The Great Preschool Search

The preschool search has started in the McCreary house.

Even though Benjamin could start school next fall, we have decided to hold him back a year. This will give him one more year of outside therapy (assuming he still qualifies) and another year to build more confidence in his speech before he starts school. He is a June birthday, so he will probably be the oldest kid in his class. We feel very strongly that this is the best option for him.

He currently attends a Kid's Day Out for 2 days a week from 9-2. After some horrible separation anxiety at the beginning of the year, he really likes it now. He can name off most of his friends in his class, and he prays for his teachers all the time. There are, however, 18 kids in his class with 2 teachers. Next year, for the Pre-K class there will probably be have 14-16 kids. This is option #1.

Option #2 is a place called Creative School at FUMC in Springdale. It is only from 8:30-11:15, 3 days a week. We went to visit on Monday, and I really liked it. The class was only 11 kids. It was very organized and structured, and the kids seemed calm and well mannered. This is a biggie for Benjamin. If everyone is running around in chaos, he tends to get very overwhelmed and have meltdowns more frequently because he can't seem to process all the noises and the other disturbances at the same time.

So, after much debate, we have decided to go with option #2. He will be able to stay at the Creative School for the next 2 years. He will start in the fall in the 3-year-old class.

My biggest concern is the transition between schools. Transitions are really hard from him. When he was 2, he would scream and throw a total fit with the transition from the house to the car and vice-versa. You can imagine what a new school could potentially be like.

He is doing so much better with transitions now. We will talk about it all summer. I'll get special permission to visit the classroom and teacher before school actually starts. Maybe we'll even visit the playground to get him more excited about his big boy school. After all of that, I'm still nervous.

Watch out preschool...here we come.