Strollerderby : preschool

Class Rings for Your Pre-Schooler?

JeanneSager — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:37:00 GMT

Who knew? All this time I was saving up my money to pay my daughter's pre-school tuition, and I should have been setting some aside for a class ring.

Because every toddler needs a shiny piece of metal they will either lose or grow out of within the next six months, right? I said right?

Thanks go to Jackie Burrell over at About.com's parenting blog for pointing this one in my direction, because I'm definitely an unfit parent here (apparently). I have not ponied up the $19.95 for a "day care" ring "Handcrafted from the finest .925 pure silver." And somehow I get the feeling we won't be plunking down the cash for the kindergarten version either (although that .925 pure silver is sounding awfully tempting).

Seriously, I am ready to shed buckets of tears at my daughter's pre-school graduation. I even expect to put down the money for a teeny gown an mortarboard as parents around here have done for generations (I recently found the picture of my daughter's nursery school teacher at HER graduation in said gown and board in back issues of the community paper where I'm on staff).

But I draw the line at class rings. Especially considering I haven't seen my high school ring since . . . um, pretty much since high school. Probably tenth grade? About two weeks after I got it and abandoned it on my dresser?

And don't get me started on those keychain tassels. How many latchkey pre-schoolers do you know? They're at least twelve years away from a rear view window to drape it over folks (sixteen years from the day they arrive on a college campus and yank it OFF the rear view before any of their new uber cool roommates catch sight of it).

What do you think Babble readers? Silly or sounds like a must-have?

Image: Oak Hall Cap and Gown

Outdoor Preschools: The New Montessori?

Shannon LC Cate — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:32:00 GMT

A new trend in preschool education has several UK parents enthralled. In these schools, the children spend almost the entire day outdoors. Rain or shine or snow, the children romp unfettered in outdoor spaces, playing with natural and found materials, learning from experience as they encounter challenges like bugs and thorn bushes.

Enthusiasts claim that nearly exclusive outdoor education (one school in Scotland doesn't even have a building, but only tents and tarps) is better for all kinds of development--not merely physical but mental. Sue Palmer, director of the Farley Outdoor Learning Nursery in Wiltshire, claims:

“The children are the healthiest you could wish to meet, we have no allergies, very little illness, their speech and language is far more advanced than others of their age because they’re outside doing things and learning to be independent. It is truly amazing.”

Amazing, indeed. With not much but gut instinct and a popular book, The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, to guide them, outdoor preschool advocates make some broad claims. My instinct tells me they are probably right that kids in industrialized cultures don't get enough time outdoors, are asked to sit still under artificial lighting for too many hours in schools and their minds and bodies suffer for it. But my instinct also leans towards the notion that balance is a good idea too, and that a nursery school that takes place exclusively outdoors--even in foul weather--may be overcorrecting for the problem. Besides, in Wiltshire, snow may be a lovely treat in 35 (F) degree weather, but in Chicago, I'd just as soon let the kids learn to build a fire in the fireplace during a January ice storm in sub-zero temperatures.

What do you think? Would you camp out to get your kid into a school without a building?

image: timesonline.co.uk

Parents Sue Daycare for Inappropriate Touching Between Students

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:31:00 GMT

I remember one day in daycare when I was about four and a boy in my class kept poking me in the butt during naptime. It made me feel uncomfortable so I told my mother about it when she picked me up. She told me that I should tell the boy to stop touching me if anything similar happened again, and if he didn’t listen, I should tell my teacher right away. Problem solved.

A couple of Florida parents have a different idea about how to resolve inappropriate touching between preschoolers: a lawsuit to the tune of $5 million. They allege that their four-year-old daughter experienced emotional trauma at the Starchild Academy daycare center, after she was “molested and otherwise touched in a sexually inappropriate manner” by another little boy. They are suing the daycare for negligence.

This story is clearly reported with a bias to the daycare, so it’s hard to know whether there is any merit to the offended parents’ case. Assuming that it’s true that their daughter was deeply disturbed by inappropriate contact from another student, this little girl needs to be cared for, not used as a pawn in a lawsuit.

The daycare administrators got it right when they said that the goal in a case like this should be to look out for the welfare of both students. According to a teacher at Starchild, "Our agency would not consider a child, at that young of age, a perpetrator. Therefore, our role is to insure that the child is not a victim of child abuse themselves."

