Pre-K waitlists (Houston, St. Jo: day cares, neighborhood, YMCA)

[analogkid84]

Geez, it's pre-K. Educate them yourselves; your kids will appreciate the time spent with them. Especially so once you start schlepping them off to some private school, then music, then sports, then Kumon, etc. Participate and educate.

[misterno]

Originally Posted by analogkid84

Geez, it's pre-K. Educate them yourselves; your kids will appreciate the time spent with them. Especially so once you start schlepping them off to some private school, then music, then sports, then Kumon, etc. Participate and educate.

But you can not give the same social feeling as they are given in Pre-K. Interaction with other kids, see outside world and people.

You can not give these at home, can you?

[museumdad]

Originally Posted by analogkid84

Geez, it's pre-K. Educate them yourselves; your kids will appreciate the time spent with them. Especially so once you start schlepping them off to some private school, then music, then sports, then Kumon, etc. Participate and educate.

I fail to see the reason to be combative. I asked a question about waitlists; perhaps we found a school(s) that would be a good fit for upper grades and thought it best to try to gain admittance sooner than later. Please also consider that both parents work in some families, and that some level of away from home schooling is necessary in the early years.

[marksmu]

Originally Posted by analogkid84

Geez, it's pre-K. Educate them yourselves; your kids will appreciate the time spent with them. Especially so once you start schlepping them off to some private school, then music, then sports, then Kumon, etc. Participate and educate.

Pretty difficult to do when both parents work, and you have multiple children of varying ages. Not everyone has the benefit of a stay at home parent and almost universally everyone wants the best for their kids.

[brooklyn_heights]

For our family, "educate" means to provide our children with experiences; it does not mean memorizing facts. Learning happens organically. And being in a new environment with different people/kids acts as a catalyst.

[analogkid84]

Originally Posted by misterno

But you can not give the same social feeling as they are given in Pre-K. Interaction with other kids, see outside world and people.

You can not give these at home, can you?

Not being in a premium, wait listed, lottery driven pre-K program =/= staying at home. I realize this falls on the deaf ears of those emboldened to the drive for "success", dual incomes, etc. Good luck to all involved as, yes, we all do want what's best for our kids. I hope everyone is a lottery winner.

[Bike4Life]

Although some of the comments were trying to beat around the bushes, I think there is a subtle point when a helicopter parents come on board around this time of the year and sound like their world has collapsed just because their child didn't get into the best school, people get annoyed.

It's not just private schools but also HISD magnet schools which is also highly competitive and sometimes we make and other times we don't. I hope parents don't get overly dramatic in front of their kids with the rejection notice.

Our child didn't make it to our ideal middle school and that was okay. We are also conscious that each child is independent and their short life experience and spiritual growth will be different from our own for divine reasons. And now we look back, I think it has been a good experience for our son in public school with exposure to diversity and social economic classes. Now, he has been accepted to attend to a private high school but he has not decided yet.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by misterno

But you can not give the same social feeling as they are given in Pre-K. Interaction with other kids, see outside world and people.

You can not give these at home, can you?

Yes, actually you can if you have other friends who homeschool. If you are a SAHP, you can take the kids to lots of activities for socialization - The Little Gym, Story hour at the local library, classes at the local recreation department, etc. Kids don't *need* preK although it is a nice break for parents and the kids usually love it.

PreK should be a play based center with lots of active learning. I don't know anything about the programs here in the Houston area as we moved when my granddaughter was starting K and her brother is special needs so he went into the PPCD preK at the local school. I can only reference programs in Evanston, IL where my kids grew up and where my granddaughter went to preK for a year when we were evacuated from the Metairie area. She did go to some programs in Metairie, but the chaos of Katrina meant things changed a lot with many of the preschools having damage from the storm.

This is what a good preschool and preK should look like, imo.

Cherry Preschool | Creating a caring community for children and their families

About our school | Cherry Preschool

Programs | Cherry Preschool

[colcat]

Originally Posted by misterno

But you can not give the same social feeling as they are given in Pre-K. Interaction with other kids, see outside world and people.

You can not give these at home, can you?

My kids never set foot in a preschool. They went to kindergarten and adjusted just fine. Just like every other kid in past generations when there was no such thing as a preschool.

[ottc777]

just curious, do some pre-k actually reject some kids and if so, why?