I've recently embarked upon looking into pre-schools for BB...
...Holy Moly.
Initially we thought about Montessori. It feels like a natural progression, home-birth, breastfeeding, co-sleeping... Montessori. However after some research into schools in our area sadly it's proving to be a financially inaccessible choice. One school even demands $165 to go on the waiting list to compete for 25 spaces. (And we live in a neighborhood abundant with children... so what are the odds?)
Plan B – visit a few local centres and go with my gut feeling on the people that run it. I checked one out last week that I really wanted to like but I just didn't get good vibes. The outdoor space was dismal and they seemed a bit too focused on curriculum which boasts French and Japanese lessons. (Is that normal at this age?) The local KU seems like a good choice, however if we pop her name down now we're still not likely to get in until she's 4.
I feel over my head with this one. I'm not sure what's normal and what's reflective of the extortion that accompanies inner-city living. And at an average of $100 a pop for the waiting list, how many do you sign up to?
It's times like this the urge to swing further left and home-school is strong, and if BB didn't say mama, this, kids, please every time we walk past a pre-school I may even consider it.
Image: BB's first play-dough experience, as per Em's recipe. I love that during full concentration she sticks her tongue out – just like I do.
Oh man, I feel your pain. I sent off four waiting list applications to preschools last week. Along with a bucket load of cash. What if we don't get anywhere? Why didn't I listen when people told me to put her name down when she was born? How do I know we'll even still be in the area in 6 months, a year? I'm feeling paralysed by the whole daunting process. I hope you find somewhere great. Kellie xx PS cute tongue action Rosie!
ReplyDeletefirstly, that play dough looks bloody fabulous.
ReplyDeleteAs for preschool- its SUCH a hard decision, and one that can change. As for a fee for waiting? ehum. we don't have those in our little backward town.
Have you looked into the gov. rebates to see how much you will get back yet?
From my very limited experience, it's likely that the young ones will 'bloom where they are planted'. Maybe? I know the place that Zeph goes to was not my first choice but he loves it- i'll change him (controversial i know) when another option becomes available. Just throwing my two cents in.
xxx
It's crazy how competitive this whole school thing is these days. We haven't even had our first born yet and everyone's telling us if we want him to go to a private high school we need to submit the form 24 hours after he's born.....Sorry WHAT?! Crazy x
ReplyDeleteI hear you. Women are obsessed where I live about schools/preschool/daycare. They move to this area for this very reason. I heard one woman say about her 3 monther "we already have his profile up and ready" what the?
ReplyDeleteRosie appears like she can fit in anywhere? You have done a great job Anna. But it is not really a job is it?
Time and opportunity will change and present other options i am sure.
x
Jill
do you have any council run daycare/preschools in your area? it cost us $25 to go on a list for about 8 centres...
ReplyDeletethough i waited 2.5 years for my Rosie to finally get in! high kid population around here too :)
We used a council run daycare and then the local KU - I was very happy with both of them, they had nice staff and a happy atmosphere and were more about the children's experience than pleasing parents (those big slick corporate places give me the creeps... and the staff seem to spend so much time documenting things to show the parents at the end of the day that the children don't get much of a chance to just play). And the waiting list fees for the KU and council places are usually only $20, so it's easier to take a bit of a scattergun approach. We got lucky and got a spot for Ali when he was 3 at the KU, despite being told he probably wouldn't get one til he was 4, so it's worth putting their names down early.
ReplyDeleteHoly moly is right. We're in Melbourne, and it's no different here. I somehow seem to have landed in a mother's group of women who are uniformly bemused/horrified at the waiting list rigmarole, so I guess we can start our own kinder if none of us have places in three years' time!
ReplyDeleteWe just moved from Melbourne to Armidale in NSW and I have been AMAZED at the price difference - my daughter Rubes has a place in the Montessori pre school here and it is $17 a half day and $25 a full day. I had to double check the price, I though she initially said $70 for a half day..! We used to pay $87 a day for daycare.