Photo: Kincaid Construction

Babble Talk: Why Preschool is NOT a Scam

JeanneSager — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:02:00 GMT

I've got to hand it to one of the moms who commented on Lisa Emmerich's recent Bad Parent: Preschool Hysteria.

She managed to equate well-respected institutions of learning across the nation with something cooked up by Bernie Madoff.

Her exact words for what preschool amounts to in her book? "What a racket! I cannot believe you people pay someone to teach your child what you can teach them at home."

Way to insult every mother and father who actually work outside the home and CAN'T teach their children at home. Not to mention those of us who are mindful enough of our own shortcomings that we don't try to teach our kids at home; we put our kids into a program where we feel a certified teacher is providing a headstart for kindergarten while they get to have fun and interact with other children of the same age.

I am a huge proponent of the home schooling movement. But I've got to tell you, I can't do it. Call me a bad parent, but my patience wears thin after the fifth time my daughter looks at me after I've asked a question and says "I don't know. Tell me."

Yes, I teach her little things, the "unschooling" method does have merit in the fact that we count out the number of plates coming out of the dishwasher, and she learned her shapes by identifying road signs while we're out riding around.

She knows her alphabet. She'll recite the whole thing to a stranger at the grocery store. But at home, where she's interacting with a mother with a very similar personality (we are, after all, mother and daughter), she opts for game playing. For pretending she needs help with simple tasks. When push comes to shove - she shoves back. And I'm PROUD of her for it. But it means that we are not meant to be in more than a mother and daughter role.

The issue of home schooling, plain and simple, is not that it doesn't work but that it doesn't work for everyone. Putting aside the fact that the majority of two-parent households in America include two working parents, a lot of parents are still uncomfortable with the idea of being their child's primary source of education. Simply put - if we felt we could be teachers, many of us would have gone to school to be teachers.

I went to school to be a journalist. Faced with a room full of squirmy children, I can play games and sing silly songs. I don't have the patience of Job that my daughter's preschool teacher fortunately possesses. Nor do I have the early childhood development degree that she's earned. I can't get ten kids to sit around a table and draw the letter P and glue feathers to the page to make a parrot. My daughter loved making parrots.

I'm not convinced that kids need to be in a nursery school at two. We waited until my daughter hit three, and even then, we opted for a half-day program just two days a week. For us, it's daycare - I work in a newspaper office while she's at preschool. It's also a place where she spends a fair portion of the time playing with other kids, learning about sharing and picking up on social cues from kids her own age. They're there for social education more so than your traditional academic education at this age, and they're fostering their independence in a safe setting. My daughter feels important learning outside of the home and telling me things - things she doesn't think Mommy knows. At this age, I don't think kids need much more than the basics, and preschool settings that are fairly laissez faire work best for all involved.

It works for us. We knew exactly what we were signing her up for, and why we needed to do it. If that's a racket or a scam, I can only say I've bought it, hook, line and sinker. Oh, and my daughter? Has learned to stop resisting me when I suggest she was her hands after she uses the potty, found some best little buddies for playdates and draws the letter "P" like a champ.

They Say: Old School Lice Checks Are All Wrong

Kate Tuttle — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:33:00 GMT

If your kid has reached a certain age, you've probably already been through it -- the Kindergarten or preschool lice scare, with its attendant lice checks, in which each child stands, head bowed, while a teacher, fully gloved, checks the young head for telltale bugs or nits, any sign of which mean a trip back home (or to the drug store, or to your local nit picker, if you're lucky enough to have one). Getting rid of lice can take more than one treatment, and if you're the one whose kid is being turned away at the school house door, you not only have to cope with the drudgery of laundry and combing, you also must endure the stares (and glares) of your fellow parents.

Everybody hates lice -- the only thing they hate more is the parents whose child brings lice back to the classroom after they've finally gotten rid of it. But what if the lice check itself is letting lice come back in? It turns out that the familiar method of checking for lice -- parting dry hair and looking through it -- is less effective at seeing live lice than is combing through wet hair. Both methods are equally effective at seeing nits, the small white eggs lice leave behind, but since the live bugs are the most effective vector of transmitting lice from one child to another, a wet-hair check is what schools really need to do to keep their classrooms lice-free. How this could work logistically is beyond me -- would kids have to be brought to school freshly-showered? Would schools need to bring buckets of water outside to perform the check? -- but any new advantage in the age-old war on lice is a good thing in my book.

