Contributor Alethea Cheng Fitzpatrick shares her thoughts and research on the best ways to choose a preschool for your little one. It can feel daunting, but you’ve got this.
Choosing a pre-school for your child, when they might have only recently turned one, can be daunting. Maybe they’ve already been in daycare, but you’d like something a little more structured and educationally oriented, or perhaps they’ve been with a nanny, but they’re ready for more socialization. Or maybe you’ve been home with them but can tell that they would benefit from broadening their horizons a little (and so would you!).
No matter your situation, here are three tips for choosing and starting your child in preschool, typically when they are two or three years old (we’ll cover elementary school, including pre-K, over the next few weeks).
1) Extrapolate. The most important thing when choosing a preschool is that you visit and it feels like a nurturing and safe environment where children are happy. Remember that, depending on your child’s birthday and when you visit, your child will probably not be attending tomorrow so while it might be hard to imagine your baby attending right now, that will change over the time between now and when they start.
You should also take this into consideration when deciding the number of days/length of days you want to sign up for. Your child will probably be ready for more days than you can imagine right now, and if 9am-4pm sounds like a long day, don’t forget they are napping for a lot of the afternoon!
2) Convenience is Key. Given the above (a nurturing and safe environment), it’s ok to prioritize location and convenience at this age. While I think it’s worth traveling a little further for elementary school, and your kids will be older and better able to manage it by then, commuting with a two or three-year-old is no fun (and harder than with a baby or even a one-year-old). Trust me on this one!
3) Expect It to Be Hard in the Beginning (on you). By the time my first child turned two and started at a lovely preschool a few blocks from our house, I was used to leaving him with a babysitter at home, but I was not prepared for how hard it was to drop him off somewhere. He was fine, but I was a total wreck that first half day and didn’t get anything done while he was gone. You may or may not have the same reaction, but I wouldn’t plan on being very functional the first day just in case.
My final word of advice? Breathe. The application process can be stressful, but both our kids had an amazing preschool experience, and I can’t think of anyone I know who didn’t. It’s worth the work to find the right place for your child.
Alethea Cheng Fitzpatrick is a family photographer turned photography coach for parents. She founded Photosanity to help parents find joy & connection through photographing their kids. Born and brought up in the UK, Alethea lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her two sons, Liam, age 8, and Jack, age 5.
Alethea has taught workshops at the Apple Store, Brooklyn Baby Expo, Brooklyn Babybites (now Mommybites) and online through Photosanity.com and other platforms. She has been interviewed on 1010WINS and featured in The Daily Mail, Cool Mom Picks, Apartment Therapy, Ask Moxie and Mom365.