One School, Two School, Red School, Blue School

Joe and I have been looking at preschools for AJ for the fall. So far we have visited one and AJ has already voted on his choice--this first one where they were serving each kid two donuts and juice for their snack. This opinion is coming from the boy who is famous for announcing repeatedly at a family gathering "I like donuts!" It was as if the school had researched AJ and was trying to personally recruit him like an NCAA athlete.

In another classroom at this school, the snack was coming out of a can of industrial foodservice-sized artifically flavored banana pudding with a side of cookies. I think they must peel these kids off the ceiling every day after the sugar high kicks in. Are my kids the only ones who go looney tunes when they are fed sugar? I did notice that immediately following snack time is music time, which appears to involve a nice young man who can't be older than 22 leading the kids in lots of jumping up and down and screaming at the top of their lungs (a.k.a. burning off the sugar rush.) This man deserves a raise.

What struck me most about preschool is that it is chaotic. I guess I was picturing more of an elementary school environment, but this preschool thing appears to be playtime and more playtime with a bit of structured time for 10 or 15 minutes here or there. I should be more aware of this since my sister is a certified early childhood educator and ran a preschool for several years. I visited her classroom and now recall that there were no desks, just stations around the room for various activities and one center rug for structured time. And this makes sense--AJ plays in short bursts of different activities, to this fits with his attention span. But for some reason, I was a bit underwhelmed by it all. That's it? I was expecting something about an educational philosophy or teachers' credentials. I know how much my sister studied for her degree and continues to learn in continuing education classes, so I was expecting something more from this school. My practical side says "And one of these schools we are supposed to visit wants $900 bucks a month per kid for supervised playtime???" (Don't worry, sis--my ideological side says $900 could be justified if that's what it takes for the teachers get a decent wage.) Joe's vote was for the first one we visited that costs half that much and served the donuts. Looks like I am outnumbered 2-1. But remember, as I have taught AJ, "mommy is the boss." Three more to visit--we'll see how it goes.