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How to Evaluate a School

Amy Kuras — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:02:00 GMT

It’s that time of year for those of us who are parents of potential kindergarteners in the fall – time to size up your school options and decide what you’re going to choose. Even if you’re super happy with your public school district, many of them now offer schools of choice, where you can attend any school in the district if there’s room, so even the most committed public school parents probably have some research to do around now.

This article in the Boston Globe presented a few good suggestions about evaluating your local district, as well as individual schools. For example, check your state department of education’s web site to find out how the school does on statewide tests.

All the usual sources for finding a school apply –opther parents, local message boards, etc. But look other places too – we found a school we’re strongly considering sending our daughter to by chatting with the owner of our local children’s bookstore.

And of course, there’s no substitute for actually going to the school in person. Talk to your child’s potential teachers, see the facilities, maybe ask around for other parent s who might be willing to talk to you about their experiences.

I’d suggest a few more things – pick up the local paper or visit its website, and by local, I mean the small daily or weekly that send reporters to the school board meetings and covers goings-on in the schools every week. You’ll be able to glean a good bit of information even from seeing which schools get coverage and which don’t –if there’s a lot of event coverage of a few schools in the district, you can bet that the principal and administrators probably have a good relationship with parents and the community as well as the local press.

And most importantly – know your kid and go with your gut. If you have a bad feeling about a school, not matter how sweet the teachers might seem or how high the test scores are, move on – there is probably another teacher, or even another school, that would be a better fit.

A Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi Preschool - Which Would You Pick?

SunnyChanel — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:30:00 GMT

Who would you most trust with your offspring, Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi? No, this is not the start of barroom joke. This are the contestants in the “Who’d Run the Best Daycare” poll currently running of US World and Review. So who’s winning? According to today’s results, over 60% said they choose Sarah Palin, followed by 35% for Michelle Obama and just a mere 2% for Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.

Yeah, I’m not sure why they opted to fantasize about four of the most popular and powerful female political figures dabbling in the career in the daycare industry. How about a poll on ‘who’d you most like to run the country’, ‘who’s biography you’d like to read’ or ‘who’d you’d most like to have drinks with.’ But if they did, I wouldn't be writing about it right now would i? You can see how the standing are doing here.

Via Source

When Should the School Call the Parents?

JeanneSager — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:02:00 GMT

Life in a small town is strange sometimes. I didn't hear about the punching incident at my daughter's pre-school from her or even from the teacher.

I heard about it in town, via the long grapevine of small town life. I also heard it was dealt with - appropriately - by the teacher.

It didn't bother me in the least that I hadn't known before - after all, my daughter wasn't involved. But when I mentioned it to another parent, her reponse shocked me. "You didn't get a letter? The teacher didn't say anything?"

Of course she didn't say anything. One little boy punched another little boy, and the teacher stepped in. She talked to the parents of the kids involved. The parents dealt with it. My daughter wasn't involved, and therefore I wasn't involved. I probably would have been more concerned if the teacher was telling the private business of two other children and two other sets of parents - to me.

My friend wasn't giving up. "But there's a bully in your daughter's class. Don't you want to know to protect her? Shouldn't you know what happens in that classroom during the day?"

I can see her point, but when I drop my daughter off in the morning, I put her in the care of her teacher and the teacher's assistant for three hours. I have to trust that those two adults are protecting my daughter, and that they're ensuring what happens in that classroom is safe and appropriate. If it isn't, I'd expect them to tell me.

What do you think? Should parents be notified of every "bad" thing to happen in a classroom? Or should notification be child specific?

Biggest Family Rip Off: Preschool Applications

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:01:00 GMT

A year ago around this time, we shelled out $50 a pop so preschools could "review" our applications -- which largely consisted of 1-page sheets of paper. Why it costs $50 to take a piece of paper, file it away and completely forget about it, I'll never know, but that's what the going rate was.

Fifty bucks. Ten schools. That shit adds up quickly.

This year, it's getting worse.

A friend recently shelled out $75 for preschool application administration charges in San Francisco, and I'm sure it's even worse elsewhere.

The application processing scam was by far the worst part of the preschool process -- far worse than those annoying orientations in which some mom would invariably kiss a teacher's ass by asking "Do you believe in playtime?" or "Do you have any stats showing which colleges your students went on to?"

