PreSchool

Max's nanny had a doctor's appointment this morning so I used it as an opportunity to take Max to visit a preschool that I really liked. It has one spot left in the 2 year class and I was prepared to put a deposit down and have him start after the first of the year. And, I didn't. I decided I need to think about it some more. It is just one teacher with 7 - 8 kids, all boys except 1 girl. And, it just felt chaotic. They don't want the children playing with toys or other distractions, but it takes like 5 minutes or more to transition. There was no teachers helper and when the teacher needed to leave the room to change a poopy diaper, she had to call another teacher over to watch both classes (open floor plan with 3 classes, but blocked by a rolling shelf to keep the kids from wandering into the other spaces). The teacher seemed a bit overwhelmed. But, they just split the toddler class and graduated this group into a 2 year class and today was the very first day for all of the kids and this teacher in the new classroom so that had to play into it. I'm going to look at a few more. Maybe go back to this other school I looked at and didn't take Max to that had a teacher with an assistant in each class. It didn't feel awful, just almost no individual attention, but my expectations are probably not realistic. I talked to another one of Max's teachers in his Tuesday/Thursday mommy and me classes and she said that the state ratio was 1 - 12 sot a 1 - 8 was really good. I think about putting him in, then go to visit and then think I need to keep him home for longer. Sigh. I guess I'll keep looking.

ETA: This was a Montessori school. They were outside playing when we got there, but moving inside. Then, it was wash hands and change diapers and into the new classroom after the teacher was done (kids were watched by the other two teacher in the big room until then). Then, it was snack time. Transition to circle time with songs. Transition to some Montessori puzzles, which only 1 of the kids was interested in and could really do. Transition to coloring. Next was transition to potty time, wash hands, then lunch, then nap so we left. We were there about 2 hours and I was exhausted, not because it was physically taxing, but it was just so many kids in a small area with only one teacher trying to keep everyone on task.

The thing I like most was that she always used positive language asking the child to do what she wanted, not telling them that they shouldn't or couldn't do something.