preschool

The preschool my older three children attended and that my fourth is about to start costs $100 per month. That is for two preschool classes (Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-3:00) and one pre-K class (Wednesday 9:00-1:30) each week. It includes everything except lunch on Wednesdays, their art smock and book bag. Even a field trip and 3 "family events" per year are part of the tuition. They do accept extra donations of supplies but it isn't required or expected. When my oldest two started the minimum age to start was 3 by September 1st. My oldest daughter has a December birthday so she was almost 4 before she could start. My oldest son has a July birthday so he was just 3 when he started...he also ended up going for 3 years because he wasn't socially ready for kindergarten until he was six. After his first year the school changed the age requirement to 31/2 by September 1st (in large part because of my son, I will admit!) so my youngest daughter was 4 before she could start because she haas an August birthday. Now my son that is about to start will be almost exactly 4 1/2 when he starts. He technically missed the cut off last year by a few days but they were going to let him go anyway but hewasn't ready yet in other ways so this will be his first and only year of preschool probably.

It really depends on whether or not you are placing your child in a "private" pre-school as these seem to be alot more expensive. The pre-school I sent my daughter to and my son will be going to starting in a couple of weeks is $80/month and it includes a breakfast for them. This is not pro-rated for our family income either. That is their straight fee. It is three days a week for 3 hours a day which prepares them for the 5days a week half day Kindergarden and then onto full time school for 1st grade. My daughter and son both only attended preschool for one year prior to Kindergarden. Since I am a stay at home mom and regularly socialize my children, I didn't feel any need for them to go sooner then that. As a parent I believe its important to teach my children things myself and not just put everything off on schools. So I went with 1 year of preschool.

The preschool at our local school cost $240 per month. our daughter is 4 and she will go this year. but they have a scholarship program and it goes by your income, so we only have to pay $30 per month. They don't wear uniforms at this preschool. My friend and I were just talking about this. her son is only 18 months and she is worried about paying for preschool. I suggested starting a savings account now and putting so much a month in it. by the time preschool rolls around she'd have enough to pay for his whole school year.

Both of my school age children went to preschool. My oldest went to Head Start and my middle went to Stepping Stones. I liked the Stepping Stones program a lot better. Since both of their birthdays fall in September, they started when they were 3 years old about to turn 4. Head Start was a half day program, 4 days a week while Stepping Stones was a half day program on Mondays (all city schools were on that schedule) and full day Tues-Fri. It cost me nothing for either program. Both were based on your income. I could not have afforded to send my children to a daycare preschool setting as where I live, it costs about $150 a week (yes week, not month) to send them somewhere like that and its a 5 day a week program. I have a wee one at home now, she is 18 months, and I hope to be able to do the same thing with her that I did with the other 2.

my second daughter 4 yrs old just about to start pre-school next month. I didn't put her earlier because yes, prescholl in my area cost a lot. Finally this year i found one that she can go 3 days a week and only cost 187 bucks a month. the other pre school want to charge over $300 and that's only 2 days a week...

Its almost like childcare. I went into pre-k school when I was 3 and wasn't allowed to go forward due to my birthday being in march. The cutoff was birthdays after january or something. Your child isn't really learning much but its more to experient with their new surroundings and fellow peers. There's typically a list of things your child should know how to do (write their name, atleast first, know their number ect) and they just review. I also thing I had to know the alphabet. As for cost, it was about 600 for tuition alone but I went to catholic school.

I'm not sure how it is where you are, but my sister works at a daycare that offers preschool programs. It isn't a public school so it is known that there is a charge. However, the other day when the family was together she was talking about a program that the state offers to those who don't have enough money to send their kids to her daycare. I know that in one school district you can get info from the school, but in another district it is administered outside of the school. Check with the local schools, and the daycares themself to see if any of these programs are available. Some may offer discounts or partial pay programs and some may have full pay programs. If you can't afford the daycare and have to work it is a good thing to look into. Also as a note, the schools that the state allows these programs to all have to pass a stringent level of testing to be approved.

Preschool for our daughter is also $240 per month. My husband's parents are both school teachers, so they offered to pay for it because they know how tough the requirements are for school nowadays. They mail us a check monthly for her to go, so we got pretty lucky there. She is 3 and just started preschool.