I was at the park a couple of weeks ago, and a lady asked me which preschools I was looking at.  None, I replied!  It’s not that I didn’t plan to send L to preschool.  It’s just that I figured I’d send her this Fall . . . and it’s January.  Too early, right?  Well, I figured I’d better have a look, and no, not too early.  In fact, there was one preschool with an application deadline of 1/19 for this Fall, which I obviously missed.

I immediately went into spreadsheet mode and created and XLSX of all the preschools within 20 minutes of our house that looked even mildly promising.  There are quite a few, most about 15 minutes north in Bellevue.  I ended up with a list of twenty-four potential preschools.  I then narrowed it down to the three that looked most interest: Poll.iwog Preschool (run by the city of Bellevue), the Bellevue Disc.overy Center, and Nat.ural Start Preschool.

We started by attending an open house for Poll.iwog.  It features 90 minutes of outdoor time in the Mercer Slough, a giant natural area where H and I used to go kayaking.  The kids also spend an additional hour or so indoors.  It runs two or three days a week, depending on which session you sign up for.  H and I were impressed.  The teachers seemed young and passionate, and the setting was great.  You aren’t allowed to visit while school is in session unless you’re accepted, so I haven’t seen an actual class yet.  The only hitch is that it’s very popular and there aren’t many spots.  Students are accepted by lottery.  We have applied and will find out some time in the next month.

I then went to see the Bellevue Disc.overy Center.  It’s an upper end preschool targeted at gifted kids.  I can’t say whether L is gifted or not, but after my visit, I do think she would thrive at this place.  It has a 4:1 teacher student ratio, and it appeared very well run.  The teachers were young and enthusiastic and completely engaged with the kids the whole time.  I was impressed by the way the teachers interacted with the students both during free play and during structured activities.  The hitch with this one is that it costs more than $12,000 for four mornings a week.  B and I felt that was too much at this stage.  He basically talked me off the ledge and said he just doesn’t buy into the theory that we need to be pushing to provide L with the best opportunities at this age.  If she is gifted, the doors will still be open in a couple years when she’s ready to start school.  I also strongly believe that there is more than one way to nurture her brain.  While this was truly about as good as a preschool can get (from what I’ve seen), I’m not sure it’s any better than an outdoor program like Pol.liwog or a more diverse set of activities like attending music and dance classes  in addition to a twice-a-week preschool program.

I then went to see the Nat.ural Start Preschool.  Obviously, the bar had been very high by the BDC.  When I arrived, the kids were involved in free play.  There were three teachers there with a class of sixteen, so there was actually an excellent student teacher ratio.  However, no more than two of the teachers were engaged with the kids at a time, and a lot of the time, only one teacher was interacting with them.  I realize it was free play, but I still wasn’t impressed.  It was complete chaos for part of the time.  I was told free play normally lasts 30 minutes, but it went 45, at which point they went to circle time.  I stayed for part of that and observed them setting up for what looked like a less than impressive craft project.  This preschool also features an outdoor component, one hour at a time.  The big difference between this program and the other two really seemed to be the quality of the teachers.  They seemed nice, cheerful and good-natured . . . but not as energized and passionate about their jobs as the other teachers.  It seems like a bit much to ask for a preschool teacher to be passionate, but that is what the teachers at the first programs were.

I plan to visit one or two more schools.  Our baseline is Poll.iwog at this point, but I’m not sure what our chances are of getting in, and I want a backup.  Nat.ural Start will work, but I’m not excited about it, and I’d like to see if there’s something better out there that’s affordable.

The whole experience has made me think hard about school options for L at all levels from preschool through college, but more on that another time.