<p>There is one thing I have gotten out of CC in the past 8 1/2 years (among many great things too), and that is the prevalence of the idea of elitism and the desire for prestige and this was extremely absent from the community and school where my kids grew up. And in many ways, this was priceless. My kids could not relate to this. I recall when they were in HS and I read CC and would tell them of posts by students and parents about “must have Ivy” or “prep school is better” and so on and so forth, they just could not relate. I find it was beneficial for the kids to not grow up around that kind of thinking. They were/are driven types and have high standards for themselves but there was never a competitive atmosphere growing up and there was an acceptance of all types of people and all kind of colleges. The idea of “best” college and so on was not their way of thinking. Even now, they don’t think their fine colleges were better than other colleges but only that these schools really matched what they wanted and they had a great experience.</p>
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<p>but according to St. Augustine, it is humility that makes men as angels.</p>
<p>^Far too few angels flapping their…er…wings in this forum.</p>
<p>I still remember that I waited for 6 hours to get DD into her private pre-school in the bay area because it was first come first serve. The wait grew to 18 hours during the peak of dot com era.</p>
<p>My younger daughters CO-OP preschool was like that- because it was run through the community colleges & they had about 12 in our area of the city & everyone had to go at the same time to get signed up for the one they wanted.
So dumb.</p>
<p>I don’t think we waited for 6 hrs, but I think registration started at 8 & it was well known you had to get there a couple hours early, so we got there at 6am & there was already a line.
( however, I made a lifelong friend. 
)</p>
<p>Here’s my experience signing up for private preschool…</p>
<p>When D1 was a baby, I was riding up the chairlift with a friend who was a preschool teacher/owner at a well regarded nursery school in our town. It seemed like a long way off as D was just several months old at the time. Friend/teacher tells me she put my D’s name on the list for this preschool for when she would be turning three (this preschool is for 3 years and up) because lists and spots were filling up and she wanted to make sure we got a spot. My jaw dropped. I had no idea that happened in this neck of the woods! I guess I was naive (and I was a teacher at the elementary school at the time) figured we’d think about preschool when she was old enough to go. Thankfully, D’s name was on the list as I never would have thought to reserve a spot when she was just a baby. Then, it was easy when D2 came along two years later as we knew better and she was a younger sib to a preschooler there. Our girls had a wonderful experience at this nursery school.</p>
<p>We applied when D1 was 18 months old. We were interviewed, D1 was “observed” for an hour in a class. We were accepted into the pre-school. It was D1’s first acceptance.</p>
<p>Our friend’s son also went through the same process, except when he jumped down from a castle slide to a bean bag, he missed the bag and hit the floor hard, he said, “Oh, f*.” His dad burst out laughing, my girlfriend wanted to kill her H because the son picked up the word from his dad. And that ended their HYP dream.</p>
<p>^^^lol!!!</p>
<p>At our preschool, you didn’t apply to be admitted. It was first come first serve.</p>
<p>Stats & oldfort - thank you both. Just when I was about to admit that my tiime reading this thread was wasted, the two of you literally made me laugh out loud with your comments.</p>
<p>My son flunked his interview for Headstart. (They had a program to put some higher income kids with lower income kids.) The interviewer asked my son if she could take his picture. He said “No” and she took it anyway. He threw a block at her. I have to admit I was on his side. Why did she ask if she wasn’t going to respect his answer?</p>
<p>Does ANYONE here remember the Tracy Ullman Show? She did a hilarious skit…her kid was doing an interview for a preschool in NYC. Honestly it was a riot. She coached her kid to answer the questions “correctly”…ex. her favorite vegetable was OKRA (she wanted her to stand out). Bottom line is…her kid did NOT get accepted (it was really funny to watch her reaction), and they went out to get ice cream. Gotta wonder if this skit is on YouTube, HULU or available through Netflix!!</p>
<p>My friend had a whole plan for getting her daughter into a selective kindergarten. She strategically organized the interviews from least important to most important, so the child would have interviewing experience at several schools before they finally got to the one school she really wanted for her daughter. The five year old was OK for the first few schools, but was sick of the process by the time they finally got to the one interview that mattered. In the director’s office, her daughter pulled her dress over her head and yelled “I do not want to go to any school!” Not accepted.</p>
<p>This is one of those threads that seems to have taken on a life of its own! LOL…</p>
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I don’t understand why some people always have to turn a thread into yet another “how great is my kid” missive.</p>
<p>Our family was blackballed from D1’s nursery school after we sided with a teacher against the administration. I think the tipping point came when one of the teacher advocates mailed copies of a staff member’s skin mag photos to every family. D2 ended up at another preschool that didn’t kick her out even when she punched another kid for trying to take her tricycle during outdoor play time.</p>
<p>^All of these is soooo bogus and has zero impact on a kid’s future.</p>
<p>What is the most important is parent’s contribution. I have fought with kindergarden administration just to get my D. into any kindergarden, since her B-day is Oct. 4. Her current at a time day care would not do it and discussion went on and on for couple weeks. Placing her earlier was the most important aspect for us as we are older parents living in very economically depressed region of the country and were not sure about our ability to have a job in our 60s to be able to support D. thru college, so every year was very important. Well, I found one kindergarden that would take her earlier and presented her current one with that threatenning to pull her. With both of them being expensive private places, I prevail, no I would say money power prevail. In all of that, the most important was that I knew that my D. will always have our support academically if she has any difficulties and pusuing all her other goals. Kids can go to any place (any safe place), any kindergarden, it is so irrelevant. The only relevence at this age is a parent involvement.</p>
<p>Here is bragging part. Yes, D. was the youngest one everywhere. No, she did not fail despite of kindergarden administration predictions. In contrary, my college senior D. has never had a singe “B” in her life. She graduated #1 from her rigorous Private HS and graduating with Honors BS in May. She has been accepted to 4 Med. Schools, couple of them in top 20. </p>
<p>Fight for your kids with all your means and provide them support all the way, and these will insure great academic success and success in all other goals that you have for your children. Let them teachers / school administrations have their opinions, you know your kid the best. If kid does not get where you want him to be, it is not the end of the world, they still have you.</p>
<p>Miami…we also were into advocating for our kids. Private school was not an option. We also had a D with a birthday on Oct. 6 and jumped through hoops to get her an early entrance into K (not for same reasons as you, however). All through our kids’ schooling, particularly at our MS and HS, we advocated to have their learning needs met and there were many accommodations made. By the way, our D who entered K early ALSO graduated high school a year early and so ended up two grades ahead but this was the right placement for her. I do believe parental involvement is key no matter where you send your kids to school (preK to 12).</p>
<p>soozievt,<br>
What a coincidence! I am sure that your D has a bright future despite her young age. The reason - your support. In additional benefit, when they are a bit older, you will hear continuous general “Thank you” from your kids when they realize looking back, that you were a huge part of their success.</p>
<p>DS went to see what Milton Academy was like . . they had a tour for the kids then small group discussion wherein it was clear to me (but not to DS) that the evaluation of prospective students had begun. DS moped and slouched and mostly hung back and didn’t interact. On the way home in the car DS talked about how he maybe was interested in the school and wanted to know when he could go back for an interview. I burst out laughing and said “you just had the first part of your interview and you really didn’t do so well” . . DS got this offended look on his face that progressed from said “WHAT!?!?!” to “well guess I blew that one” in short order.</p>
<p>Evidently DS was not a good fit there and DS’s life was ruined from that day forward :-)</p>