ReplyDeletePeople have actually told us to start looking for a nursery now and our baby hasn't even arrived yet. How insane is that?! The Montessori that was literally 3 minutes round the corner from us closed about 8 months ago (sign of the money-stricken times I reckon) and now the closest is a 45 minute drive away, so it looks like when the time comes we'll be searching for something that we feel has a good vibe. Although "the time" may be now by the sounds of it....
ReplyDeleteLoving the bloomers with tights - I rocked that look until I was about 6 I think xx
Gorgeous photos, love the look of concentration.
ReplyDeleteHave you had a look at the www.careforkids.com.au website? It is great for pinpointing what is in your area for long daycare, occasional care and preschools. It also includes the council-run ones as well I think. Then you need a morning to sit on the phone to ring and ring and ring around, hopefully getting someone nice at the other end :) And yes, it is a nightmare but I'm sure somewhere wonderful will turn up and Rosie will simply love going there. Put your name down everywhere possible (though perhaps not at ones that cost $165 upfront!!!) and hopefully you will have lots of options when the time comes.
ah, we have yet to even think about having a little one and my maternal instincts already feel stressed about living in Sydney when I know things are so much easier back home. should it really be this difficult? man, keep us posted, i don't envy your journey at the moment but there are many of us following that will be soon. good luck. x
ReplyDeleteI put my son's name down at the daycare he attends 3 days a week three months after I found I was pregnant. It is a CSIRO run nursery and preschool with very limited places and a HUGE waiting list. I had heard very good reports and its a 2 minute walk from my hubby's work so it was the perfect choice.
ReplyDeleteYou should get up to 50% back from the government,(depending on your circumstances) as long as the preschool/daycare is on their register.
Rosie will love socialising with all the other children. another plus is you would get plenty more me time!
Whoa! Waiting list fees?! That's bloody ridiculous. And just downright cruel.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you look into playgroups? How about a Steiner playgroup. I know Meagan at ecomilf takes her kiddies to one and she lives near you I think. I found playgroup was fantastic for Che when he was Rosie's age - it also helped a lot with my parenting (and breadmaking) skills.
Yesterday I went to the little public school at the end of my street and enquired about school applications for che. When I walked out I cried a little tear. It felt like I birthed him yesterday.
As for home-school - it's crossed my mind too. But I loved school and so far, Che is a social little one. I'd feel like I was depriving him of a wonderful experience.
ps. if you want to know about childcare rebates just email me. I'll give you an idea of how much we pay (I'm guessing it will be the same amount for you) x
ReplyDeletehello, we also felt all sorts of anxiety of what the hell we were going to do with no family around & me wanting to go back to work. we had mirka's name down on every list going (they are free in my little part of the world, although i think i did pay $10 for a local kinder list). we looked at all sorts of childcare places, public & private, and in the end chose the one that we simply had a good vibe from & where the staff genuinely seem to love children & had pride in their centre & their staff. don't know if any of this helps since i'm in a different city. you could move to yarraville/footscray! i tried family day care for about a month before changing over to our childcare centre while waiting for a spot became available, but i didn't like it as much. family daycare could be a good option if you find the right person & it is quite cheap bc you just pay by the hour instead of a day rate. it really depends on the person and their home & setup. re costs, the gov covers at least 50% for childcare costs. my little mirka also sticks her tongue out.. so cute!!
