Trip to AZ Day 3: Preschool Visits

My wife and I have heavily researched the schools in AZ, but while I was there we scheduled a few visits. Boy am I glad we did. It is difficult as a parent not to get personal about teachers and education, in fact, it's probably a good thing to some extent. It may start to get ridiculous when, like me, a parent gets a little competitive about preschools. We have constantly worried about public schools and felt really good about certain private or charter schools. On personal inspection there were some surprises. One particular public school blew me away with its incredible facilities and passionate, structured, caring, and qualified teachers. One private school disappointed me with its "free for all" environment, though the teachers were great and imagination seems to be heavily encouraged. Another private preschool (the rest of the school is charter) impressed me as far as facilities, academics, and attention to the children, but although I met with incredibly kind and helpful people, there was a sense of elitism from some others--a quality I don't want my kids to pick up on. Thankfully, there was a charter school that had no surprises. It starts in kindergarten, so we still need to make some decisions about pre-k, but they were just a qualified, passionate, value-driven, and supported as we'd read about. We don't gamble, but I hope that some of these charter school lotteries work in our favor. It's actually a bit stressful as a parent. Luckily, there are some good public schools too. So, that allows us to concentrate the majority of our stress on finding a home.