Choosing The Right Preschool

My little one has been attending preschool since the beginning of September. I enrolled her in this particular preschool because it has a great educational record. This school district is known to be one of the best in the county I live in. I'm a new mom and had no idea what to expect out of the preschool experience. There's been problems since the very moment I enrolled my little one for class. The class that I originally picked had a wonderful teacher. I really liked her and wanted my daughter to be in her class. About a week before class the school secretary calls me and tells me the class that I registered for was full and they would have to transfer my little one to another teacher. My husband I meet the teacher a few days before class and both had bad feelings about her. To sum a long story up. My daughter became very scared of this teacher and wouldn't participate in class. The teacher kept insisting that something was wrong with my little one. I kept insisting that she was shy. This went on for several months. The teacher has been rude to me and my husband several times and I just didn't know what to think about all this craziness. It finally occurred to me that if the teacher was being rude to the parents then how was she treating these 4 year old children. A few weeks before Christmas a parent told me about the sand jar. It's a tactic used to discipline the children. The kids are forced to sit on the floor and hold a sand jar. Of course all the other kids are watching. It just seemed like a humiliation tactic and in my eyes a form of abuse. The week before Christmas was the last straw for me. The teacher again was rude to me. So rude in fact that started to cry. If you know me, I'm just not the type of person to cry over spilled milk. I was so angry that I decided this was my daughters last day of school. So, I took her out and that very same day enrolled in a new preschool. There are so many other things that happened to lead me to make this decision. From the beginning my little one has been terrified to go to class. At first I just thought it was because it was a new experience, but her fear kept up for the entire time at this school. Each day when I would drop her off she would ask me, Are you going to wait in the hallway? Of course I said yes. The worst part was when I would pick her up after class she would act so angry. I didn't know what was going on. Why was she so angry? Who was this child? After I took her out of the bad school I decided to ask her a few questions about the teacher. Are you scared of the teacher? Yes, Why are you scared of the teacher? Because she screams all the time. What's the sand jar? You get it when you are bad? Have you gotten the sand jar? No. I've come to the conclusion that my little one was so quite, shy and wouldn't participate in class because she was afraid of getting the sand jar or getting yelled at. Gosh, I feel terrible that this had to be her first experience with education. I wish I had followed my motherly intuition in the beginning.

Today I dropped my little one off at her new school. Oh my gosh, what a huge difference in the teaching environment. The teacher is just delightful, friendly and so not a screamer. The parents are welcome to come in the class and say good bye to their kids. I wasn't allowed to do that in the other school. There was always a do not enter note on her classroom door. Aren't all teachers suppose to have an open door policy? My little one was so brave this morning. She was happy to go to her new school. She didn't even shed a tear. I'm so proud of her for being a brave little girl. She didn't even ask me to wait in the hallway this time. The first day of school is always so hard. I remember those days. I'm hoping this bad experience can be forgotten about and didn't leave any permanent scares. The hubby called the old school today to get a refund. The cost was about $1,000 for 9 months of preschool. No, preschool isn't free these days. My mom helped me pay for most of the tuition since times are hard financially for me and the hubby right now. The school is telling my hubby that they aren't sure they can refund our money. Gosh, does this drama ever end. I'm so tired of dealing with these crazy people. Though I'm just delighted that I found my little one an educational environment that she will feel happy and safe in. I asked her last night if she was going to be scared going to her new school. Her answer: No silly, there's no sand jar. I'm so happy that I made this huge decision to pull her out of that terrible preschool class. I've learned so much from this experience. Sometimes young children can't tell you how they feel. Instead they express it in their actions and emotions. Just like her acting out in anger. As parents I guess we need to pay attention to these warning signals. It really helped me to understand what was going on by observing her behavior and just sitting down and talking to my four year old. I feel this new school will be a positive step in her education.