ReplyDeleteI think homeschool is a great option for sure, as for the mama kids please, I´m sure you could find plenty of options, such as swimming, ballet, karate or whatnot lessons in which she could have lots of kiddos around... If you´re interested in the subject I´d highly recommend you read anything by John Holt- I´m reading How Children Learn now and find it highly enlightening in the subject of education. good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard and expensive, it horrifies me how much money we had spent on both boys education BEFORE they were 3 just because of waitlist fees. We live on Upper North Shore and like you found the small number of preschools ridiculous given the amount of young families that live in this part of Sydney. What we found, which you may also find where you live, is that despite the waitlists they were offered spots at every place waitlisted because this is an area of high "turnover" because leave to do the expat thing and vice versa. We have found the preschool experience so fantastic, they truly blossomed from shy little boys to confident little men. For some reason they never cried at preschool whereas at daycare the cried every single day, so we found the stimulation and care provided well worth the money we paid. Whatever you choose in the end will be the best for your little one and remember preschool isn't compulsory, so you shouldn't beat yourself up about it too much.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting anxious all the way up here - it's crazy how early you need to be getting this stuff sorted... And the price is just CRIMINAL! I haven't even given this a thought yet... but now I might go and check out what's on offer up here. nail biting stuff. Hope you get some good vibes from somewhere close and kind to your pockets. x
ReplyDeletep.s - the tongue is too cute. Lalie sticks hers out too.. but I think she gets it from dad. adorable. x
ReplyDeleteWe are not quite to this phase yet, but when I was pregnant we lived in a very urban area and I did a little bit of research. I am not sure if this is helpful or not but I know that in some areas there are co-op preschools where you volunteer one day a week in a class or whatever in exchange for lower tuition, etc. All the parents are required to buy into the model and volunteer, so they draw families that support that model. I know the one we were spying out for our little one was in a Methodist church, but we figured that it would be okay because we would be teaching her at home as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is helpful. Good luck!
I know so many people have an opinion on school and really I think it just ends up what is the very best you can do for you particular child in the moment. I have two daughters 4.5 and 2.5 and neither have been to formal preschool. I wanted to do montessori too and then realized that it was way out of our range! Crazy expensive. My husbands in grad school and I'm a photographer so there was no way we could do it.
ReplyDeleteWhen my oldest was 3 I organized some moms and kids ages ranging from 3-7 some homeschool and some preschool and we started a little co-op. Each mom took a month and it has been so much fun. I feel like they get plenty of interaction and we do the "academic" stuff st home with my older daughter. I wish someone would have told me to not stress about what you can't do but just do what you can do and love on your kids. my two cents, take it or leave it.
my names jenny and I live near Berkeley California.
I love your blog! Thanks for keeping it real.
Yup. We are looking at preschools (not even full day, 5 days a week, mind you), and the tuition is more than I paid for one year of POSTGRADUATE education. It's like, of course you are willing to pay for a great experience for your kid...and there seems to be a fair amount of capitalizing on that. Long story short, I feel you. We're in the same boat.
ReplyDeletemy 3 kids went to a KU and they are fabulous pre schools. It's all about play based learning which is what 3 and 4 year olds need in my opinion. Only my middle child had to wait till he was 4 the others got two years there. I'd put her name down asap then call a few times in the Jul/Aug period before the year you want her to go.....good luck!
ReplyDeleteWe did KU for my eldest and hopefully again for my second in another years time. Was ridiculously happy with it. I didn't want him to leave!
ReplyDeleteWe were in this exact predicament this time last year. It was consuming. In the end i went with my gut feeling about the preschools i visited.It proved correct. Our daughter has been attending a new private centre, everything i thought i didn't want. Yet it turns out the centre and its team are personal, caring, creative, inclusive and community orientated. I have to say it has been a wonderful year, her confidence has grown in leaps and bounds. And as it turns out there are lot of children there who used attend another centre where my gut simply said "no" despite the vacancies.
ReplyDeletePine Street kindy in Manly is AMAZING. Definitely check that out, we were there for 3 years. Staff has been there for 10 years on average and the youngest one is about 35. Good sign. Also ry Rainbow cottage Frenchs Forest, top of Allambie Raod, really beautiful and Rudolf Steiner based but not in a heavy handed way - follows the ethos of natural parenting you already have in play. Good luck! n x
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness I have been pushing this exact worry to the back of my mind and burying my head in the sand! I woud love to send my son to a montessori school but the local one in bondi is SO EXPENSIVE there is absolutely no way we could afford to send him there. I also thought about becoming a montessori teacher in a bid to create a career for myself - 12000 a year for 3 years, plus you already need a degree and to do the tafe course in early childhood...urgh! there goes that idea. Best of luck finding a happy place for your daughter. Inner city living is really tough sometimes. I am wondering how much longer we will be able to manage it.
ReplyDeletesara