Tips for Picking a Preschool in New York

Choosing a preschool for your young child can be a particularly daunting task, especially in New York City. With what seems like limitless options how does a parent narrow down preschools to find the right one for her son or daughter?With all the factors that can come in to play, Pam Wolf, founder of NY Preschool, with 13 locations across the city, suggests starting with educational philosophies. She says, “Right now there are about 25 different philosophies on how best preschoolers are educated. It really is a matter of opinion and a matter of understanding your own child and determining which philosophy aligns with your own schools of thought and which philosophy you think your child will fare best in.” 

Preschool Philosophy

Do you think your child would like a Montessori school or perhaps they are more of a Reggio Emilia child? It’s up to you to do the research, but for most kids, a play-based philosophy is what suits them best.  That’s the philosophy at NY Preschool, but Wolf says when you go to visit any preschool you’ll want make sure “that you see the children spend most of their time playing, or working with materials and other children.”  At a young age, children learn through play and interaction. “Some of life’s greatest lessons are learned through play in preschool. So seeing children just playing is productive it’s not thought of as idle, it’s play with a purpose in our schools,” Wolf says.

After you determine what philosophy best suits your family, you, of course, want to make sure that all the tangible things are up to standard. Does the school look well organized, clean, and safe? Are the teachers nurturing and nice? Is it close to your house (if that’s important to you)? Once you determine those things, you can move on to how the school operates on a daily basis.

Class size is an important factor. Even in larger classes of 16 to 18 students, Wolf says that teachers still find one-on-one time with each child throughout the day. At NY Preschool, “During a teacher directed activity, children are broken up into smaller groups, depending on their readiness for the activity at hand. While children can be within a 3-to-6 month age difference in the same classroom, their social and emotional skills can vary widely, and to have a teacher who can work individually or in small groups with these children is the key to a child’s success. The ability to work individually with teachers so that they can meet children at whatever level they come to us, and the varying levels over the course of a year, is very important,” Wolf says.