Touring a Kindercare tomorrow for Fall Kindy coverage - Questions I should ask?

[novmber]

My twin girls have been going to a lab school at the university where I work since they turned 2 - they have been in the preschool room since turning 3. I have never toured any child care centers - just sent my kids there because I knew it was good and it was where my friends sent their kids.

It's a 4 star NAEYC accredited reggio emilia based preschool (uses Emergent Curriculum) - very good ratio of students to teachers - interns rotate through each semester. At any rate, I think I have been really spoiled with this program.

My town only has half day kindergarten and although I have some flexibility with work, I am going to either need to hire a sitter for Fridays or use something like Kindercare. Several of my neighbors use this Kindercare (and one is a special ed teacher) and they love it. This center is the only one in this area that will bus to the half-day kindy. So I am going on a tour tomorrow morning.

Both of my girls have done well at preschool but one of my daughters is highly highly sensitive and is also very thin - she is strong but tends to get knocked over easily.

I am expecting that I will need to lower my expectations but I don't really know what specifically I should be looking for. Would appreciate any advice - to be honest, the thought of my kids riding the bus without lots of teachers on there really concerns me. I need help distinguishing over protectiveness from what is reasonable expectations.

thanks!!!

[ellies mom]

If you are in a snow area, I'd ask how they handle snow days. Can you bring the kids there for the whole day if school is cancelled? How do they handle delayed start or early release for weather? What about holidays from school?

How much running off steam time do the kids get after school?

I wouldn't worry about the bus too much. But it wouldn't hurt to ask how they maintain order. My daughter rides the bus to school and I know her driver keeps a pretty tight rein on things. The kindy kids sit up front and they separate kids as necessary.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Communication. Coming from a NAEYC program, odds are you get pretty decent communication about your child and the school. That was a big adjustment when we went on to elementary school. Gone were the multi page assessments. But, some schools are better than others. I would ask about it.

Recess/ outside time is another question

Eta- the bus took no time for us to adjust to. So handy!

[smiles33]

Be prepared to be surprised either way. You might find your DDs thrive in the new environment or you may long for the NAEYC program. I, too, started both of my DDs at my university's NAEYC center (though mine were there since infancy as I went back to work). Once DD1 was potty-trained, I shifted her to a preschool closer to our home so DH could help with pick-up (as that's also when DD2 was born). I also did so because I was frustrated with our NAEYC center's inability to control/watch another 3 year old who kept biting/pushing my DD1. Thus, in my experience, the NAEYC center was great for 0-2 kids but once kids started pushing boundaries, I wasn't as pleased with this particular center's hands-off attitude towards discipline.

Some things I asked/was surprised about:

- What is the physical security like? At the NAEYC center, we have passcode-locked gates on every entrance. The preschool had two entrances but neither were locked.

- Is food provided and if so, what are the standards? Our NAEYC center expected organic milk and had strict guidelines re: max. level of sugar in yogurt and other treats we brought to school. Preschool relied on Costco and often had prepared meals/snacks that were not organic and and not as strict about sugar level.

- What discipline (if any) do they employ? Our NAEYC center would talk to kids who shoved/bit/smacked other kids and ask them whether they realized they hurt their friend. My center also does not believe in saying "I'm sorry" as studies have apparently shown kids don't understand how to apologize. I personally disagreed with the tactic of asking how the child who shoved another one to the ground or just bit someone in the face feels and then letting him run off to play so the teacher can get ice on the injured child. Our preschool bypassed the "how do you feel when you hit someone?" conversation and instituted consequences (usually just timeout, but that was refreshing to me).

I also found the preschool was 1/2 the cost of the NAEYC center, so that was another huge benefit for us.

[novmber]

thanks for all the advice so far. very helpful - it is also an option to keep them at their current preschool for a few days a week for the next year and homeschool them for kindy. i was leaning toward doing that but right now am leaning back toward putting them in kindy. they talk about it all the time and want to go and it does seem like it might be helpful socially for them to transition to 1st grade with some of the same kids.

the current preschool has the kids apologize if they do something like bite and bring an ice pack to the injured kid. but that is true, that there is a lack of firm discipline at our current site that doesn't always sit well with me (especially when my girls are on the receiving end of aggression).