Thankfully we were able to get into a school last year, but I feel badly for all those parents in the midst of the preschool process right now. What's your least favorite part?

Can a Preschooler Be a Child Molester?

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:02:00 GMT

A news report out of Albuquerque chronicles a lawsuit filed by two families against a school district they said allowed their preschool-aged daughters to remain in dangerous contact with a child molester -- himself a four-year-old boy. The suit against the Albuquerque Public Schools alleges that the district never notified parents of their daughters' situation, and only removed one of the victims from the classroom, allowing the other girl to be repeatedly harrassed and groped by the boy. Although school officials refused to comment, citing the pending lawsuit, reports are that the family of the boy has moved and so he no longer attends the Albuquerque schools.

According to the article, "the boy forced his hands down two little girl's pants and touched them sexually." I'm not a professional, only a parent, but it seems to me that a four-year-old who has sexual contact with another four-year-old is either playing doctor (totally normal, consensual, if embarrassing for adults to deal with) or has himself been abused. For the girls' sake, I hope it was the former, blown out of proportion. For the boy's sake, if it's the latter, I really hope he's able to get the help he needs.

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Preschool Panic in Palo Alto

Amy Kuras — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:01:00 GMT

I must admit to being somewhat mystified by the preschool anxiety parents in more affluent cities face -- and this is really, really an upper-middle class problem.

Especially since most kids whose parents who are affluent and involved enough to have their pick of preschools already have a pretty significant leg up in this culture.

This story from Palo Alto describes some of the hand-wringing parents from there face when choosing a preschool. One local parenting group even developed a “preschool binder” with information and parent reviews of local schools that had a months-long waiting list for parents to even get a good look at it (I work for a website that does the same sort of thing in several cities in the US and Canada, by the by).

Admittedly I may be a slacker mom, but here was how we chose our daughter’s preschool: It was Montessori (I went to Montessori schools through sixth grade and loved it, so I wanted my daughter to go to one); it was affordable; and the kids seemed really, really happy.

And she likes it, and she’s learning to get along with other kids and do cool stuff like write her name and count to 100. But the major reason I wanted her there, and the major argument for preschool at all, is that unlike me preschool teachers are trained to work with young kids, and generally have deep reserves of patience with them that I just don’t have. I’ve got to believe that spending however many mornings a week with people who love to teach young children and know how to do it will be beneficial, no matter what the philosophy or style of the school.

And for God’s sake it won’t matter come college time.

Childcare Relationships and Bickering Parents Affect Kids' Stress Hormones

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:30:00 GMT

It seems self-evident that kids with poor childcare relationships or parents who frequently fight are more stressed than other kids. But now two new studies have established this common sense theory from a biological standpoint, by monitoring the levels of cortisol (the human stress hormone) in preschoolers and 6-year-olds. As parents across the country struggle to afford high quality childcare and to maintain a stable home environment, these studies are unfortunately quite applicable to these trying economic times.

In most people, cortisol levels decrease throughout the day. But for many children in full-time daycare, the stress hormone increases as the day progresses. Researchers found that class size clearly affected children’s moods, with preschoolers in classes of 10 or fewer children producing less cortisol than those in classrooms with closer to 20 other kids.

Children with poor relationships with their daycare providers became more stressed after one-on-one interactions with the teacher, while clingier kids had higher overall cortisol increases throughout the day.

Similarly, a study of 6-year-olds with bickering parents found that those who were very involved in and distressed about the fights produced more cortisol than other 6-year-olds. Since high levels of cortisol have been linked to health and psychological problems, this finding offers a biological understanding of why kids who get very upset by their parents’ arguments are more likely to have psychological problems later. (Whether higher levels of cortisol are a cause or an effect of psychological disorders is not clear.)

The study’s authors hope that understanding the biological basis of stress in young children will change the way kids in these common problematic situations are treated. For instance, monitoring kids’ levels of cortisol could help indicate whether a given intervention is working to relieve stress or not.

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Photo: pregnancy-depression-help.com

Preschool Admissions Competition Seems Recession-Proof

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:30:00 GMT

At a time when businesses from real estate to cofee shops are suffering from the economic downturn, one industry seems to be weathering the storm. According to an article in the New York Times, pricey private preschools in New York are still flooded with applications, along with phone calls from off-the-charts nervous parents hoping to enroll their offspring in the bottom rung of the elite educational ladder.

