We started the kids in a new daycare/preschool at the college that I started working at a little over a month ago. I have had very mixed feelings about this program. Pros: nice discount for being an employee, close to work, availability, and nice facility. Cons: lunches must be packed everyday, must provide own diapers/wipes, etc, and most importantly big changes at the facility a week after we start there. The director when we started was a nice older lady that had no administrative capabilities but we survived the enrollment process. A week after we started she was put back in the classroom and one of the other younger teachers was made interim director. The new director is great...however the old director got moved into Emily's classroom and her old teacher into the new director's room. Problem. Emily's teacher was great the new teacher is nice and takes good care of the kids but is not really a good pre-k teacher. The kids have done no work on letters, numbers, or anything else you would expect a preschooler to be working on. On top of that they have moved towards a multi-age classroom. Before I freaked about this idea I went online and did a lot of research and surprisingly the research has been overwhelmingly positive. A multi-age classroom means that there are 3, 4, and 5 year old kids in the same room. They work in small groups based on learning abilities. Again however this is a new learning curriculum and Emily's teacher is not familiar with and is obviously struggling with. She spends a lot of time just watching the kids and trying to get them to listen and behave. Her assistant seems much more adept most of the time. My dilemma is what to do. When the announcement was made it was on a Friday and the changes were to take place the following Monday. No time to change preschools at this point because everyone was full or had already started. I asked for Emily to be moved into a different classroom and this was not possible either as that room was full. This irked me because we had only been there a week and had the option of either room when we started. If we had any indication that these changes were coming our choice would have been different.
I don't want to be one of those crazy parents that are worried that the right preschool will keep their kid from getting into the college of their choice. However, pre-k is important as it lays a foundation for kindergarten and I don't want her to be behind. The teacher is a really nice lady who taught for 25 years before this all happened. Is the fact that she taught for so long enough? Anyways, I haven't had an opportunity to talk to any of the other parents and get their feedback. I keep telling myself that a lot of high ups here at the college have their kids in her classroom so if it is good enough for them it should be good enough for me right?
Along this topic Bret and I have been spending a lot of time trying to decide whether or not to send Emily to our church's school or public school. Even though I hate to say it money plays a big part of our decision at least right now. Is a Catholic education for a kindergartner worth $2200 plus uniforms, etc? I am not sure. Who knew that making these decisions would be so hard and would come so soon?
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