Questions to ask at Preschool open house

[MSWR0319]

We have a preschool open house for the 3 yo class that I am planning on sending DS to next year. What questions should I ask? My main concern is that they take care of his peanut allergy safely. Other than that we're really just sending him for social reasons so I'm not sure what else to ask.

Also, what do you pay for a 2x/week 2 hr program at a Catholic school? I have no idea what is "reasonable". We live in a low COL and the only other preschool is run by the parks and rec and I don't like their class sizes, so we won't go there anyway. Just curious what others pay.

[ourbabygirl]

The pre-school run at our parish was in the $150-170 range/ month, if I remember correctly (twice a week for 2.5 hours each day). This is in an urban setting in the midwest.

When I toured ours, I just asked about outdoor play time, how drop-off and pick-up works (many places do it differently), and probably more stuff that I can't remember now. They had a really thorough packet for parents that described the daily schedule, and tons of other things, so it was mostly covered there. You might ask how the Christian/ Catholic component is incorporated into class, etc. Also if there are field trips, etc.

[scrooks]

Our school is not catholic but for 2 days, 2.5 hours each day we paid $100 a month (it may be $110 now). We live in a relatively low COL area.

[SnuggleBuggles]

How often they get outside to play. Do they only go out in ideal weather? Is there somewhere inside for gross motor play?

Potty training requirements

Academics- what kind, if any; at what age...

Logistics

[jerigirl]

If your child has a peanut allergy then I would be very certain that they are familiar with that and have guidelines in place AND practice them. I say this because the preschool my DCs go to seem to just go with a case by case basis and I don't get the feeling that they have a lot of experience with this issue. My kids do not have PAs so I am ok with this but if they did I don't know how comfortable I would be with this school. When I asked about the nut policy a few years back, I was told they haven't had any kids with allergies so they don't really have a policy. The kids are free to bring what they want for snack/lunch.

[GvilleGirl]

I asked for a sample schedule so I knew what a normal day is like. The other thing I asked for was what are their goals for the children to know by the end of the year. I was also curious what kinds of formal communications did they have with parent, ie. conferences. I also was curious if we would miss out on certain activities because we only came 2 days vs 3 or 5.

[malphy]

I'm not sure of.cost so no help there but I am familiar w/can in preschool. I would.ask if it is a.nut free.school and if it isn't I would ask about their.cleaning procedures. Ask if staff is.trained on soo pen admin. They should be.familiar with allergy action plans provided by Dr.

I would be leery if it is not.nut free because it is so diffiche little onesult to manage with t

[Jai]

I just went to a preschool open house. *I asked:

1. *About certifications/licenses the staff has.
2. *How are incidents/accidents reported?
3. *What is a typical daily schedule?

They told me they kept folders of children's work, so I asked to see an example

[zag95]

DD is currently in preschool at a Catholic preschool. She attends 2x per week- 8:15a-11:30a. We pay $160/mo plus provide 1 preschool snack per mo for class.

Questions:

Allergies and snack time- how is it handled?

What are the ratios with students/teacher?

What does a typical day look like? (they gave us a sample schedule)

Does my child have to be completely potty-trained?

How do they handle discipline?

Do they have PE/gross motor time, esp elsewhere (DD goes to the parochial school gym and works with PE teacher). They also have music 1 x per week and library time 1 x per week ( on different days)