The piece's main focus is on filmmaker Marc Simon, a documentarian whose movie Nursery University chronicles the highs, lows, and overall mania of families trying to get into such bastions of underage excellence. Simon's previous work includes After Innocence, a Sundance award-winning fim that followed formerly imprisoned men after DNA evidence has set them free. The new movie, which may prove even more intense in subject matter, aired last weekend at the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and is slated for a theatrical release next spring.

As the Times article describes it:

Here are a mother and father squabbling over whether to say in the application that their child hopes to “engage” or “explore” the school’s cultural activities. Here are mothers, fathers, even nannies furiously speed-dialing various preschools, over and over, the day after Labor Day, in the hopes of breaking through busy signals just to get an application. Here is another mother worrying about whether she will be the only prospective parent donating a gift worth less than $500 to the auction of a school where she hopes her daughter will be admitted.

Those of us who live in even slightly less competitive cities, parenting-wise, may find it hard to imagine, but as the article points out, just as even paranoiacs sometimes really do have enemies, even the most neurotic New York parents may be correct in judging the slimness of their chances of acceptance into some of these schools. And don't expect the recession to make things better; according to one adminstrator featured in the film, none of the schools she knows of is reporting any downturn in applications.

Extending the Privilege of Preschool

Shannon LC Cate — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:10:00 GMT

"Why aren't you in school?" the third stranger in a week asked my daughter today. My daughter is only three, and though it's true that we home school her, she is still two years shy of the compulsory school age. But I have stopped being surprised by the question, because the playgrounds where we spend our mornings are dominated by babies and toddlers. It is true that most children my daughter's age are either in a fancy preschool (the upper and upper-middle class kids) or a not-so-fancy daycare (the working class kids).

If preschool is truly as ubiquitous as this, why doesn't the federal government fund it for every child, as it does K-12 education? Clearly, as Judith Warner has argued families need preschool.

A study reported in USA Today this summer found that where public preschool exists, it is working: "The researchers found that as the kids entered kindergarten those enrolled in the state program had better reading, math and writing skills than kids who were either not enrolled in preschool or who spent time in the federally funded Head Start program."

Yet these schools are far from ubiquitous. A 2007 study funded by Pew Charitable Trusts found that most three and four year olds are denied a chance to attend a public preschool. Though Head Start (which, remember, has been found less effective than public preschool) is available for poor families on an income-test basis, and expensive private preschools are full of upper-middle class children, working and lower middle class children are missing out.

If my children and their children are going to be asked to pay the interest on a $700 billion bailout for today's ruined bank executives, don't we owe them the best possible opportunities for a good education, or at the very least, a safe place to play while we work to put up the down payment?

How They Live: The Japanese Daycare Experience

SunnyChanel — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:42:00 GMT

All daycares are not alike. Some corral the kids like lost puppies at the SPCA, others have a day to day agenda not unlike an academically driven prep school. But how does the American daycare differ from others around the globe? Writer Yumiko Ono shared her daughter’s daycare experience in Tokyo, Japan in a piece she penned for the Wall Street Journal.

Here are some interesting tidbits and examples about how the Japanese daycare system is run.

• The public daycare fees don’t exceed $650 a month in Tokyo for kids under three. Half are run publicly while the rest are managed by private groups. In major US cities, daycare costs an average $917 a month.

• Each day, when they arrive at the school they note in a log book the body tempature of the child to make sure the kid isn’t afflicted with any illness.

• The day’s highlights are noted in journal such as the entry, "She stretched out her legs in the pool and pretended to be an alligator,"

• At the end of the day, parents pick up their children’s things as well as the soiled diapers “each rolled up and marked with her name, await in a basket.”

• And we’re not the only country with preschool and daycare being as competitive to get into as a decent college. Getting that “coveted slot requires patience and strategy.” Yeah, we know that one all too well!

For entire story click here.

Here's to the laddies who lunch

Brett Singer — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:00:00 GMT

An article in the New York Times Style section discussed a group of men who got together for breakfast after dropping their kids off at school. The men are Manhattan-based primary caregivers, and one of them describes their jaunts as "like 'Sex and the City' with coffee instead of cosmos."

Here are a couple of other possible descriptions:

"Like 'Sex and the City' with more body hair."

"Like 'Sex and the City' only we don't talk about penises."

