Austin, TX
Child's Day

Director's Comments

Question to director: Do you have any additional thoughts on what parents should consider when looking at your school? Is there any advice that you would like to provide to prospective parents?


Use a 'Questions to Ask' checklist available from www.naeyc.org or other web site. There is no substitute for careful parental scrutiny. Ask for a list of Parent References you can call.

Parents' Comments

Parent #1
Most of the teachers possess wonderful skills working with the children, problem-solving, and guiding the children while still letting them learn to resolve issues. The teachers are highly trained in child-appropriate language and are remarkably consistent in their use of positive rather than negative language (i.e., "I see that you want to throw rocks but it is not ok to throw them at a friend. Maybe you could throw a rock at the fence instead."). They help guide the kids to find their own conflict resolutions, and do so most often without raised or annoyed voices.

Parent #2
Child's Day is a very professional, for-profit school attended by the children of busy, affluent professionals. My older son also attended a church-affiliated half-day preschool, and a lab school affiliated with a religious university. The church-affiliated preschool was more intimate, smaller and less formal. I think he learned more at Child's Day, but the feel is not as warm. The strength of the school is the great array of imaginative and stimulating activities provided by warm and caring teachers. The school pays them benefits and has tuituion reimbursement, so there is less turnover. Since it is not affiliated with a Christian church, as may preschools are in Austin, it attracts the children of non-Christians, which adds racial/ethnic diversity to the mix. The downside is the lack of economic diversity among the families, which affects the flavor of out-of-school activities among the families (for example, overly elaborate birthday parties are a big social activity).

Parent #3
On my sons first day when I went to pick him up he didn't want to leave. That is the moment when I was sure he was in the right place.

Parent #4
Our class experienced 200% teacher turn-over and a child-conflict issue that made us unhappy with this school and its ability to keep my child in a safe, secure environment. Also, her classroom was much too small for the # of children in it.

Montessori? Waldorf? Play-based?

What school type is right for your child? Is one model better than another? What does the research say?

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