Switching Schools and Preschoolers

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I am considering switching my 4 year old from one preschool to another as I feel he should be further along in developing a basic academic foundation (letters, numbers, writting name). He is, however, happy at current school and developing socially. The new school should offer continued social/emotional development with more acadmics. Is switching a good idea considering he'll likely switch again in 2 years to public school after kinderarten? He is generally a kid that transitions well? Just wonder if we are putting too much emphasis on academics and whether the potential move is worth it..I do like the new school's teach communications and relationship with the kids.

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As long as he is where he should be as far as his developmental milestones and given children learn at their own pace I would not jump the gun just yet. It sounds as though he is where he should be socially and emotionally and the academics will follow soon enough. Learning is accomplished by exposure not pressure. Since you do not say what type of preschool he is currently in it is hard to know what type of approach and model they are using. Do they learn through play or do they use pencil/paper, both, is it a chain preschool or private such as a church or other, class size, environment (open rooms, individual rooms, noise level)? All these could be a factor when matching your child with a school that meets their individual needs.

I hear a lot about problems with making many schoold switches but in my experience with my son and also observing my nieces and friends' children, besides some difficulty early on, most kids adjust quickly, except when there is a "mismatch" between the school and the child (see my comments later on). So I guess I would say if you think the move is for the better, don't let potential adjustment issues stop you. My son (now 4 years and 3 months) have had several transitions since he was a baby, including switching from babysitter to a nursary to a montessori school to a summer camp back to a montessori and now a new preschool. He used to be on the shy side (now he is quite comfortable in any setting to our surprise), and I always worried that he would have a hard time with so many transitions but I have come to think that he may have developed the necessary skills to make transitions easier for himself. I always tried to ease the transition by taking him to or by the new environment and allow him to interact with the teachers (the school has to be willing of course) several times before officially starting, also talking about what may be different at the new place and what will be same. I also tried to do shorter days the first couple of days of the new school. His hardest transition was to the Montessori school which had a very structured schedule that was quite different from the place he went to previously. I think this was a mismatch and he was just too young for this place (he was 2 years and 4 months); He did fine the following year when he was older.

I am about to do the same thing if my daughter is accepted at a new pre-school. There are specific functions like fine motor skills of writing her name or counting higher and more accurately that I think she will do better under this new teacher. However, we already tried to move her one time and she didn't want to after she visited the new school. Since it was only a marginally better school, we let her persuasion to stay with her friends rule. This time I've been preparing her and she really likes the new teacher. We've made the change about the fact that she's 4. Like your son, she has got the social aspect down. The new teacher, instructs others in early care and education and is very polished and has indicated that she will help her grow from where she is versus progress that follows along with the whole class. So, I'm happy about the new school and I think our parental decisiveness will translate into her excitement too!

When my son (who will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall) initially started in the four year olds class that he is currently enrolled in I felt that he was not getting the same level of academic challenges that his previous preschool offered. But I let it ride because I did not want to keep moving him around. By the middle of the year he knew most of the presidents and could recite the alphabet. Now he is reading and writting sentences. I would check with the teachers and find out what their plan is for getting their students Kindergarten ready. So much of Early Childhood Learning is based in socialization.

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