Wait – actually, they do! The article details the dads discussing the pending bris of one of their sons; a debate about the merits of circumcision follows, with one dad defending the practice by saying, "You don’t think that with our technology you won’t be able to get a better foreskin?"

Then there was this line: "We do more parenting than our type-A wives and feel we’re justified." That killed me, or more accurately, would get me killed by my wife if I said it in the Times. The speaker was referring to the fact that they go out for breakfast with other dads on a regular basis. Another gem: "This wouldn’t exist with us if there wasn’t this need that in a sense is repressed…People are conditioned to feel that it’s sophomoric: now that you’re a grown-up, you’re supposed to spend time with your family, not your friends." Um, or you're too busy to putz around. (The article does point out that the men have nannies and housekeepers, so they have more time for dining out than other sad SAHDs might.)

How do the wives feel about it? One of them says, "It’s very nice — it feeds Josh’s soul…If it makes him less productive, that makes me resentful, and it has the potential to veer in that direction."

What I want to know is this: why does everything have to be a "thing"? It's not that I begrudge anyone their desire to hang out with like-minded folks. I would blame the 'Sex and the City' comparison on the author of the article, but it's a quote from one of the men.

And guys? You're not "entitled" to brunch. It's not a constitutional right. Sure, if you have time, hang out with your friends. Whatever. But "We do more parenting than our type-A wives and feel we’re justified"? How about "they go to work and you stay home so they're justified"? It's always funny to me that the non-traditional man stays at home with the kids scenario often devolves into the man not cooking or cleaning, and having time to linger over brunch. When women used to do this, it was derisively referred to as a kaffeeklatsch. But the men "feel justified."

As for me, I'm often the only father picking up at school, and that's fine. Sometimes there are things that "the moms" do, and I will publicly state that it's OK, I don't want to go. Not because I don't enjoy their company, but men and women sometimes do different things. Besides, maybe they want to chat without some bald guy around. I didn't even watch 'Sex and the City', why would I want to behave like the characters?

The only all-dad activity I can recall was a late-hours basketball game, which I skipped because one of the fathers involved looked at me, deadly serious, and said, "We don't get that competitive. Nobody's gotten hurt in a couple of years." Take my word for it, he wasn't kidding. I have friends with children of their own, and we talk about the kids. But it's just life. It's not a "thing," as one of the men in the article calls it (somewhat derisively, I should add.)

There has to be some middle ground between brunching and the shooting range. Or maybe there isn't. Me, I have work to do.

(Source)

image: Sex and the City poster that I goofed around with in Photoshop

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Day Care Kids Don't See the Sun

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:01:00 GMT

Cincinnati kids who are in day care, which is half of kids ages 3-6, face obstacles when it comes to playing outside. It's not because of the area's dicey weather or a perceived lack of green space. The barriers that were cited by child care workers in the study are a bit less intuitive.

One big problem is flip-flops. Kids who show up wearing them don't get to play outside and may be responsible for keeping the whole class indoors.

Other big issues include parents who intentionally don't send coats, teachers who don't want to bundle up all of the students and kids who eat playground woodchips. Also problematic are parental demands that pre-schools focus on academics more than outdoor exercise.

To me, kids and the outdoors go together like peas and carrots, especially when the knee-biters are in big bunches. Given how nature-hike-happy my youngest's childcare center is, I find it surprising how many kids don't go outside on any given day. Am I alone in this?

Why I Want To Live In This Pre-School

Adrienne Martini — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:00:00 GMT

I'm this close to moving to Paris simply so that I can go to designer Jean Touitou's preschool. Why? Three words: Cotton-cashmere nap blankies.

Started by Touitou and his wife Judith as a response to the rigid French school system, the Ateliers de la Petite Enfance (A.P.E.) is filled with both kids and chic design. Some of the child-sized furniture is designed by Alvar Aalto. Architect Laurent Deroo designed the space with climbing walls. And the nap blankets are prosh.

So if I pretend to be a three-year old -- I am certain that I can throw a convincing fit and ask "why?" every 30 seconds -- will the A.P.E. let me stay?

Photo credit: Thibault Montamat

Preschool Politics ... Karl Rove Style

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:56:00 GMT

Want to know what your kid really thinks about preschool (and the edu-track that will take her to Harvard and beyond)? Check out this video by Heidi Van Lier. I would hate to be on this kid's bad side because, wow, she's got gumption. Sweet, evil gumption. This is a movie short that cannot be missed.

