Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
I don't encourage preschool at all. Kindergarten IS preschool. Are we going to start PRE-preschool next??? It's ridiculous. 12 years of schooling is MORE THAN ENOUGH. Let kids be kids. 
In our town, if a child turns 4 before Sept 1, they can go to full day, free, public school pre-k!! I have 2 dcks that are a month apart. One turns 4 two weeks before the deadline, one turns 4 one week after, so one is eligible for pre-K and one will go a year later.
This isn't for another 2 years, but already one mom is counting months (yes, seriously) until she can put this baby in pre-k and save babysitting costs. I am a teacher and while I don't plan to have a formal program, just having two kids the same age, plus the younger sibling, I can do amazing things with these kids before they go off to kindergarten. I fully believe that based on what we do and what I have planned, this child will already have the pre-k skills and is going to be bored out of her gourd.
I've tried talking to mom about it, in a casual way, but she is too excited about saving the money.