Cooperative Preschools

For those parents that are looking at preschools, I just wanted to share a little information about cooperative preschools. We have two cooperative preschools in Boise (that I know of, I apologize if I'm unaware of any others), Boise Cooperative Preschool and The Cooperative Preschool at St. Michael's. The Cooperative Preschool at St. Michael's is a NAEYC accredited program. Please see post entitled "Choosing Quality Childcare" for information about NAEYC and it's accreditation of childcare and other early learning settings.

Cooperative preschools rely on the support of parents. Parents donate their time in the classroom, they help on field trips, they help with fundraising, and even cleaning. Due to this type of parent involvement you get a quality preschool at a low cost. I also see added perks such as, you really get to know your child's first teacher, you get to know the children in your child's class, you get to meet other parents with children the same age, and you get great ideas of activities to transfer to home.

The parents I know that have done cooperative have really loved it. Parents with children enrolled in both programs have raved about the quality of learning, parent/teacher collaboration, and community activities. It works best for families with some flexibility in their schedules. Parents like I mentioned above must donate their time, and these preschools do not provide all day care, so it really works best for parents that work part-time, or for families in which one parent stays at home.

I believe both programs have wait lists, so if you are interested, please check them out!