Preschool Application Stress? Seriously?

Amy Kuras — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:02:00 GMT

Here's how the preschool thing worked for me, and for most parents I hang with (and for what it's worth I live in a Rust Belt city where the public schools are, in a word, wanting) :

•   Realize the nice college girls who'd been providing my childcare would be going home for the summer soon.

•   Idly Google Montessori schools. Despair at the cost.

•   Hear a mom at drop-in playtime mention a Montessori I hadn’t heard of that wouldn’t require me to actually sell my firstborn to finance her attendance.

•   Visit, like the happy kids and nice crunchy teacher. Kid likes the bean table (a sand table filled with beans). Get on waiting list.

•   Get call there was space available. Send my check.

•   Lather, rinse, repeat when she was done with the toddler program and we decided to keep her at the same place for preschool.

That's pretty much par for the course here, unless you're wayyyy too anal about academics for three-year-olds.

Apparently, in other parts of the country it gets a little more, um, intense, shall we say. I cannot fathom the idea of a kid (especially just a sweet little pigtailed three-year-old) not getting in anywhere. Seriously, rejecting a kid that young? Mind-boggling.

Moxie of Ask Moxie and her hordes of intelligent commenters had a lot to say on this issue; interestingly, though, no one copped to being That Kind of Parent who genuinely believes a kid's whole academic future is made or destroyed in preschool. I mean, someone has to be, and not just the pain in the ass minority of wound-too-tight overachievers or no one would be facing such stress over the applications and who's in and who's out, right?

What's it like where you live? And do you get caught up in it, or pretty much reject the whole thing?

PBS Kids Launches Pay Service

Brett Singer — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:00:00 GMT

PBS has figured out one way to combat their shrinking government funding.

The New York Times reports that PBS is launching a new service called PBS KIDS PLAY! (all in caps, with the exclamation point, as in "What is PBS KIDS PLAY!"), that will offer various learning games, and also video clips of shows such as "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" and "Curious George." The cost will be $10/month or $79/year.

The extremely friendly FAQ page on the site has lots of helpful info, including a list of local member stations that offer discounts on the service to donors (only a few are listed but they suggest checking back later to see if your station gets added). The "elevator pitch" (their words) refers to the enterprise as a "personalized learning service" where "your child will learn a comprehensive preschool and kindergarten curriculum, based on national educational standards, by playing with PBS KIDS characters." The "personalized" part means that you can track your child's progress; in fact, you can have four separate "learning profiles" per account, meaning siblings can play (or PLAY!) at no extra cost.

This isn't the only "virtual preschool" (my term) on the market: Disney offers Preschool Time Online ($9.95/month or $49.95/year), and Nickelodeon has MyNoggin ($9.95/month, $7.95/month if you commit to 6 months, $5.95/month if you commit to a year). Both require a credit card for the free trial, whereas PBS KIDS PLAY! does not. The sites also look like they were created by a large media company, which of course they were. One synergistic benefit of signing up with the bigger companies is that you get a free subscription to their magazines (My Noggin or Family Fun) included with your fee.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, if anyone is getting money for a service such as this one, I'd prefer it to be PBS. On the other hand, are these services meant to replace preschool? Is this some bizarro method of homeschooling, and/or of giving your kid a leg up once they start kindergarten? And since it costs money, has anyone studied its effectiveness? Should a three year old be spending this much time in front of a computer? What happened to flash cards, or just plain ol' having fun? How many questions can I ask in a single paragraph before my head starts to hurt?

Personally, I'm a fan of preschool. Thing 1 benefited greatly from it, socially and educationally. Thing 2 is there now and we love it. Of course, this is in Manhattan, where preschool is the only daycare option for working parents, so our reasons for sending the kids there were practical as well as educational.

After a quick review of the three sites, it seems that PBS KIDS PLAY! is the least commercial and, at least in their "pitch," the most educationally minded. If any of you use these services or is considering it, let us know in the comments.

Caught On Tape: Teacher Calls Kids Stupid

Kelly Mills — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:32:00 GMT

It's been kind of a disturbing couple weeks in education news. What with teachers patting down students and coaches spiking drinks and schools suspending kids for hairstyles, it sort of makes you rethink the whole homeschool idea. And now in Houston, a pre-K teacher is under investigation for calling four- and five-year-olds "stupid" and telling them she could be mean to them. And in case you think the kids might be fabricating that one, this teacher was caught on tape.

