When it comes to making the best and right decisions in terms of your child’s care, especially when it comes to the education and care of young children, compromise simply isn’t an option! Similar to choosing the right daycare facility, choosing and finding the right preschool is not only imperative to creating sense of grade school readiness and getting a high quality education, but it’s also an important part of your child’s overall well being. As such, finding the right preschool can be a nerve wracking experience and one that’s rife with doubt, indecision, and frustration.
But guess what — it doesn’t have to be!
Like any arduous task that seems impossible, the task of finding the right preschool can be made easier by setting aside ample time for researching, question asking, thinking, planning, and consideration. While there’s certainly a lot that goes into determining which preschool is right for your child, this decision can be made easier when it’s broken down into a series of small, manageable steps. This allows you to stay focused on the important task at hand while empowering you to make a better decision the long run.
Before you even begin your search in finding the right preschool, stop and take a moment to create a list of qualities that your ideal preschool would have. Go ahead — make it as ridiculous and over the top as you’d like! In your mind and with your senses, begin to visualize all the characteristics and qualities that the ideal preschool for your child would have. What kind of food would they serve, would it completely organic? And if your child has a particular allergy, food preparation is an important issue for parents!
Continue on visualizing, asking questions, and writing down qualities of the ideal preschool for your child. What kind of teaching philosophy does the school practice and embody? Does it support the parenting style you practice in the home? Does it align with the morals and values you’re raising your child with? If your child has special needs of any kind, how would this school work with them?
You can create this list on your phone, tablet, or with a pencil and paper — the only thing that matter is that you follow through and actually do it! Once you’ve created a list, it’s to categorize the characteristics and break them down into deal breakers and areas that you could be more flexible on. For example, you may not even consider a preschool that serves processed foods but would be little more lenient on one that doesn’t have a basketball court.
Categorizing these items allows you to greatly expedite your search of finding the right preschool. It automatically narrows down your options, which allows you to get straight to a pool of possible preschools instead of having to wading through the murky waters of possibilities. This saves a tremendous amount of time and effort.
In addition to saving time and headaches, creating this simple list prior to beginning your search for finding the right preschool also gives parents and caregivers a chance to all be on the same page. Creating a list with your spouse, the child’s father or mother, the child’s caretakers such as grandparents or nannies, helps to facilitate a conversation that allows everyone to contribute in a meaningful about the child’s care. This allows everyone to solve the task of finding the right preschool as a unified team.
In addition to creating a list of things to look for in a preschool, it’s important to align yourself with parents that share your beliefs in terms of parenting. Belonging to a parenting network of parents with similar beliefs and parenting styles as yours can be invaluable in terms of getting advice on the best preschools in your area. Parents are often eager to share their opinions on local pediatricians, schools, family-friendly activities, and other things as they relate to raising kids with other parents. You can benefit by soaking all this first-hand information in. It can help you form a more informed opinion.