• Does quality go down with price?
• Part-time affordable non-coop?
• Affordable Pre-school for Toddler
• Sliding scale preschool?
• Preschools that give scholarships

Does quality go down with price?

My daughter is a touch over 2 1/2 and potty trained. She is in daycare currently but really needs to move on to a preschool. I have looked in the archives for some info to help me pick one but a lot of the data is old, unfortunately! I have called a few of the places listed but some are full. Since I am a single mom and my daughter is bi-racial, I was wondering if anyone knew of scholarship possibilities for us? My daughter is very bright and needs to be challenged a bit more than she is in her daycare situation. I am not opposed to a co-op and if anyone has updated information on those that would also be appreciated. My schedule does have some flexibility so I can participate one morning a week. I would be interested in her attending a preschool 4 or 5 days per week, all day. If I do not qualify for a scholorship, I would need to go with the absolute cheapest. I have no idea how much the quality goes down with the price, if at all. Thanks for your help. These sorts of decisions are very overwhelming and I am always thinking if I make the ''wrong'' choice it will have a significant effect on the rest of her school days! I need some help.

On the bright side, for the situation you described you are in, quality does NOT neccessarily go down with the price! My oldest daughter was in one of the 'exclusive' and expensive and often mentioned preschools and had a great, really great first year there (lots of stimulation and activities, it's true,) and fantastic teachers, and a BAD, REALLY bad second year, with a lot of intensive, oldest children, and a burnt out teacher who simply did NOT deal with interpersonal issues(!!!) and an unresponsive administration!

My second child, a boy, went to Nelly's bilingual class at the FREE(!) BUSD preschool 'Franklin State' on 8th street, and he had two GREAT years! (You in fact need to be low income to qualify, which I was at the time as I had a new baby and worked very little). It's only three hours though, but really great, a nice amount of Latin culture (dancing, pinatas, Spanish, lots of Latin families); however, I would NOT recommend many of the other classrooms at Franklin State, from what I saw. My last one now goes to a (?) middle or low priced situation, and it is GREAT!!! Great ratio, owner SUPER committed and caring and smart with children; less stimulation which is fine for this child, very caring. (Called Maria Chairez daycare, next to Centro VIDA.) So, there you go!

Also, I've found that the well-known schools are often expensive and fill up fast, but there are great, not well known places that can for you in! quality before price

Part-time affordable non-coop?

I'm in the process of searching for a preschool for our child who will be 3 this summer. I've looked at NPN book and BPN recommendations list, but I have a lot of mixed feelings about the whole search.

First, some schools feel so snooty and don't call back or make you feel priviliged to actually tour the place or don't allow kids on the tour(I don't get that). I just didn't expect this kind of uppity environment or the level of competitiveness to get ''in'' to some of these schools.

Second, we are a single income family of four, and I was not prepared for the cost. We are just keeping our heads above water financially, so even finding an extra $200/month won't be easy. I was expecting about $5-7/hour for a non coop. This doesn't have to prepare my kids for Harvard, just give them some socializing and learning and creative play that we can't give them in a home setting.

Third, I am looking for one that is not a coop. I would like to be involved by doing work on weekends or some other job besides classroom participation. Our child has a younger sibling, and we don't have any family in the area to watch the baby. If I pay someone to watch the baby, then the savings we realize by doing a coop is lost on paying for childcare for the baby. I know we could trade off childcare with another family, but I'm not a big fan of watching other's kids.

So, bottom line, is there a non coop(or a coop where we could opt out of classrooom participation) where a 3 yr old could go 2 or 3 mornings a week for about $5-7/hr or $200-350/month in the Berkeley/Albany/Kensington/El Cerrito/Richmond area? or am I living in a world that just doesn't exist anymore? Sign me as Surprised and Confused

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