we expected for next year, so we are looking elsewhere.

We found a program which we like a lot but we will certainly miss many things about our current school:

- Warm and friendly teachers: I feel like they really, truly know our son and his strengths and interests.
- The time outdoors: This is a nature-based preschool and most days are outside for at least 3/4 the day.
- Multi-age program: While the classes are grouped by age, many of the activities are all-school activities and it's actually been good furor son to be around the older and younger children.
- Enrichment: Since we take advantage of the full day program, he is involved in a ton of activities during the afternoon, like music, soccer, additional art, and yoga.

We are hoping to add the following in next year:

- More flexible schedule: We both work FT and have found that we really, really need a program that is not on the school calendar. We thought it would be no big deal, but it was pretty tough at times accommodating the many days off this year while still paying full fare those months.
- Lunch included: I know this sounds strange, but many of the schools we've looked at include a lunch program at no additional fee. Obviously this is not something we want from an "academic" side but I think this will make our lives easier and reduce some stress.
- Closer location: We loved our current school because it was not a cookie-cutter school, but we paid the price in the time it took to get there. As we near the end of the school year, we're just exhausted!
- Larger group of children: We loved the small group of children this year as our son really got to know his classmates, but we are looking forward to LO getting to know more children as this will be more representative of his future school experiences, we think.
- Play-based philosophy: We are not as interested in the "academics" of the program, especially since LO will have two more years before kindergarten.

It's so hard to find the "perfect" school, but I think if you have a starting place (exactly like what @T.H.O.U.: said), it may be easier to figure out what will work/what won't work for you. Good luck!

A good attitude from the staff was a big one for me. Lots of outdoor time and play. I actually didn't care about the learning, I just wanted her to be able to play and make new friends.

Play-based learning with teachers who adore their job and the kids. Also, I love that our school is so small (120 kids), so every single teacher knows every single student.

Walkable and staff. That's really it for me. It's preschool, I'm not too worried yet about curriculum or teaching philosophies. But that's very big where I live now, and it's weird to me since I didn't even go to preschool.

One thing that I have found surprisingly valuable: having well-educated/highly-trained teachers. When we first started looking for daycare/schools, I thought that a lot of training wasn't that necessary for caring for young children. But we ended up at a place where the teachers _do_ have a lot of training. Many have undergraduate or graduate degrees in fields related to early child development, and they have regular professional development.

They aren't bookish about it, but they clearly draw on their background regularly to structure the classroom environment, to frame their observations of the kids, and to guide their interactions with the children. They're also thoughtful people who love children and have lots of experience, which comes through in all of their work. But I think their education really adds to what they do. It's amazing the knowledge and insight they bring to their work, and I feel like it's opened my eyes to early childhood development.

@hilsy85: ah that's right! I forgot you're in NYC. I'm from a small suburb in PA and I am so baffled by the hubbub around preschool in NYC. Like, people are so competitive and some preschools boast preparation for Ivy League schools. Huh? My kid still poops his pants, I'm not worried about college yet
So I really just researched schools in walking distance and visited the ones I thought sounded solid but not snooty.
We do plan on moving to the suburbs around kindergarten and doing public school, so I'm probably not worried about it for that reason. A lot of friends and acquaintances plan on staying in NYC for life so they are really concerned about the preschool flowing into k-12...which I guess I can understand. But still...its preschool people!

@hilsy85: I work in early childhood mental health so I wanted to chime in. I think that a "learning rich environment" is crucial for preschool but it should also be play based. We think of young children's play as their "work". My LO is 4 and has been at the same center since she was a baby. They are very play based but she also has learned a ton.

As an example of how they do play and learning, every two weeks they have a new letter that is the "theme". Right now they are on S. So they made superhero capes and talked about what kind of super powers they would have to help others, and they are playing "store". This is fun but incorporates social lessons (helping others) and math, early literacy, etc.

The other big thing young kids need are relationships so that is why I think the staff/attitude is so key. I would suggest the NAEYC (national associated for the education of young children) site to look for accredited programs as another resource:
http://families.naeyc.org/find-quality-child-care

ETA: didn't mean to write you a novel!!

