Decision Made

We settled on a preschool, choosing to go with the first preschool. This is the one that is more of a typical preschool, run by the town's recreation department, not the daycare center one. Something I didn't mention in the last post was that this is a one year thing. For the following year, we will be applying to the public preschool lottery which is in the same building as their future elementary school. That program is 5 days/week. If we don't get in, we will look at other 5 day programs, probably in a Montessori type setting. Here were our biggest reasons for choosing this school despite the fact that the hours are shorter and its not as close to our house (but still just 5 minutes away):

1. Cost. That one's for you Auntie Kim :) I know it's bad form to talk about money but I think that's stupid. So, I'll give you some numbers. Preschool A is $1,800/yr/kid. Preschool B is $4,650/yr/kid. Now remember, I have two kids. So, this was a $5,700 decision. If Preschool B had been so much better than preschool A, it may have been worth it. But we know that we'll still have two more years of preschool to pay for after this so we figured we shouldn't spend to much this first year if possible.
2. Schedule. As someone pointed out to me, when you choose the days you go, there is the chance that you might miss things because they happen on teh days you are not there. For example, I'd be really sad if they missed the animal guy, or the firefighter, because it was on Monday and not a Tuesday. With Preschool A, this isn't an issue because there is no choosing - its simply a 2 day schedule.
3. Logistics. Drop off and pick up at Preschool is much better than at Preschool B. At Preschool A, someone meets us at the car - I don't even have to get out! At Preschool B, I would have to park my car in a parking lot and walk across a street with 3 kids to get them inside. Then, I would have to go up to the second floor (1.5 flights) to bring them to their classroom, take off their coats/backpacks/etc., all the while keeping any eye on Matteo who can't be in a stroller because there are no elevators to get up there. That sounds awful to me. He will most likely be walking by then and will have zero impulse control. It's a recipe for disaster.
4. Public school connection. Since this school is in our town (although a bit further than the daycare which is actually in the town next door), they communicate with our public schools and coordinate things like how they teach handwriting. It's a small thing, but it's nice. Somewhat related, most kids in Preschool A will be from our town (its a very small preschool) so they might get to know some future classmates.

So, that's that. We'll be sending them the check in a few weeks. Wow. That was fast.