Fancy Preschool.

[prisoner_24601]

So today is the day that my son finally got to attend the preschool that is sucking our bank account dry. $6350.00 this year for three hours a day that's 11 installments of $635.00 a month. Next year when he goes until 2:45 I'll have the pleasure of paying $9090.00 for kindergarten (that's 909.00 a month folks.)

It occurs to me that I could buy a really kickass car for all this money. Luckly this is only for the next two years. I don't think I can face eating mac and cheese for the next 14 years of his life until he goes to college.

It's probably time for me to I find a job. Of course if I do go back to work, that's another $490.00 a month for him to have daycare until 6 at night.

Actually, I was really rather excited for him. Since kids tend to become asshats in gradeschool later, I figured preschool and kindergarden would be a pretty fun experience.

Other kids were freaking out as their parents left. Me? I had to tap him on the head to pull his attention away from the hamster cage to say goodbye. And when I came to pick him up, which kid had the freak out then because he wanted to stay longer? That's right. My kid.

Because that is the kind of awesome mother I am. :P

At least he liked it. I really hope it's worth it.

Comments

[kitbug.livejournal.com]

Are you sure you aren't putting him through college prematurely at those prices?

At least he likes it. XD

[prisoner--24601.livejournal.com]

Hahah actually by the time he's done with two years, I will have spent far more than I did going to a four year private liberal arts college.

Sure I got a lot of grant money cause we were poor and scholarships and stuff, but still...it's expensive.

[plutospawn.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. From where I come from, we're used to seeing super young kids enrolled in kindergarten because they qualify for free breakfast and lunch. Besides, you know kids don't really go to school to learn; it's free daycare for their folks.

[prisoner--24601.livejournal.com]

Heh the state of Michigan does not require schooling for children until first grade. So unless you put your kid into a head start program, you have to spend money on a private school. I will admit though that this is one of the more expensive ones out there. There are private preschools that are a fifth of the price that I'm paying right now.

[maddcoffeybrown.livejournal.com]

Really? Michigan doesnt require school for kids until first grade? Alabama made it LAW to send kids kids to school as early as possible. If you don't social services intervenes(they take your children away.Put you jail and fine you).
Yet, alabama still ranks low on the nation's educational lists. I hate my state's educational system its so corrupted and underfunded it really pisses me off. I'll save that rant for another day.

[athenaprime.livejournal.com]

Our district was like that, but they are really militant about the cutoff ages, but there is a county preschool that's virtually free, and many of the churches around here have preschools in collusion with the state so they can get help with providing snacks and drinks.

And then there's "Creme de la Creme" where the little half-chunks pay sixteen grand and wear uniforms. If you ever watched "Daddy Day Care" with Eddie Murphy, the big daycare preschool run by Anjelica Huston must have been the inspiration for these people.

[miakun.livejournal.com]

Good gravy that's some expensive schooling, but glad you both handled it well!

And now he can shove crackers into all sorts of new places!

[kosiah.livejournal.com]

Damn, that's expensive. It makes me scream again, what's wrong with this country? Can't he go to public kindergarden? We're smack up against the whole, work/daycare p/e ratio too and it's ugly. But it sounds like he's having fun... and that's good. I say, relax and enjoy your time apart. Whatever you decide, it's only a few years when it's like this before it changes again.

The one thing is, those prices aren't that far off New York prices. Which kinda scares me for both of us.

[prisoner--24601.livejournal.com]

And actually since pre-school and kindergarten are not required in Michigan, the only public school alternative is Head Start. I actually don't think there's anything wrong with some of the far more economical alternatives (although I think head start should be avoided if at all possible). But I figure that since I'm probably not going to be able to afford private schools for my son after this that I would spend the money to make sure he got a good foundation to build from. The typical grade and high school price is around 20K - or more, or is a Catholic School so we're simply going to be forced into more economical alternatives. I'm thinking he's probably going to end up in public schools or a public charter school in the end.

I really wanted him to go to a Montessori school because I really love the method of teaching (I went to one myself - they're fantastic). And those schools are not cheap. It's compounded by the fact that it's in one of the fanciest Detroit suburbs where half of the people that live there are high powered executives and engineers and it makes for some expensive schooling.

So ramen noodles for two years while we tough it out roflmao.

[kosiah.livejournal.com]

Kindergarden is not required? WTF???? Geez, move here for a few years, we have pre-K and K in the public school systems, although I think pre-K is first-come, first-served.

Tuition is actually similar here (and again that's kind of scary), the really competitive privates are $30K, but I don't think we're pedigreed enough to go to them anyways. I am big on public school though, and I think it would have to be pretty terrible for me to consider alternatives...

The going back to work thing just to pay for daycare/preschool conundrum angers me beyond reason.

Detroit sounds like one of those places where there are only two classes of people -- okay three if you count the auto workers -- rich execs, working poor and the unionized remainder, who are losing their benefits right and left.

I am rambling. But, okay -- education... my friend who just moved to Austin so they could live on her husband's public schoolteacher salary? Just found out their health insurance payment will be $850/month. On a public school teacher's salary. (And that's more than we pay, on a lawyer's in NYC...)

So, in conclusion, it's nice the country is coming to a consensus that things are bad, and I hope they improve. I think they have to.

[athenaprime.livejournal.com]

holy crap that's a chunka change. I sent D-man to the YMCA preschool here. They used rainbow learning, which is Montessori with the serial numbers filed off for half the price. But while Ohio requires Kindergarten,thanks to No Child Left Intact, it's more like a modified first grade.

Anyway, it sounds like he'll have fun there. I'm glad. I had to use a crowbar when I first sent the Big D to preschool. After three days of kindergarten now, he's mister public school pro and thinks the big yella bus is almost as cool as the Millenium Falcon. He also thinks it might be a transformer, too, but I blame that on his father.

[midnight-hawk.livejournal.com]

Those numbers made me do a psyduck impression, ow. I hope for yours, your family's and your wallet's sake that it's worth it.

[cavortingmonkey.livejournal.com]

Hey, looking at that wallet-busting tuition (good God), I have to ask if it's a certain domed school in the area you're sending him to? If so, I'm a graduate and can say with certainty that it's an excellent school and well worth it, despite it all.

[prisoner--24601.livejournal.com]

Heh, he's going to a school up in Birmingham (which is probably why it's so expensive) called Gateway Montessori.