Preschool School Year

[Christina72684]

For those that teach preschool and take the summer off......

Do you start up your "school year" at the same time as the elementary schools start in your area, or do you wait until a different date? Last year I started the Tuesday after Labor Day. It was my first year having the preschool open and I had one girl come just for preschool so I had to have a specific start date.

Do you teach preschool all 5 days? Do you have kids come in just for preschool that aren't here the whole day? If so, how much do you charge?

[Blackcat31]

I have a scheduled curriculum for the school year. I start when regular school starts.

I do not have kids that come in just for preschool. I have 3, 4 and 5 day a week attendees. Each family pays a weekly fee based on enrollment NOT attendance.

I don't discount for partial days.

[kendallina]

Here the district preschool starts on a later day than the regular elementary kids. So I start when their preschool starts (about a week later) It causes a few parents problems every year, but during that time I am technically still doing "Summer Camp" and have a few spaces available and can accommodate anyone that needs that extra week. It's never ideal, but for my payment/ease of transition of most students it works better to choose a later date.

Most of my kids are here only for preschool hours. I have a few that stay for 'aftercare'. I run a MWF program from 9-2 (prekinder) and TTH program from 9-12 (mostly 3-yr olds). It's $280 for prekinder per month and $135 for the TTH class per month.

[Meeko]

I have a scheduled curriculum for the school year. I start when regular school starts.

I do not have kids that come in just for preschool. I have 3, 4 and 5 day a week attendees. Each family pays a weekly fee based on enrollment NOT attendance.

I don't discount for partial days.

Ditto...except I wait for a week after school starts before I do anything. That way I can focus on the new KG kids and getting them into their routine.

[Annalee]

I have a scheduled curriculum for the school year. I start when regular school starts.

I do not have kids that come in just for preschool. I have 3, 4 and 5 day a week attendees. Each family pays a weekly fee based on enrollment NOT attendance.

I don't discount for partial days.

I do this except I start my curriculum in Sept. I have found it helpful to use the word preschool or academy because parents are leery of all the core curriculum/higher learning expected when entering school. I have actually put signs up already advertising the preschool beginning...whatever works! It is a business and then I also explain how my centers are set up to enhance that learning.... Times are changing with education and, as a parent myself, it is overwhelming/frustrating/etc.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I did year round preschool originally. This year, we spent 4 weeks in summer mode. We have already resumed our curriculum for the most part. Certain aspects of it are waiting until all schools are back in session as that is when we will have some of our kiddos leaving for Kinder and some new ones coming in to take their place.

Next year, I will likely up our summer time to 6 weeks.

[finsup]

This will be my first year of doing a full pre-school program. We start the week after school starts basically because school supplies go on sale when kids start school I can stock up on everything I may need then. Monday-Friday here, and we get done the last week of May.

[spinnymarie]

We do school-year only care, but we start the first Monday of August, which is two weeks before teachers go back and 2.5 weeks before kids go back - however, we won't start the 'school'ing part until we've figured out our routines and schedules, probably the last week in August.

[mom2many]

I continue pre school activities through the summer. I have 2 s/a kids and they will do their own activities, while the 2,3 4 & 5's do the planned activities for the day. Sometimes the older kids will join in on the crafts too!

[SilverSabre25]

My son's preschool starts Sept 8th, but I'm starting daughter's homeschool on the 11th. Ws supposed to be yesterday, but I wasn't ready ::

son has preschool in the AM on T and Th and I'm going do to 'school' with him on MW...maybe F. Just some more formal activities focusing on letters and numbers, fine motor skills, pre-writing activities, and sensory activities. I'm loosely using the Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the Week curriculum.


aaaand i'm also rambling so I'm just gonna hush now! ::