Mommy Instinct

This past week has been chaos as I have been in search of an adequate preschool for Logan. Notice I said adequate. I'm not looking for perfection here, I'm not looking for the BEST, the most expensive or the most structured. I just want something that is acceptable. I've explored a Christian preschool, kind of expensive and requires a lot of work before we would have even been accepted, I also checked out a Catholic preschool but it was almost 15 minutes away, only had an opening in the afternoon AND Logan would be in a class of 6...all BOYS! You know my little ladies man, he's got to have some girls in his class. Just kidding, that's my preference, I couldn't imagine a class of all boys!

Last night we went to a small town 5 minutes north of our house to eat with grandma and grandpa. We often eat with them on Thursday nights at the local pizza place, but a new taco joint opened up next door and we thought we'd give it a try. Unfortuneately they didn't have any high chairs or even a chair for Chelsea's seat. We knew there was no way to contain her and it would be impossible to eat, so we headed to the pizza place next door. I noticed a little girl in a booth near us and I thought maybe her parents would know of some preshcools in this town since I hadn't thought of looking here. I asked them and while their daughter went to Headstart, they did know of a preschool teacher in town. Then the Dad said, well she's right there. Yep, the preschool teacher was in the next booth! So you know me, I headed over there to see if she was still in fact teaching preschool. She seemed friendly enough and she told me she has a preschool in her home and may have an opening in her Tu/Th class. Wow! I may have lucked out. She gave me her phone number and we sat down to eat our dinner. Throughout the meal, Grandma and I were telling Logan, "shhh," or "sit down". We were afraid this teacher may see our wild man and decide she didn't have any openings. Luckily he behaved very well last night!

When I got home I decided to call her and talk to her about observing in the morning. After I got off the phone, I was just blown away! It was the first preschool teacher I had talked to that I actually went, WOW! I had a really good feeling about her. She has a degree in early childhood education, she's been teaching for 16 years, and she shared many of my own personal philosophies of teaching. I popped in to the class this morning at the end of their day and she has the cutest little preschool set up in the walkout basement. She gave me some paperwork including their schedule and a newsletter. I was so impressed. She's very organized and I could see through talking to her and reading her papers that she's in this because she loves children. I feel so relieved to have found her. There was one child in her M/W/F class that didn't show up today (their first day of school), so if they decided to change schools she could squeeze him in there. Otherwise he'll start the T/Th class next week!

I am so sad that there such few options to families living in our area. It really is a shame and a disservice to the community. The teachers at the community center appear to have very little education (noone could tell me exactly what education they had), and they all appear to be teaching preschool because it's a J-O-B. I want a teacher that is there b/c she wants to be there, not because it's a way to bring home a paycheck. I feel sorry for the other children in the program and I hope that the other parents will be more proactive, observe their child's classroom and demand a higher standard for their children. Until then, I'm afraid the community center preschool will continue to function in their current manner.