The other night I went to the curriculum night at our three-year old daughter’s preschool, and I can honestly say I learned so much and found the time I spent listening to the teachers completely worth it. It was parents only, and since we didn’t have a babysitter for the night, my husband left work early and stayed home with the girls.

Unfortunately, it was pure chaos at home during the hour and a half I was gone.

When I came home, the kids were going crazy – they both told me they cried, and my husband texted me while I was driving home saying HJ was having a tantrum looking for a red rubber band. Then as soon as I got home and we were ready to do our tag-team routine of putting the kids to bed one-on-one, my husband had to get on an emergency conference call for work and the kids decided they need a snack, and basically my youngest daughter didn’t sleep until 10 pm.

Still, I’m glad that I went because it really reassured me that the school is a good fit for our daughter. Being a former teacher, and having done an overabundance of research into preschools in the area due to our older daughter’s developmental delays, I know that I definitely tend to err on the side of too much information when trying to make a decision about something important such as choosing a school. I felt like I had looked at every preschool option available, from the local park district, to the Montessori programs, to private religious preschools, and nothing seemed to be what I was looking for.

However, I had somehow overlooked this preschool which is about 10 minutes away from our home until a couple moms in Lila’s gymnastics class mentioned how much they loved it. The school is actually well-known for their summer camp program, but I hadn’t realized that they also offered a private preschool and kindergarten enrichment during the school year. Also, it turned out our next door neighbor had taught there for years and was close friends with the director.

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Prior to finding this school, I had been set on sending Lila to a French immersion preschool about half an hour from our house. I knew it would be a trek, and it was five days a week, but I had seriously considered this to be the best decision for our daughter who has always been very verbal and who seemed to have a natural affinity for language. I had also heard how beneficial it was for students to begin learning a foreign language at such a young age, and how it led to cognitive development and gains in many other areas as well. The downside of course, was the commute, and the long-term commitment. The immersion preschool begins at age three and continues through kindergarten, and afterwards, it is encouraged to continue sending your child to after-school classes to keep up their language skills. Despite all these hurdles, we interviewed at the school, applied, and were accepted when I started having second thoughts.

My husband, ever the practical one, questioned me about the reality of getting both kids to school on time, especially during the brutal Chicago winters. He also wondered if our daughter would have difficulty making friends and having playdates, since we were commuting from farther away. And of course, there was the expense. The immersion school had a significantly higher tuition than other preschools in the area.

For all those reasons, I started looking into other options closer to home. As soon as I visited the school that Lila is at right now, I knew that I had found the right match for her. The teachers were warm and caring, the school was NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children) accredited, and most of all, Lila jumped right into the classroom and didn’t want to leave from the very first visit. The school has that hard-to-find balance of being play-based and yet still being academically challenging, focusing on social skills and confidence, and developing a positive attitude towards learning and education, which at the age of three, is all that I really want for my daughter. She does not have to be reading and writing at this age for me to feel that she is getting a great preschool education.


Lila excited on her first day in class

Unfortunately, they had a wait list for their morning program, so I ended up enrolling Lila in the afternoon program five days a week, but I was nervous about her naps and how she would do. A couple months later, I was thrilled when the director of the school told me that a spot had opened up in the morning class. So now Lila attends three mornings a week, does an extended day one afternoon a week, and other activities on the days that she is not in preschool.

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind adjusting to her schedule. Today, poor girl who usually loves going from one new activity to another, said, “Am I going to have any more new teachers??” I think she is pretty much done with all the new teachers and classes she has been getting used to this past month.

Hopefully, though, we’ll settle into a new routine soon and she’ll be feeling more comfortable with the transitions. I do love this school and that is why I’m doing everything I can to keep her there even when I know it would be easier to put her in a daycare once I start working full-time again.

If you have little ones in school, how have they been adjusting to the routine so far? How did you make the decision to find the right school for your child?