Preschool Test Run

So for the past few months hubs and I have been touring preschools, trying to find the perfect fit for Miss Penny. When I was a kid you used to be able to go to the school down the street but in LA there are so many choices and if you listen to "certain moms" there are only a few choices that you must consider or risk being ostracized in the mom community. The hardest part of navigating schools is in fact other moms. All moms have an opinion on what you as a mom should do. It not okay to go to the school down the street anymore. You have to go to the BEST school. And in today's world that is a bi-lingual school, school's with the proper philosophy or "thee" school's a.k.a. "expensive" schools some moms think are the key to getting their kid into Harvard. Everyone always asks what schools you've toured and heaven forbid you looked at one that wasn't good or you get a terrible look of scorn. Every school has been bad mouthed by someone so its hard to know which ones are good. I was never particularly fond of school so this whole precess has been daunting to me. If all schools are shit as classified by "these moms" then I have been navigating through shit. We visited about 8 schools and they were pretty much all the same, nothing ground breaking. We did find an academy which we think is the winner for us as it seemed a bit more academic then the other schools we toured. Miss Penny spent the day there this past week so she could get evaluated. When I picked her up she was all smiles and the teacher was all smiles so I am hoping her evaluation went well. We are waiting to hear back if she will be accepted. She did mention she had fun so I take that as a sign she is interested in going to school. While we wait for word back I went on one last tour. It was the tour for the fancy smancy preschool, you know the one with the waiting list a mile long. I've waited months to take this tour and finally the day was here. I had a great tour, you could tell that the school had plenty of funding as everything was super nice and clean. Their philosophy was the philosophy of play and exploring the environment aka being outside a lot. Basically, they let the kids develop the programs they will teach during the school year. The teacher's all had their masters and the kids were all smiling and all hug-gy hug-gy with the teachers. It was a good thing I didn't go here first or I would have drank the cool-aid immediately. It was a wonderful school but is it the right choice for Penny? So far we have ruled all of the schools so I guess it comes down to the academy and fancy swanky school assuming we have moved up the waitlist at all in the last 6 months. The only thing my gut was nagging me about at the fancy swanky school was... do these kids actually learn anything? There was no sit down teaching from what I saw, just kid's playing and granted kid's playing is what I mostly expect at that age but why is it that all the other schools I went to were worried about kid's these days not being prepared for Kindergarten and kid's repeating kindergarten because they didn't learn what they were suppose to learn in preschool. The people at the fancy smancy school just seemed to think the kids would figure it out which who knows maybe they are right. I mean after all I just played and played and I turned out fine. But then again the world is more competitive these days and it is hard to get into college and shouldn't my kid be ready for that? I don't want her to get stuck in a school with no funding that doesn't teach anything but the basics. With the current state of affairs of schools being so depressing aka no funding, no money and no teachers, I have to question if just playing outside and immersing yourself in the earth is enough? For me, a person who didn't like school all that much, it is daunting to know as a parent, I need to pay attention to school like I never have done before. It's that side of me that falls prey to those moms who "gotta get their kid into the best schools" and this "School of Play" is one the best. Play aside, ehe academy place we saw was teaching kids to write their name and teaching them the value of money and of course plenty of play time. Both schools seemed to have good programs unlike one school hubs visited where the teacher was yelling at little kids for not doing their homework! In preschool?!!! Perhaps hubby was visiting on a bad day or perhaps there are these schools who give preschool kids homework? For me, its finding that right balance of play and education for Penny. I know in the end hubs and I are going to make the right decision for Penny but man, there are so many choices and everyone, I mean everyone, has an opinion on what we should be doing. If I left it up to my neighbor, I would be driving a 100 miles a day (like she does) to get the best. Her child is definitely, a good kid so I can see why she does it but will driving a 100 miles work for me and for Penny? I guess my worry about being "the best" borders on being pushy. I don't want to be "that parent" that pushes my kid too hard or makes them do things they are not interested in. But I also don't want to be "that parent" who doesn't take an interest in their kid. to me, it's that fine line of being supportive and preparing my kid for the world verses being pushy and having my kid resent me. Ugg, I can't believe we are into school already!!! Where did the time go?