In my area, getting your children into preschool isn’t for the faint of heart.  You know the movies and sitcoms that joke about signing your child up for preschool while still in the womb?  Around here that wouldn’t be a bad idea.  It isn’t uber-competitive as in “My Johnny speaks 3 languages, walked at 4 months, and potty trained at 6 months.”  It is uber-competitive as in there are 250 preschool slots available locally but we have 679 toddlers who want to attend.  (I totally made up the numbers but the ratio feels right.)  There just aren’t enough spaces.

Your best bet is to find a brand new, not yet open, never heard of preschool and sign up immediately.  That was my strategy with Sabrina’s school.  It was only open for 3 months when I toured it and signed her up.  The other option seemed to be camping out like preschool is the new Springsteen ticket.  My girlfriends, Crystal and Rachel, got in line at 4:30am to get their kids into one of the local preschools.  And they weren’t the first ones in line! When the preschool opened at 8 to give out numbers to come back and sign up, there were approximately 50 people waiting for only a few slots.  They both got in since they were near the front of the line but how crazy is it that we have to go to such lengths to pay for the privilege of sending our children to preschool in a church basement?

I’m not in love with Sabrina’s school and it is a 20 minute drive one way so I let my opportunity to sign up Tessa (current students and siblings get first dibs) pass.  With Sabrina starting Kindergarten in the fall (I! Know! *SOB*), it wasn’t feasible to get both girls to school in 2 different places at the same time.  Despite the logistical nightmare it would have created, I started to feel a little panicky about Tessa not having a spot in school this year.  I was on the fence about her attending this year but was afraid if I didn’t get her in somewhere now, there wouldn’t be any spots open next year.  I put Tessa on a couple of waiting lists.  As a last ditch effort, I called a local school that a lot of my friends have used.  I figured one more waiting list.  To my absolute surprise, they had 2 spots open for 3 year olds next year.  I toured and wrote a deposit check the next business day.

Steve initially asked if 1) Tessa was ready to go to school and 2) I was ready for Tessa to go to school.  I wasn’t sure on either answer.  But during our tour, Tessa took off her coat and sat right down.  She picked up a crayon and scribbled.  Then went over to a little boy playing with the train tracks and joined in.  She threw a fit when I told her we had to leave.  So I guess she is ready.  I was happy to see her excited and overjoyed at having found an open class for her at a school I was comfortable with (without standing in line in the wee hours).  Then I got into the car and realized my baby will be going to preschool 2 days a week.  *Sob*  How did that happen?!?