We have been knee deep in preschool visits and applications for the past few months. Every time I sit down to write this post I'm so overwhelmed by all the goings on of school that I don't know where to begin. We are blessed that we live in a city with sooo many choices. It is also a terrible downfall of St. Louis- too many choices! We've visited private, parochial, independent, Montessori, Reggio Emilia schools, schools that have preschool and grade schools and some with just stand alone preschools. Over the last three or four months we have taken a list of over THIRTY schools and narrowed it down to two- a standard run of the mill preschool and an independent school that uses the Reggio Emilia approach.

In the beginning of this search I was convinced that I wanted the babes to attend a Montessori school. I did. My brother did. I love the child directed nature of the approach and with twins this is really important. Because we have no plans to separate the children until (at least) after kindergarten and each child has their own strengths and weaknesses, we wanted a program that will capitalize on each and truly treat them as independent individuals. For example, Parker can recognize every letter of the alphabet on paper and count into the teens. A standard preschool might not push him further which, I feel, will frustrate him and he may act out because of boredom. Montessori solved this problem, or so I thought. We visited four Montessori preschools and weren't thrilled with any of them. We just didn't feel at home. If we are to pay a second mortgage every month in preschool tuition we want it to be a perfect fit.

Then we found it. The most amazing school we've ever walked into. It uses the early childhood approach of Reggio Emilia (similar to Montessori except there is more of an emphasis on nature) and continues on through middle school. Preschoolers grow organic gardens in the greenhouse, kindergarteners go on overnight field trips, third graders write research papers, sixth graders go on a two week long science trip to South Carolina and the Smoky Mountains during the school year. The ratio is one to six. ONE. TO. SIX. Preschoolers have drama, art, music, and gym every. single. day. Amazing. We were totally blown away. As cheesy as it is to say, there is a real focus on learning for the sake of learning rather than for the test (which some classrooms don't even give). I left with tears in my eyes. I knew this was the perfect place for our children. Perfect.

The problem is the birthday cutoff. A date that every state has and one that ours strictly enforces. July 31. The babes must be three by July 31. We miss the cutoff by two weeks. The administrators at the school were willing to accept the children into the 3/4s room if they went part time (three half days) and if they stayed in the same room for two years rather than one. This was a tough decision. Would it be more difficult to attend one school for a year and then switch or to stay in the same room while all of their friends moved on to the 4/5s room? The majority of the preschoolers in the 3/4s room have attended some type of school program before, our twins haven't. Is it worth it to pay more for part-time preschool than for our house every month?

So we found another school we would be ok sending our children to.  Like it, don't love it. A standard private preschool. Attached to a church but not religiously affiliated. The focus here is on play. Everything is learned through play. There are daily goals and lessons, however, not taught in the standard method but rather through games, songs, outdoor activities, etc. We could send the babes here for one year (for about 70% less in monthly tuition) and then switch them when they are of age for the 3/4 room at the other school. This seems the most logical thing to do, however, what if we move in two years for a fellowship? Fellowships are only one year long so there is a real possibility that our children will have been to four schools in as many years. Oh, the decisions. And the applications. Did I mention the applications. Some of these suckers are down right philosophical. Harder essays than what I wrote to get into University of Michigan- and more expensive application fees too! The standard is $150 which we've already paid to two different schools and are about to pay to one more. Outrageous. And we don't even live in a city like San Francisco or New York where the wait lists begin before conception...like I said, this is all so overwhelming. We want the best education possible for our children and are willing to do just about anything to get it but it is not an easy decision to make. Not at all what I had anticipated when I started doing my research back in October. If preschool is this bad, I'm already dreading the high school application process...yikes!