<p>I was in Girl scouts for afew years- the moms who ran the group were very domestic- our badges were mostly about cooking or crafts,
But younger Ds troop was much more laid back- the girls took initative and decided on what they wanted to do.
A lot really depends on teh adults in charge.
Older d wasn't in Girl scouts, but the kids who took care of the zoo ponies during the school year was a 4-H club- they learned a lot and even showed horses at the county fair!
While I beleive in encouraging kids to try new things and to stick it out when they hit a rough patch, I don't beleive in forcing them to do something that they are totally against- more trouble than it is worth IMO</p>
<p>I hated doing that stuff. I just wanted to watch TV. I didn't learn anything, don't care, and it certainly did not make me a better person.</p>
<p>Racing in to second TheDad's comments about the pre-school scene in LA. This is not about about a bunch of prestige whores seeking a pre-school with social eclat; it's about finding a place that will provide a warm, safe environment for your kid. Unfortunately, there are way more kids than spaces, and the competition is insane.</p>
<p>We started out with religious pre-schools for kid #1. At the first one we observed, actually connected to the place where we now worship, we saw a teacher going after a kid because he wasn't coloring within the lines. I'm not kidding; this really hapened. Really!!! So then we enrolled in another religious school where the teacher and her assistant stood around talking to each other while the kids ran wild pretty much terrorizing each other and their mothers stood around not intervening.</p>
<p>At this point, after explaining to my husband that I was going to convert and find some whole other genre of religious pre-schools if we couldn't send our kids to secular school, we discovered that in our part of LA, if you're looking for a reasonable secular pre-school, you sign up at birth and have mega-connections or you're toast. Despite our being toast, a friend recommended a wonderful pre-school that let us observe (on the theory that we could sign up kid #2 at birth) and it was wonderful. Warm, stimulating, lots of teacher involvement, actually turning out nice, non-hitting kids who could communicate about how they felt and listened to other kids when working out problems, the works. Except that the very modest surroundings were a tad misleading. Turns out this was celebrity mecca. But, miraculously, we got in, through some variant of the pre-school legacy. When the director discovered that my husband had attended what was apparently LA's foremost progressive pre-school, she decided that any child raised by a dad with such a glorious early childhood experience would be an asset to her school. </p>
<p>The whole pre-school thing was more stressful than waiting to hear where kid #1 is going to be accepted at college, which is pretty darned stressful.</p>
<p>When the director discovered that my husband had attended what was apparently LA's foremost progressive pre-school, she decided that any child raised by a dad with such a glorious early childhood experience would be an asset to her school.
does this strike anyone else as very humourous?</p>
<p>I loved waldorf schools or at least the idea of them. The materials were fantastic- beeswax crayons- quality watercolors- but when they found out that d taught herself to read at three, they treated me like I was Diane Downs which dashed my hopes that D would learn to knit wool that she had carded and dyed( and spun) herself!
( however for many years we always made a point of attending their holiday festival- really miss the kids being too old to do that)</p>
<p>Emeraldkity -- This struck us as extremely humorous, especially since my husband attended that school since it was the closest pre-school to his house and his 21 y.o. immigrant mom could walk him there easily. (Not to mention, she thought it was very friendly.) But I guess it was really a testament to how important the director thought pre-school was to forming healthy adults. It was nice having a school run by a woman with a mission, irrespective of how chi-chi the school had become.</p>
<p>Also, even though you might assume that the incompatability of macarme and Gucci might render LA Waldorfs less popular, getting into a Waldorf pre-school around here isn't exactly a walk in the park either.</p>
<p>I am a preschool teacher. It is amazing to me how parents get so caught up in preschool drama. Just this week (registration week at our preschool) a mother came to register her 2 yr. old for next year. She was practically in tears because she had just moved here from OOS (N.H.) and said they didn't have 2 yr. old programs there and felt so horrible when friends here asked her if she had registered child yet. She was so worried that we wouldn't have a space for him. She was afraid he would be "behind the other kids" if he didn't get in! He's 2 years old!!!<br>
One of the "sayings" that we teachers use a lot is "1,2,3 all eyes on me".</p>
<p>We didn't apply to the waldorf schools- any place that thought I was a bad parent because my kid taught herself to read wasn't going to be a good fit.
The co-op where we ended up was much more our style- although at the first meeting- when two really scruffy dads walked in with beers stuck in their back pocket I did wonder. ( they had just gotten off work at their construction job and were apparently long time parents-both great guys and I ended up working with one of them quite a bit)
I haven't had a kid in preschool for a while, so I don't really know how competitive it is, but it seems like there are enough choices for everyone- even lots of in home day care/preschools that seem pretty good- co-ops are usually lottery if they have more applicants than space- which can be a PITA, because they don't carry wait lists or take into account previous co-op experience- some families aren't really up with all the requirements of a co-op and something more traditional can be a better fit</p>
<p>This stuff really bothers me. Obviously, a preschooler can't really decide what preschool to go to themselves, but this is just crazy. For God's sake--leave your kids alone. They probably are happier that way.</p>
<p>BlueAlien, so just where would you stick your child when you're off at work? Let them happily crawl around the neighborhood?</p>
<p>so if you had a kid who needed to go to child care/preschool- would you just open the phone book and pick the first one that had an opening?
I am curious.
My kids loved preschool-even if I hadn't needed child care so I could go to school myself- preschool gave d an opportunity to play with things that we didn't have the money or space for at home- to play with other kids which is the big plus of preschool and an opportunity to meet and bond with other adults.