Who set up the wire and the sting operation? One parent, worried about the stories she was hearing, hid a tape recorder in her daughter's backpack. The teacher was recorded using the insults, apparently irate because one student came into the classroom too slowly. Oh, and she was just suspended in December for a day when the principal found evidence she slapped a student. Call me crazy, but I'd kinda hope she wouldn't be returning to the class after the slapping incident. We can only hope the audio evidence makes a stronger case for that.

Strollerderby Playdate: Redshirting

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:02:00 GMT

Redshirting - aka Keeping Your Kid In Preschool An Extra Year So He Will Be The Biggest, Baddest Superstar In Kindergarten History - is a big topic around my house. My sister - who, with her husband and two boys, lives with me and my family - is currently considering whether she should hold back her oldest son, whose birthday is August 31, one day before our district's September 1 cutoff. And apparently, she's not the only one invested in this debate. My friend Lauren sent me a link to a Babycenter discussion board she participates in that includes almost 600 posts about the advantages and disadvantages of redshirting.

So I was really interested in this thoughtful post about redshirting by Alice Bradley on Alpha Mom. If, like my sister, you don't want to hold your kid back but are afraid he will be disadvantaged if you don't, there's some reassuring links to studies that indicate the advantages of redshirting disappear after a couple of years. Other reports suggest that redshirted kids are more likely to end up in special ed, and are more likely to have discipline problems. Which hardly comes as a shock - not only does this group include kids bored to tears by a curriculum geared to kids more than a year younger than they are, but it also counts children held back because of legitimate social and emotional delays.

Bradley closes with the issue at the core of the redshirting debate: if redshirting benefits your child by giving him a cognitive and physical advantage over his classmates, but does so at the obvious expense at other children, is it fair? And should that be a concern of parents - who, let's face it, are genetically programmed to advance their children over the competition at all costs?

I'm just glad I don't have to make this decision.

Preschool Bans Cute Clothes

Madeline Holler — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:20:00 GMT

So you think life in a peanut-free school zone is tough? Try sending your 3-year-old to a school that requires bland clothing.

At a pre-school in Koskullskulle, Sweden, children are prohibited from wearing stripes or polka dots. Fashion police going too far? Not quite.

One of the teachers gets migraines looking at the bold patterns. And officials are left with creating a dress code that will keep him/her headache free.

Some of the parents are pissed, which I'm rather glad to read. I figured the Swedes would fall in line, look at the big picture, take one for the team, maybe even levy an extra tax on themselves in honor of the teacher's unpredictable brain condition. No, some of the parents don't like the fact that their kids come home in school-issued, solid-colored shirts and pants, even though they donned a vibrant, colorful, wildly patterned Hanna Anderson dress with not-so-matching tights that morning.

Photo: HannaAnderson.com

No More Sugar Mama

Amy Kuras — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:03:00 GMT

When I was a kid, Valentine's Day was a great excuse to overdose on sugar, chocolate, and red dye #40. School parties featured cupcakes and punch and candy hearts while my parents usually had some kind of treat for us at home. It was second only to Halloween in terms of the deliciousness level, not to mention the sugar high.

How times have changed. Last night, for my daughter's preschool party, I made not cookies, not cupcakes, but plain, lightly salted popcorn. Other choices on the sign up sheet included red apples, snap peas, strawberries, and bagels.

All perfectly wonderful and tasty food, but party food? Come on now.

My daughter's school has a "healthy lunch policy" that carries over into celebrations. Anything sent to school has to be free of added sugars, artificial sweeteners, and food dyes. And it seems more schools are going this way. One, in Georgia, calls itself the first sugar-free public elementary school in the country.

I know, and fully support, all the good reasons to do this – not least of which is not creating the association between "celebration" and "junk food." And heaven knows I would not want to be the teacher that has to handle 25 energetic preschoolers after they've been all amped up on sugar. Dealing with the one I have when she gets to have, say, a brownie can make me wish for a child-safe tranquilizer dart. We try to stay away from processed and junky food at home.

And soon enough, she'll know the small thrill of a pink-frosted heart-shaped cookie.

Photo: NoSugarAddedShop.com