Good relationships with parents, great with kids, affordable, excellent communcation, academic (yes, I value this!), early childhood degrees and accredited. This is not what I chose but this is my ideal.

I thought it was play. But then, my daughter hated 2 preschools, one very crunchy Reggio based, one stricter Catholic school Montessori based, both focused more on play and less on academics. What she needed was a school that kept her interest, did lots of different things rather than the same routine every day, and allowed her to follow her interests as deeply as she wanted to go. She also needed to be with peers who were also early at reading and writing, so that she got to do it. She is now in a school like that, and went from crying, refusing to go, and making herself sick, to absolutely loving school, asking to go every day, and coming home energized.

Maybe I under-thought this whole thing, but we moved to our "forever" home and are in the school district where LO will start kindergarten, so the most important factor to me was that she'd be with the kids she was going to start kindergarten with. So I chose the preschool that most kids from her school district go to. I thought it would be nice for her to have some continuity with kids and make some friends that she would be in class with for years.

That said, that particular school ticked off all the other boxes - close by, great vibe from the open house, teachers seemed very warm and knowledgeable, and flexible regarding how many days. so i only looked at one school!

Practically, we wanted a place close to our home with programming starting from age 2 and a childcare component so that our younger child could go to the same place as an infant. The place we found is on the grounds of a historic church near our house and meets those requirements.

A lot of why this preschool worked for us is that while its play-based, they don't push a certain philosophy or method while providing a good amount of daily structure and routine. Plus the integration of religious components in the day, like praying before meals, which we do at home, was important to us.

I'm less concerned about what DS is "learning" and care more about him feeling secure and comfortable enough to explore the world within safe, predictable confines. My son is introverted and thinks and plays sort of atypically - even our daycare caretakers have noticed. He's very observant, polite to other kids, but sorta does his own thing. He's very determined and insists on playing toys in totally weird ways, but gets a lot of security from the same daily schedule and seeing the same faces. If he's got that, he's the happiest kid in the world.

The place we picked is a smaller school and has had the same director for 13 years. The 2 year old class has had the same teacher for 8 years (who is also the assistant director), they have 2 floating aids between the 2 year old and 3 year old classrooms, and it goes all the way to pre-K. The state licenses up to 12 kids per class, but the 2 year old room is small so it can only legally accommodate 11. The teacher said they typically try not to have more than 10 in the class and probably more like 8-9 if they have a child with special needs. When we visited, all the teachers were super relaxed, they knew all the names of the kids, even those in different classes or ages, the facility was clean and bright, and it just felt comfortable to us. The infant room also has had the same lead teacher for 8 years, so that was a plus.

The only minus is that you have to bring your own lunch from home. The preschool associated with the private Christian K-12 we want to send our kids to provides lunch but it doesn't start until age 3 and you have to be potty trained. So I think right now, we'll send our kids to the first school and then we'll move DS2 to the other preschool once he's 3. DS1 will already be in kindergarten at that point so we'll have to shuttle to 2 different schools anyway.

@HILSY85: At 2 she was doing letters work that took like 2 minutes and a reading log. It trained the parents, more than the kids to get organized and get something done. At 3 she was working on writing letters, numbers and some parent projects. At 4 they have more reading, writing and math -patterns, comparisons, logic, connect the dots, science connections. I'm thinking most preschools would probably do this at 4, whether they call themselves academic or not. Nothing huge but still don't fret academic. It's all stuff LO probably will get from tv or you anyway! I like helping with anything academic as it is my strength.

From your list: facilities, location, philosophy, ratio - in that order.

Facilities, location and quality of staff tops my list. As long as the teachers care about the kids, everything else is a plus. What I really like about our preschool is that they're attached to the main elementary school. Her school was awarded for its quality of homemade food and when DD first started, she had a lot of food allergies. They serve full meals (packing a lunch isn't allowed) but I never had to worry because they totally accomated for her allergies. I also really like the idea that she'll be growing up in the same school. The location is beside a forest and nature reserve, so being out in the woods is part of the curriculum - I love that!