Archive for Education
When is the Best Time to Start Preschool?
Posted by: | CommentsEducation—both inside and outside the home—is probably our most important parental duty. Since my son is still so young, I’m particularly interested in preschool right now. Previously, we’ve discussed whether it’s necessary to send your child to preschool at all and, if so, how to pay for it. We’ve also talked about whether any old preschool will achieve the desired educational goals or whether it’s important to send your child to a prestigious one.
Now I need more of your input! We’ve decided that we are definitely going to send our son to preschool, but we’re struggling as to when he should start. Though uncommon, there are some preschools in our area that take kids as young as 18 months (and they claim it is truly preschool, not daycare). Since my son is already 20 months, clearly we’re not going that route, but lots of preschools here start at 24 months—in fact, that seems to be the standard in northern Virginia.
I only had one year of preschool myself (starting at age 4), but I do see the potential merits of a child having two or even three years of schooling under his/her belt before heading off to kindergarten. But I also wonder how much more prepared a child would be having two years of preschool as opposed to only one.
What do you think? When is the ideal time for a child to start preschool? Age 2? 3? 4? And given that there’s a cost to preschool, do you think extra years (that is, starting at age 2 or 3) is worth the cost?
I’m looking into a possible “intro preschool” classes, where Pudge would only go one or two days a week for only 2-3 hours at a time. But I’m wishy-washy about even that. I could use your advice!!!
Saving for College Gets Tougher in a Tough Economy
Posted by: | CommentsMost parents find college savings extremely daunting—especially when we calculate the potential costs of sending a child to college in 2028! If we save $100 a month starting when our baby is born, we’ll still have only about $48,000 saved by the time he enters college (assuming an 8% annual return). In 2028, that probably won’t cover even one year of college at a public university. Whew!
Saving for college is tough enough, but a bad economy makes it exponentially harder. Money magazine reported that many parents have resorted to pulling money out of their children’s 529 college savings accounts in order to either pay off debts or even pay their rent or mortgage. Of course, it’s hard to fault parents for pulling money out of their children’s accounts during particularly tough times. But as a society, it’s scary to think that the Great Recession of the last few years may negatively affect families trying to put their kids through college even decades from now. Raiding a 6-year-old’s 529, for example, sets parents back more than 6 years of savings, since the opportunity for compounded interest over those years will also be lost.
Let’s hope that the economy recovers soon so that we can put away enough money to put our kids through college!
Do You Need to Send Your Child to the Harvard of Preschools?
Posted by: | CommentsThough it’s still a little ways off, my husband and I have started to plan for Pudge’s preschool education (see my previous post on whether two years of preschool is necessary). Since we moved to a new area, we’ve started to research some schools. In particular, we need to know whether preschools in our new town have long waiting lists that we need to quickly get on or whether we can wait another year or two to really start our search.
I’ve come across a couple of mothers who insist that getting your child on the waitlist for one of the “elite” preschools is the best way to ensure he begins his education with a leg up on the competition (read: other 4-year-olds). And while such “elite” preschools are plentiful in the over-achieving DC suburbs, I wonder whether it’s really necessary to send my son to the Harvard of preschools in order to start him off on the right foot. After all, the main purpose of preschool is to learn about the structure of a school day and to hone important social skills, right? I mean, what could make one preschool WAY better than another? They finger paint in crimson and puce instead of red and green?! I feel like the majority of preschools—even the so-called “mediocre” ones—would probably teach a child all he needs to know to prepare for kindergarten.
Having said that, I certainly don’t want to saddle my son with any educational disadvantages. If the kids graduating from the “Harvard” preschools are entering kindergarten with a third-grade reading level and a solid grasp of basic math, then I will certainly pay the extra money to send my little Pudge to such a school. But if the kids from these schools are really not much better off than kids from “average” preschools, then I think our money may be better spent elsewhere (such as, the college fund).
What do you think? Is it necessary to send your child to an elite preschool? If so, what advantages do you think they get there? If not, what criteria do you use to choose the right school?
Paying for Preschool
Posted by: | CommentsMy husband and I knew we needed a plan to save for our son’s college fund, but we feel somewhat blindsided by the cost of preschool. Preschools in our area are not only super-competitive (our son may not even get into some of them since we failed to get on waitlists while he was still a fetus), they are expensive. Some of them are well over $10,000 for one year! And many people in this area sign children up for two years of preschool. We did not plan on coughing up $20,000 in the first four years of Pudge’s life, that’s for sure.
But, I’m not getting worried yet. First, I’m not convinced that two years of preschool is necessary or even beneficial. Second, I’m not convinced that shelling out $10,000 instead of a more reasonable $4,000 will make a child substantially more prepared for kindergarten.
What do you think? Is preschool necessary? For one or two years? And do you have a savings plan for preschool?
