5 Things To Think About When Choosing A Preschool

I honestly cannot believe that it has been over a month since Shahzaib turned three years old! It’s crazy to think how fast time has flown by and that he will be starting preschool soon. Last year I had planned on taking him to “Mommy and Me” classes after his second birthday, but with the pandemic, we were unable to do any such activities. With him turning three, my husband and I decided to enroll him in preschool, as it would allow him to learn, have fun, and interact with other children his age.

When I started to look at the preschools in our area, I quickly realized that there were many different factors I would have to take into consideration before choosing the right one. Since I was clueless about this entire process just a few months ago, I thought I’d help you by sharing the top five things I considered before selecting a preschool for Shahzaib.

1. Location

For me, this was one of the more important factors. I knew from the start that whenever we decided to send Shahzaib to preschool, I would want it to be close to wherever I was, so if I was working, I would have preferred a school near my office or if I would be at home, then something close to our house. My main reason for this was in case anything happened and I needed to pick Shahzaib up, I wanted to be able to quickly do so. Since my new job would be remote, it only made sense to look for preschools near our house. Even then my criteria were that it be no further than 10 minutes away which still gave us plenty of preschool options to choose from.

2. Cost

I had no idea how expensive preschools could be. For some reason in my mind, I thought that preschools would be free or at a very minimal cost. I was wrong! The cost of preschool ranged quite a bit based on the type of preschool and the type of program you choose. Some programs start at a few hundred dollars a month and can go up into the thousands. The full-time programs cost more than part-time and then there are additional fees for material, potty training, etc. I remember one of the first preschools I contacted charged about $600+ per month for its part-time program and I was shocked. It seemed ridiculous to me at the time to pay so much money for preschool and then I happen to go on and choose a preschool that charges $1000 a month. 🤦🏽‍♀️

3. Structure/Type of preschool

Before going through the process of researching preschools, I had no idea as to all the various types of preschools that are available, which range from play-based to Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and more. I had heard of Montessori’s before and a neighbor had mentioned that play-based preschools are good but apart from that, I did not know the philosophies of each program. With this, you must do your research to determine which type of preschool will be the best fit for your child. I was open to seeing and learning about all the different types but eventually settled on a Montessori. My reason for that was because I liked the fact that the child had control over the type of “work” they wanted to do based on their interests. Again since this would be Shahzaib’s first experience of being in a school setting away from me, I wanted him to have the flexibility to do/learn things based on his interests.

4. Type of Program; half-day, full-day, and class size ratio

After you decide on the type of preschool, it is also important to consider the type of programs they have, whether its full time, half-time, after school, etc. Another thing to think about is the class size ratio. What that means is the ratio of students to the number of teachers. Most schools seem to have a maximum ratio of 12:1 which means that one teacher is responsible for no more than 12 students so if there are more than 12 children in a classroom, an additional teacher will be required. The reason why I thought this was important was that I wanted to send Shahzaib to a place where he would get personalized attention so the smaller the ratio, the more attention the teacher will be able to give to the students.

5. Potty Trained or Not

Another important factor that I had to consider was whether the school required that its preschoolers be potty-trained. Several that I came across did, which is why I started to potty train Shahzaib again after his birthday but I also didn’t want to rush him to be trained just for school which is why I needed to find a place that didn’t require its students to be potty-trained. The good thing about these facilities is that they also help with the potty training process.

I wanted to end by saying that by no means these are the only factors to consider when selecting a preschool, there are so many other things that one has to think about but for me, these were the five more important ones that can give you a starting point if you are starting to look at preschools and have no clue where to start. It’s also important that you tour the facility to get a sense of the place and meet the teachers/faculty as they will be the ones interacting with your child on a daily basis.

I hope you found this information helpful. For those of you who are in the process of looking for a preschool for your child, please let me know in the comments below if there were any factors other than the ones I mentioned that you took into consideration before making your final decision. I would love to hear what they were!

Sincerely,