Is Preschool Worth the Cost?

Is preschool worth the cost?

I read an article recently on www.SFgate.com that said childcare is now officially more expensive than college.

As a single mom, struggling to pay the few-hundred-dollar registration fees at my kids' elementary and middle schools this week, I can't help but wonder if the $1000-a-month in full-time preschool dollars we'd spent years ago per child was a worthy investment or a big waste of money.

So I asked the experts—my kids. They get very excited when asked adult questions, as if answering correctly might somehow win them their own reality show.

At the kitchen table, where we tend to conduct the majority of our family business, my 11-year-old almost-sixth-grader raised his hand. "No!" was his verdict.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I didn't learn anything. All we did was play."

My son attended Woodroe Woods in Hayward, back when we were living in Castro Valley. Woodroe Woods was more of a wooded resort for kids, nestled in the hills adjacent to Don Castro Regional Park.

In addition to the normal academic offerings, the school had ponies the kids could ride and a swimming pool, where my son received his first swimming lesson. At the time, I found it hard to both care for his 1-year-old sister and him while working at home as a corporate freelance writer.

We put him in preschool to give him socialization, as well as learning opportunities. Seemed like he'd enjoy playing in this quasi-Hilton for kids, and he did. At least I thought so.

All my son seems to remember now is once getting in trouble in the sandbox for digging his way toward China and hitting clay earth, an exciting discovery he then proceeded to cover himself with.

By the time my daughter was 3, we'd moved to San Ramon. My ex-husband and I enrolled her in Danville Montessori School, which I thought was a wonderful school, and my daughter seems to agree.

When I asked her if preschool had been "worth it," she replied, "yes!" However, when I asked what she learned, she seemed to think the most important thing was getting clarity on the fact "P" actually comes after "O" and not before.

Now I can't be certain, but I'm pretty confident in thinking I might have been able to help her with that one.

Danville Montessori offered an extraordinary array of classes in addition to teaching the basics—reading and math. They offered art, music, gymnastics, even Spanish and Mandarin.

She, of course, doesn't remember a word of Mandarin and if she remembers any of the Spanish, it might be thanks to Dora the Explorer as much as anyone else.

What I loved about the Montessori method was that they taught things like math in a very tactile way instead of expecting kids to memorize answers. Kids were given beads to count to understand math concepts: one bead plus one bead equals two beads.

My daughter explained, "I remember we always had to count our carrots and celery snacks before we could go out to play."

By incorporating math into other activities, and making it a multi-sensory experience, I think teachers there did an amazing job that had to have helped my daughter build a strong academic foundation.

Both schools seemed to give my kids positive experiences, an excitement for learning and, I believe helped prepare them for kindergarten.

But were they over-prepared? My daughter seems to think so. By the time kindergarten came along, my daughter claims, "I already knew everything they were teaching me. I didn't learn anything new until third grade."

When she was 4, I had to take her out of preschool. By then, I'd figured out that "Montessori" was Italian for "costs too much," and I couldn't afford it anymore. I felt terrible about it at the time, but now I can see it was a good move, given my situation.

My daughter tells me that all the "important" things she learned before kindergarten—telling time, memorizing the alphabet and counting to 100—she learned from me or from workbooks I'd given her the year before kindergarten.

My conclusion is that, at their best, preschools give kids a love of learning that can make the transition to kindergarten easier. Learning a few of the basics before kindergarten can give kids confidence that can help them perceive themselves as "smart," something key, I believe, to helping kids achieve throughout their school years.

If I could afford it, I'd send both my kids to Montessori school through high school, if such a school existed around here. Despite my daughter's evaluation that the school only taught her to put "O" before "P," I believe they taught more fundamental lessons.

At Danville Montessori, my daughter learned that all problems must be first held, touched and felt until they are adequately understood before they can be solved.

Rote memorization, the method most public schools embrace, isn't nearly as effective.

But I don't think you have to pay a preschool to give this gift, this passion for learning to your kids. Most any parent can read to his or her children and teach them how to tell time, practice ABC's and count to 100. Kindergarten isn't rocket science (though first grade math can be).

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of sending my part-Chihuahua, part-Mario Andretti dog Murphy McBolt to reform school. He ran away again this morning thanks to gardeners leaving our side gate open. I caught him on the trail by our house, barking at a pit bull.

How do you say "bad idea" in Chihuahuan? I'll bet the teachers at Danville Montessori would know.