We went strictly by price the fist year. While my daughter loved her teachers, they seemed surprised that she was writing all of her letters and recognizing numbers up to 20 during her first year of preschool (age 3 1/2). For her second year, she skipped pre-K and went the private kindergarten. We made a decision late in the school year to have her advanced (around May) so it was difficult to find an early start academic kindergarten for her. We just took what was available. If I had to do it over, I would be more like you and ask ahead of time about the schools. From what my friends have told me, Chesterbrooke Academy sounds like it would have been a better fit for my daughter. My friend's son was working on dual digit addition at age 4 1/2. He was also helped because he was behind his peers in reading. My friend claims that the learning was individualized and engaging. While her son had difficulty in the strict Christian school he attended previously, he did better at Chesterbrooke.