Kaylee's Future Preschool

After about 3-weeks of serious preschool searching we found the right one for us, Mt. Olive Lutheran Preschool in Poway. Kaylee will start at the end of August, and attend Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 9-12.

For the past 3-weeks or so I've been staying up late searching the web, reading reviews, and doing google searches for preschools in San Diego, in Poway, near zip code 92131. Curtis and I have asked friends and clients. After getting a good grasp of the preschools in our area, Kaylee and I would drive to a few preschools 2-3 times a week and check them out. Some preschools Kaylee would veto before we even got out of the car. And I trusted her initial feeling and would drive to the next one. When we did do a walk-through Kaylee would usually hid in my hair and interact very little with the staff. I would usually say that she is our first born, only child, and they seemed to understand that she is a pretty attached child. At one preschool Kaylee vetoed because it smelled, and it did smell, like paint. The first preschool she liked was a good contender. It was a Christian preschool in PQ, the play structure was one of the best (Kaylee approved), and the classrooms and ratios were very good. The concern was the start time 8:30a. Silly right, but a true concern for our nocturnal family. Another preschool she liked also because of the play structure but it was rather difficult to get into, was the furthest away, started at 8:30, and was near the top of our budget. The three preschools we looked at in Scripps Ranch were so expensive it was insane, veto. So on this past Monday we had a schedule viewing of a preschool in Poway (one of the few I actually scheduled, I usually just showed up to judge how they handled me and how their school looked without an unannounced visit) and it was a veto for Kaylee, and I wasn't overly sold. So I told Kaylee one more preschool today and then we'll go to the library. And we went to Mt. Olive Preschool.

When we walked in, unannounced, Mrs. Travis was genuinely pleased to see us. She graciously gave us a tour of the preschool. The kids were all out on a great play yard which had clean and updated play structures, swings, a separate sand box, and tricycles with a bike path. The classrooms were adorable, clean, and cheerful. And the biggest selling point was that Kaylee didn't hid in my hair. She was yearning to get out onto the play structures and she talked excitedly to Mrs. Travis about the frog in one of the classrooms. I left Mt. Olive Preschool and I texted Curtis that I found it, I found the preschool.

That evening we took Curtis for a drive-by, and he trusted my decision and Kaylee's feelings of the preschool. The next day, first thing before gymnastics, we submitted our registration form. And I knew I made the right decision when Mrs. Travis, and the director, Mrs. Higley, asked Kaylee what her favorite thing was in gymnastics and Kaylee went on and on about the foam pit and rings.

So the weight of finding a preschool is off our shoulders. Now we wait 6-months until we walk her to class and anxiously wait 3 long hours until she is back in our arms.