So we went to a small seminar on Kindergarten hosted by a couple of ladies that help place children in kindergarten. Yes this is totally absurd. Kindergarten shouldn't be complicated, but this is San Francisco. Nothing is simple or easy here. We were all for getting him into kindergarten next year, and we were hoping we would get a leg up on where to begin by attending this seminar. We can figure things out, just give us a starting point.
Instead of getting that starting point, we left thinking we'd failed our son by not putting him into preschool. I had resolved myself to think that preschool was optional; an overpriced playdate. Thanks to this seminar, I found out I'm dead wrong. If I want even a glimmer of hope to get him into a decent school, he'd better be in a good preschool right now. Kindergarten for a fresh 5 year old? Better forget that too. Most have a birthday cutoff of September 1. It would be advantageous to wait until he's 6 to be one of the oldest in the class rather than the youngest.
All of our plans for kindergarten were shot down and so we scrambled. We immediately consulted with them to find a preschool for our son. They suggested several and they sounded fantastic. Mandarin Immersion? French Immersion? Emilio Regalia? Waldorf? We researched them all and one by one they dropped off our list of possibilities because they were over $20,000 a year. While I value education, I am not, and can not afford the equivalent of a new car just to let my son play with other kids and review what he already knows. The hours often didn't include lunchtime, were just 3 hours a day, or only 9 months out of the year. So we regrouped and looked harder. We started to contact schools that were in our price range and requirements to see if they had openings.
Let's just say that preschool is a competitive sport here. Many are full of themselves and are either rude for even asking such a thing because their waitlist is a mile long or they just fail to respond at all. They don't need you or your kid and they are doing you a favor by talking to you. It's foul and disgusting. I haven't been so frustrated in quite a while. Both Mr. Cobra and I called and contacted several (like 15) preschools. We visited a few that had openings because he is luckily just at the right age when I think most people give up and move away.
We finally found a decent preschool that is close by and while expensive, the hours are perfect for working parents. It is year-round and is progressive without being trendy. I rely heavily on what parents say about their school and was actually surprised to find that the more expensive "hot list" preschools often had very poor ratings from parents. So… drum roll… we have Dexter enrolled in preschool!! He starts in just over 2 weeks. It's taken a month and we are very lucky to have found an opening. I never would've thought this would be so challenging or time-consuming.
Next up, kindergarten. I'm not even gonna go there in this post about how fanatical kindergarten placement is. I'm applying both this year and next year in hopes of getting what I want. That's exactly how crazy it is. I'm getting prepared for battle.
