An Open House

Pre-school starts for Short Person in September and up until now, we hadn't made any decisions about where she would be going. I am not a fan of public school so I've been really worried about trying to get her started in a private school environment so that we could elevate her chance of being able to get enrolled after Pre-k.

There's a quote from the movie "Baby Boom" going through my head right now. It's from the scene where Diane Keaton takes her new charge to the playground and all these mothers are sitting around their 18-month olds discussing schedules. Diane's character innocently asks why they are already worried about preschool and one of the mother's answers, "Well, if they don't get into a good preschool their chances of getting into a good school go way down and if they don't get into a good school they won't go to a good college and if they don't go to a good college their lives are basically shot to hell." (I paraphrased a lot. It's hard to remember exact lines, apparently.)

Well, I sort of feel that way. Not up to the college part, but definitely where grade school is concerned.

Anyway, our (my- I don't think LJS is that stressed over it) first choice of schools for Short Person had an open house today. You know how you can walk into a place and automatically feel like smiling because it's just filled with warmth? Oh wow, this place was like that.

The building is really small. Not that many children attend and class sizes are limited to 18 children at the most. When you walk through the double doors, you are greeted with about 20 steps up to the second level. The pre-k room is on the right. It is a giant room filled with little tables and chairs, coat racks, play areas like a kitchen space, bookshelves, and an area where there are little rug squares for the kids to sit. Inside were about 10 kids playing in different "stations" with parent volunteers. Three stations with different things to play with, to be exact. There were anywhere from three to five kids per table.

The parent that was giving me the tour explained that the table with the teacher was the "teaching" station. She was actually having them do a project, but teaching them at the same time. Something to do with counting, if I remember correctly. It was perfect.

I loved the school. The largest class size that they had was 15, but 10-12 seemed to be the average. The teachers struck me as friendly but tough as nails, which seems an odd deduction to make from only 30 minutes. I just got the impression they made it fun, but didn't go for any messing around.

I felt so out of place. I had no idea what questions to ask or anything. A hippo in a porcelain shop again, that is me. But in the end, I really liked the school. The only thing I was a little befuddled about was the homework thing. I heard word of mouth from a parent that they don't assign homework, but I guess they do. However, the 4th grade teacher I spoke too said they attempt to keep it light. As long as it is not hours of homework, well... I'll have to think about that one.

But hooray! I think we have a school.