It’s that time of year.  Preschool registration.  Whether you’ve had your child on a waitlist for months (or years!) at a particular preschool or you’re just warming up to the idea of sending your child to preschool this fall, there’s a lot to think about. 

Choosing the right preschool program for your child can be tough.  I lost many hours of sleep agonizing over the “right” program for my first born, only to move right before she started the program–agony again! 

Preschools have unique philosophies (e.g., play-based, Montessori), which may or may not mesh with your own views or ideals, or even be compatible with your child’s personality.  Schools are as unique as people.  Some offer highly structured programs and orderly classrooms.  Others are chaotic at every step–from the administration to carpool pick up. 

When it comes to picking a preschool there are so many considerations it’s really easy to become overwhelmed or even discouraged, especially if you find out that you’re “late” in the application game. 

I’m not kidding.  Selecting a preschool ranks near the top of my ”most effort needed” mom projects–definitely tons more work than finding sock mates in the morning in the mad rush to get to preschool on time (and finding matching socks in my household is no easy chore).  If you’re in the preschool application boat right about now, Wondertime has a feature which is worth a read. It’s a preschool checklist, which goes over the basic things you need to think about in selecting a program for your child.

Thankfully, my firstborn’s preschool also seems like a great fit for my rising preschooler, so I get to skip a lot of the hard work this time around.  And…I just learned today that he’s been accepted into the fall preschool class.  Now, that’s icing on the cake.

What advice do you have for parents of rising preschoolers who are thinking about preschool?