When did your DC start preschool?

[YouAreTheFocus]

My son will be 2y 10m when he starts preschool this fall. I would prefer he wait another year, but that's the way his class is "tracked" at his daycare. He started toddler at 1y 10m, then will start 2 yrs of PS in the fall, then will do 1 yr of pre-k after that. Personally I think it is a lot of pre-years, but that's how it works out here.

[elephantmeg]

DS was 4, DD was 2 (they started the same preschool daycare at the same time). If I'm not mistaken she's in the highest class there and I'm not sure what they are going to do with her next year. I'm thinking about trying to get her in public pre-k at DS' school but it is need based and unless they have low enrollement she won't qualify.

[Beth24]

Mine were 2 years 7 months, 2 years 9 months and 2 years 6 months. I'm not sure yet whether to send DS3 this fall or to wait another year. He would be 2 years 2 months when school starts in September.

[KrisM]

Mine were all a bit over age 3.

I'm sure this varies, but I started looking when DS1 was 2.5. Sign ups here are in February/March. My first year of preschool was pretty full, so we did do it as soon as we could. Since then, classes have gone down and waiting wouldn't be an issue. We're still at the same place, so I sign up in Feb.

[maestramommy]

Dora started in a 2s class but was already 3+, because of her late fall bday.
Arwyn started in a 3s class.
Laurel started in a 2s class.

With all 3 kids I started looking at school fall of the previous year, but generally people sign up during the winter/spring of the previous year. It depends greatly on where you live though. Where I used to live people would start getting on waiting lists the 2 years before, if they wanted a more sought after program.

[Gena]

DS started Early Intervention toddler class when he was just over 2.5. He transitioned to the school district's special needs preschool a couple of weeks before he turned 3.

If he had been a typically developing child, I probably would have waited until he was around 4 to start preschool.

[mommylamb]

DS has been in FT daycare since he was 6 months old. The daycare he was at from 18 months until age 4 was technically just a home daycare, but they did more academic-related stuff with kids than most preschools, so I totally feel like he got at least as much exposure, if not more, to numbers/letters/colors/shapes/writing/etc. He started preschool at age 4 for his pre-K class. We were very lucky to have such a wonderful home daycare center.

[JBaxter]

Logan and Connor 3yrs 9 months ( Nov & Oct bday)
Nathan 2yr 9mo Jack 2 yr 10 mo.

All went either 2 or 3 mornings a week they went to a stand alone preschool NOT daycare/preschool.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Not daycare for us, just preschool.

Ds1 started a few months after he turned 3. I started researching and applying the January before the school year started. At 3 he went 2 mornings/ week to start.

Ds2 started at 20 months, 2 mornings/ week. He changed preschools the year after (shortly before he turned 3) to the school I had applied to when he was 6 weeks old. I had looked at it for ds1 but I was too late for a spot in the program I wanted. I learned that lots of people had applied very early the first time around so the 2nd time around I knew what to do!

There are many, many schools in my area though that you don't have to apply to ridiculously early. In hindsight, I'm not even that in love with this preschool. I'd have been happier at one of the more mellow ones!

[Canna]

Both kids were 3.5, turning 4 in January of their first preschool year.