How to Choose the Best Preschool for Your Child

My daughter started her pre-schooling at an early age of 2 years. I faced a lot of challenges both before and after putting her into a pre-school which is under a well-known brand of the preschooling industry. Preschooling or kindergarten or Daycare as you call it, has become a satire today in a country like India. Let's not get into the negative things that I and my child have gone through, but, I will share my personal experience here, which can help you to choose a good preschool for your child. After all, preschool is the first exposure of our children for the outer world. Children will judge the world with their experience which they have gathered at school during their early days of childcare. 

• Don't opt for brand names: By saying so I am not against any brand or chain of preschools. What I mean here is be sensible while choosing a kindergarten. don't judge the school by its brand name as we sometimes say "all the glitters is not gold". sometimes you can find a good preschool which may be run by an individual and not under any preschool chains.
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• Infrastructure: Today you find many preschools anywhere and everywhere. I mean to open a preschool it may take only an apartment or a floor in a building or sometimes you may see some popping out in a private building. Kindergarten means a place where the preschoolers can learn through playing. So that means a preschool should have a playing area which is kids friendly. Always try to find a preschool which has its own commercial building and proper play area at least. 

• Classroom verification: Make it a point to visit the classrooms physically. Don't depend upon photographic illustrations as they can only be used as eye candy. Look for airy spacious rooms which you think is good for your child. Let me say there is no set mark for quality check here.

• Teacher-Student ratio: Mostly in a country like India, you can find a teacher-student ratio at 8:1. Please confirm with the teacher-in-charge of the preschool regarding this ratio index. As you are a parent of a toddler by now, so you know how hard it is to handle one at a time, then think if the student ratio is more than that then how difficult will it be for our children (well, we are more concerned about our children than the teachers here). You can expect an assistant teacher along with a class teacher for 8 kids in a class along with an attendant who will be there for non-teaching work.

• Cleanliness and Hygiene: My daughter got affected by the amount of dust she used to inhale every day at school. She developed a serious respiratory problem. Always verify with the preschool authorities about their routine cleaning process like how many times a day do they practice cleaning process and what hygiene measures do they take at school and how they treat affected children at school and so on. Actually, the best thing you can do is verify yourself as soon as you enter the preschool premises. Look for proper toilets which should consist of baby toilet seats and basins and should be clean and safe for your kid. The rooms must be dust free, the floor mats ( most of the preschools use floor mats in place of baby chairs and tables to avoid unwanted accidents) should be washed in regular intervals. 

These queries must seem to be quite funny to you but believe me we have to check for minute details when it is about our children. Remember those 2 to 3 hours you are away from your child and most of the children within the age of 1.5 to 6 years are not able to explain what happened to them in that time frame.

• Safety first: Please look for proper childproofing methods practiced by the preschool. This may include installation of child gates near the stairs, anti-skeet bathroom floor. Proper installation of the furniture by keeping child safety in mind, proper installation of a corner or edge bumpers, and most importantly padding the staircase to avoid serious injury. Make it a point that the preschool must have well maintained CCTV camera installed to monitor all the activities going on inside the school.

• Curriculum: Most of the preschools don't follow a curriculum. What they can offer you is a syllabus in place of a curriculum. The curriculum should provide scope for healthy social, emotional, physical and intellectual development besides intellectual and cognitive growth. Remember a preschool is a place where we send our toddlers to build their personality for life. Therefore, learning through reading and writing should not be the conventional method of teaching in a preschool, they should strive for all-round development of a child.

Last but not least take your time to research and choose among the available options and don't rely on word of mouth. It's as simple as choosing the best things for our children at home is to choose the best preschool for your child. Many of the preschools may tell you that the admission time will be over by this time or that time, but remember almost all kindergartens take new admission throughout the year. Therefore, there is no hurry, you can take your time,  to do all your research sensibly and act only when you are satisfied.