The school year has officially opened this week for me and my eldest son. He is on his second year of school and is currently in the nursery level.

I remember last year when I spent the whole first week of school with him, staying inside the classroom and watching him as he interacted with the other kids, chatting with the other mothers there. I felt so emotional that time because I realized how my son has grown.

I also recall how frantic I was summer of last year trying to determine what school to place my kid into. I cruised around the neighborhood, visiting the nearby pre-schools. I asked my cousins, friends, acquaintances. I searched the DepEd site too as I wanted to ensure that the school I chose was accredited and not some hocus-pocus institution. In the end, it was through the recommendation of my yaya that I found what I felt was the best school for my child.

Here are the things I watched out for in my quest for my kid’s school:

• Should be near our home. Should either be walking distance or or reachable without much inconvenience by public transport (i.e. 1 tricycle ride)
• Should have a small teacher-student ratio. My preference was 8-10 students. I mean 3-year olds are very difficult to manage, and they still need close supervision. How can that be achieved if the class has a population of 30 kids?
• The school should have an acceptable payment plan for tuition fees.
• The school should be transparent on where the fees to be paid will go - no miscellaneous fees of considerable amount (say P2K) with no accounting of where it will be spent for.
• The classrooms should be spacious, with enough room to play and run around a bit.
• The school should have a playground - even a small one.
• The teacher/s should be enthusiastic. I cannot have some grumpy old teacher taking his/her frustrations on my kid.
• Lastly - the principal should be enthusiastic and devoted to kids as well. I do not feel comfortable having a Miss Tapia (stereotype) run the school where I will leave my kid to stay and learn even if it is just for 3 hours.

I am happy that my kid’s pre-school satisfy all of the above and I’ll bet I will have the same challenges once my kid goes on to gradeschool. Thankfully that’s a few years in the future.

Do you want this guy frowning on your child?