Preschools in Wallingford/Swarthmore Area? (Rose Valley, Rutledge: co-op, credit, house)

[relocating_family]

Can anyone help us?

We are have a contract on a house in Wallingford and are looking for preschools for our daughter who won't be 5 until October. So far, this is what I have found:

Rose Valley Day School: Super expensive. Tuition for 5 half days in $9720 a year. School looks wonderful, but it's hard to pay those prices, especially with such high property taxes. Anyway, they are full and we would be placed on a wait list.

Trinity Coopertive Day Nursery: Looks good, is affordable and the kids go onto WES, where my daughter will go. Also full for the Fall; I've put her name on a wait list.

Wallingford Co-op Nursery: Can't tell anything about it from the internet and can find no reviews. Tuition is CHEAP, which worries me. I'd really like to know more about it.

Swarthmore Friends: Nothing on the internet. I wonder how religious it is? No tuition info online.

Kehlillah Early Learning: Looks like a franchise and is religiously affiliated, which makes me nervous.

We don't wan't to put her in a religious school and we would like her to go on to public school kindergarten with some of her classmates. Does anyone have any insight?

[PhillyViaBoston]

Sadly, I'm not surprised many of these choices are already full. Pre-school selection usually starts in January, which really stinks for people relocating.

The Wallingford Co-Op is wonderful, and always fills up quick. Wallingford Co-Op Nursery School
It's somewhat less expensive because parents help (hence the "co-op" part) about once a month in the classroom. The teachers are kind, and they have a flexible "lunch bunch" program that is popular. They also have a 3 (or maybe it's 4?) day a week kindergarten program to compliment the half-day public kindergarten schedule, when you're ready for that.

In addition to what you already found, Old Union Nursery School and Swarthmore Presbyterian Nursery Day School (SPNDS) are popular.

SPNDS is one of the few pre-schools in the area that is NAEYC accredited, in case that's important to you. The teachers are all GREAT. They also have lunch bunch & extended care, but I believe you need to sign up in advance for a full year. Their five-day-a-week kindergarten program (again, a compliment the half-day public kindergarten schedule) is absolutely fantastic and gets rave reviews.
SPNDS

I don't think a higher percentage of kids at Trinity go onto WES than any of the other schools you list. If anything my impression is that Trinity is pretty popular with the Swarthmore-Rutledge School crowd because one of its buildings is in the courtyard of SRS.

Many of the local nursery schools are housed in religious buildings, but most have no religion in the curriculum. This is true of (at least) Wallingford Co-Op, Kehlillah, SPNDS, and Old Union.

[relocating_family]

This is great info! Thank you! I'm going to call Wallingford Co-op tomorrow and see if they have space for us. In the meantime, I will take a closer look at the others you suggested. This is so hard to do remotely!