A preschool is where a child spends a significant amount of their awake time - some schools are open 7 am to 6pm or even longer- and it matters to the family and to the child what that time looks like. I think most people do pay attention to how their childs day is going to be spent- just "leaving them alone", isn't an option.( besides kids can't be legally left alone until they are 12- long past preschool :) )</p>
<p>My son actually began his running career by escaping from his pre-school. It took the school PE teacher to catch him. The problem was not with the school, which worked wonderfully for his older sister...</p>
<p>oh I think I had him wildchild mom
or actually a female version
one of the perks of a co-op was that the adult ratio was very low- and when some kids just needed to run around some more there was an adult to take them.
One of Ds friends was a high energy kid- but on her own wavelength.
When most of the kids were very good about staying together when on walks and having a partner to hold hands with- chelsea( name changed to protect the guilty) would tear away from me and run down the street- far down the street</p>
<p>I loved out little preschool but one summer sent the kids to a summer program that had better hours. The director kept telling me how they had the "best families" there which really turned me off but I ignored it. Well, that summer my little "just turning" three year old D had to wear an eye patch and glasses to correct a vision problem. Her solution to this obvious loss of personal control over her body was to only wear her older brother's clothes. This was fine by me. The clothes were negotiable, her long-term vision was not. It was NOT fine by the preschool director (because she did NOT look she came from one of the "best" families what with the patch and the clothes and some wild curly hair) who questioned me about everything from whether we could afford girl clothes to whether or not there were problems at home. We then returned to the preschool where kids were accepted the way they were. P.S. -- DD turned out just fine.</p>
<p>
[quote]
so if you had a kid who needed to go to child care/preschool- would you just open the phone book and pick the first one that had an opening?
[/quote]
I am not sure who this question is directed to, but I can assure you that for myself (and probably for TheDad) - that we did plenty of searching and scrutinizing and visiting in order to pick the school that was an appropriate fit. </p>
<p>Its just that "fit" included a lot of issues completely outside of the scope of prestige: it had to be a place where our kids were well taken care of; it had to be affordable; it had to be a place where our kids would be reasonably happy; it had to be open during the hours we needed care; the location had to be reasonably convenient in relation to our work commute route, etc. I also liked seeing ethnic diversity for my kids -- not a "must have", but it was a definite plus. </p>
<p>Better day care environments did tend to have waiting lists, but since prestige wasn't a factor, they were first-come, first-serve types of lists. I can assure you there were many places I visited where I turned right around and walked out, thinking "no way" would I put my kid there. </p>
<p>Of course, family day care providers were more discerning - then you really had to pass muster with the family day care provider. But the family day care provider is looking for a parent who is reliable, and a kid who is reasonably well-behaved... no IQ tests required.</p>
<p>I meant that there is no need to send them to some weird prestigious preschool. I don't want children anyway. Also, my response was geared toward what PackMom said. I mean, some parents need to stop forcing their kids to do stuff just to make themselves look good and get into Harvard or whereever. I remember someone posting an aritcle once on Korean schools--scary!!</p>
<p>bluealien- I think you missed the point. Kids aren't going to choose their own pre-school. Issues of safety, fun and reliability are more important to most of the posters on this thread than is prestige.</p>
<p>The Dad - I know only too well what effete means. I went to school with too many of these in this category - that is - those of the ilk who found social posturing as important as mental toughness and discipline - although likely more talented than I - they didn't do as well as I and certainly didn't have nearly as many friends and experiences outside my social strata. Plus, unlike these social climbers, I paid for my own education, and appreciated it all the more. My mother made sure I could stand on my own two feet - both in athletics where it didn't matter where you came from or what school you went to as long as you were simply good and in the classroom where marks and progres were fairly objective in their obtainment. Oh, and Mom didn't want me to be intimidated by anyone. Valuable lessons - although certainly politically incorrect these days to state the same. And I didn't need some fancy pre-school to learn those lessons. </p>
<p>Let's be real - almost any church or synagogue has a decent pre-school that simply exists to inculcate socialization. They answer their purpose fine without all the social window dressing and other such irrelevancies. The whole notion of doing back flips to get a kid a a special pre-school is for the parents egos, and not for the children.</p>
<p>mam1959, the church and synangogue preschools are also very hard to get into here in L.A. and back flips are needed to be performed to be admitted. This has nothing to do with social window dressing and/or parent's egos. There are simply more children than there are decent preschools.</p>
<p>so if you had a kid who needed to go to child care/preschool- would you just open the phone book and pick the first one that had an opening?</p>
<p>I was responding to this</p>
<p>For God's sake--leave your kids alone. They probably are happier that way.</p>
<p>oh lordy- I am now remembering the process of signing up for preschool
Our city community colleges run many of the neighborhood preschools- three community colleges and each college has probably 10-15 neighborhood co-ops in their "jurisdiction"
The line started about about 5-6am in the morning ( ok maybe it was 7- but it was still dark) and it was first come first served- each preschool had a signup list so if you wanted a preschool that was popular you better be there early to make sure your child got a space since they only had about 20 spaces or so for each class.
It actually was kind of fun ( mainly because I did not have to bring my child) I had my triple grande latte and I chatted with those around me while we waited for the doors to open.( this preschool was for younger D)
I got her signed up for the pre-threes class- but then the next year- was awful because the 3-5s class was the same size, but since some of the kids stayed 2 years, they didn't have room for all of the pre-threes who wanted to move up-it supposedly was a lottery- but when the parents who had, had- 3 & 4 kids go through the preschool get in, and those who only had one kid didn't, you had to wonder.</p>
<p>So - to all you California parents, how do you feel about the Reiner preschool initiative? (Prop 82)
See:
<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/04/MNGSVHIKL11.DTL&hw=preschool&sn=001&sc=1000%5B/url%5D">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/04/MNGSVHIKL11.DTL&hw=preschool&sn=001&sc=1000</a></p>