Why I Chose Preschool

When my oldest turned three I had the scary realization that in less than a year he was going into kindergarten, all day everyday kindergarten. He was a late talker and we were taking part in speech therapy, but he seemed to be just not that interested in speaking, in English that is, he had a little language of his own.

We were frequent visitors at the early years centres and mommy groups, but I was worried that my little man who have never been to daycare needed some time away from mommy or grandma.

Before I started doing my research I didn’t know what the difference between a preschool, nursery school or daycare was. I didn’t know what cooperative preschool meant and I didn’t know what my options were so where did I go?

I asked my mommy friends.

I found the main difference between daycare and preschool was the length of the program, most of the preschools offer half day programs while daycare was a full day option.

I found a few preschools in town and most of them were a cooperative preschool which meant as a parent of the preschool I was like an owner and a member of the school. Parents had to sign up for a duty (not in the class) it could be small or large and I got to pick from a number of jobs that would fit for me. We also had to bring snack once a month or so and were given a specific list and there was a night where I came into the school to clean and sanitize the toys. It seemed like preschool was the option for us as we did not requite fulltime care but I wanted my son to start getting out on his own and preparing him for school.

The preschool I chose for my oldest was the Royal City Cooperative preschool and my son loved every minute of it. The teachers were so warm hearted and understanding, they made the transition easy for everyone. All of the teachers at this school have been teaching there for at least 15 years so it showed how much they loved their job. The school itself is in a church with big windows and lots of creative spaces, but my favourite part was they had an outdoor area to play with a play structure and then a gym inside for rainy days.

It was incredible to see how preschool changed my late speaking son, I remember very clearly picking him up one day and asking how was his day? And he answered! I was shocked, I had always spoke to him, but very rarely got a clear answer, then I asked him what did he do at school? And once again he answered, the words may not have been the clearest but in a few short weeks he was interested in speaking, communicating and learning. He learned to play with friends, create artwork, listen to instructions from someone other than mommy or daddy and he learned to be independent.

When my oldest son started JK there were no tears (from him, me on the other hand), he was confident and he had a love for school. I was sure I would take him out of school at least once a week since he was so young, but he would not let me. Even when he was sick he wanted to go to school.

Since then I have had two other children attend our preschool and both with incredibly positive experiences the middle one would ditch school right now and go back to preschool if I let him.

I truly believe the school and those teachers helped shaped my boys and the students and

they are becoming.

If you want to learn more about Royal City Cooperative preschool visit royalcitycooperativepreschool.com or I love to chat about my experiences.