It's really hard to find a preschool.

It occurred to me today that Orren will be 2 in just 3 weeks. Then I thought, well, when he's 3, we should probably send him to preschool part time so that he can get used to the school environment. So I set off to ask other Ft. Bliss moms what their favorite non-religious preschools are, and also to search online for preschools here in town. I thought the best ones might have a waiting list, so we need to kind of feel this out now. It took us a year to find Erin a good school, so it's reasonable to figure it may take as long for Orren.

I am coming up with straight-up nothing. First of all, nobody I know, as it turns out, sent their kids to preschool, unless you count headstart, which we wouldn't qualify for, nor would we want here anyhow. I really want absolutely nothing to do with public schools for the rest of the time we're here. I am really looking for a nice preschool to send Orren to. There's a Montessori school near our house, but it's mostly an elementary school, so while I'm not ruling it out, I'm not 100% sure they offer preschool at all, so it may or may not be an option. There are no other options for Montessori that I'm aware of. This city has NO Waldorf school either. There is a Country Day School, but again, I'm not sure if they even have a preschool, or if they're just K-12 since all their website talks about is how many of their grads got into Georgia Tech last year. (Yes, that was amusing for me.) That's pretty much my go-to trifecta, Montessori, Waldorf, and Country Day. I figured they're basically everywhere, and offer good quality, secular preschool. They're really not here in the abundance they're in other places, though.

A really unexpected thing was that when I googled "preschools in el paso", every site that came up gave a list of daycares, and public schools with Headstart programs. I don't WANT to send my kid to a daycare (or a public school!). For one, daycares in this city are completely disgusting and scary. For another, the quality of instruction is simply not there. And for yet another, I'll be honest, I worry about the clientele. I want him to be in a great quality private preschool program, with kids who come from good families. That sounds awful to people anywhere in the country but here, I know, and I would have ripped anyone a new one who said that before I moved here, but this place is not like others. You really don't want your kid in with the general population. Anyone who's actually trying to do the right thing for their kids, has them in some school that doesn't care what part of the county you live in as long as you can afford the obligations of going there, if you know what I mean.

I guess I'm just really glad I started looking for a preschool right before Orren's 2nd birthday, because it will probably take me a long time to find one that's right for him and for us, and then if it has a waiting list, we'll have to deal with that, too. I just wish it didn't have to be such a difficult process just to find a good school for your kids, no matter what age they are. I wish there were good preschools still, and that these hadn't gone by the wayside in favor of daycare centers and state funded programs which are just as bad as the local public schools (because they ARE the local public schools). Maybe this area never had that stuff in the first place. I don't know. It's just so weird that finding a preschool that's of any quality worth sending Orren to, is so difficult. It shouldn't be. Then again, it took us a year to find an Elementary school for Erin... This city is just very difficult school-wise, but then again, the locals just accept their crappy schools, which is probably why there is so little opportunity for kids here. I guess I'll just keep looking. At least I've got a year to do it because it'll probably take that long.