When to start tours for Kindergarten?

[Anonymous]

Our little attends one of the Chevy Chase CC preschools (which we have absolutely loved, I’m terrified we won’t find a K that we love as much). We will be applying him for K in the fall, when did you start tours? We are looking at Norwood, Primary Day, Green Acres, Concord Hill, etc. We have friends who are happy at St Patrick’s and Potomac School but just don’t feel like those drives are realistic, and we see ourselves moving out to Potomac in a few years for more space. Any other suggestions?

Any and all guidance would be much appreciated! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Begin touring the fall before K, but begin thinking about options the previous spring.

[Anonymous]

Tours start in September. You essentially have September-December to tour and get your applications in. It isn’t a big strategy plan or anything

[Anonymous]

Everyone is saying September, but look at the admissions pages of the schools you are interested in. I know Sidwell has tours happening now and it can take the pressure off to get a few done early so it doesn't feel like crunch time in the fall. If none of the schools you are interested in have tours, it may be worth it to do the Sidwell tour (even if it isn't on your list) just to warm yourself up to what the process is like and gain some confidence on the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is saying September, but look at the admissions pages of the schools you are interested in. I know Sidwell has tours happening now and it can take the pressure off to get a few done early so it doesn't feel like crunch time in the fall. If none of the schools you are interested in have tours, it may be worth it to do the Sidwell tour (even if it isn't on your list) just to warm yourself up to what the process is like and gain some confidence on the fall.

Thank you so much! I saw a lot of them have tours in the Spring but didn’t want to look silly if those were primarily for schools filling any last minute fall spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is saying September, but look at the admissions pages of the schools you are interested in. I know Sidwell has tours happening now and it can take the pressure off to get a few done early so it doesn't feel like crunch time in the fall. If none of the schools you are interested in have tours, it may be worth it to do the Sidwell tour (even if it isn't on your list) just to warm yourself up to what the process is like and gain some confidence on the fall.

Thank you so much! I saw a lot of them have tours in the Spring but didn’t want to look silly if those were primarily for schools filling any last minute fall spots.

LOL I did them when I was pregnant with my first so I can guarantee you won't be their craziest! (My boss scared me straight by having just gotten off of maternity leave and was unable to get childcare for her kid because she waited too long so I was watching the chaos and was like whelp, might as well start it all now).

[Anonymous]

As others said, this fall is when you’ll primarily
tour but looking at websites and figuring out where you want to tour this spring is a good idea, and if you have a good sized list of schools, taking some tours this spring if they are offered is a great thing to do

[Anonymous]

PP poster who did the crazy early tours back just to add:

Being early doesn't help or hurt in the admissions process itself, but it did end up actually really helping us because I had planned to do the tours again the year before we applied just to get the most relevant check in and it didn't end up happening due to a family emergency illness situation taking my attention. So while it is not a big deal if you don't get to it early, it can be of personal benefit later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is saying September, but look at the admissions pages of the schools you are interested in. I know Sidwell has tours happening now and it can take the pressure off to get a few done early so it doesn't feel like crunch time in the fall. If none of the schools you are interested in have tours, it may be worth it to do the Sidwell tour (even if it isn't on your list) just to warm yourself up to what the process is like and gain some confidence on the fall.

Thank you so much! I saw a lot of them have tours in the Spring but didn’t want to look silly if those were primarily for schools filling any last minute fall spots.

LOL I did them when I was pregnant with my first so I can guarantee you won't be their craziest! (My boss scared me straight by having just gotten off of maternity leave and was unable to get childcare for her kid because she waited too long so I was watching the chaos and was like whelp, might as well start it all now).

You toured Kindergartens when you were pregnant?!?!?

[Anonymous]

We toured many schools when our kid was in PK3. That way, we figured out the schools to apply to a year ahead and then just concentrated on those during the application season in PK4. It can be quite a time commitment because of the multiple events for each application you submit, especially if you are applying to 3-4 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is saying September, but look at the admissions pages of the schools you are interested in. I know Sidwell has tours happening now and it can take the pressure off to get a few done early so it doesn't feel like crunch time in the fall. If none of the schools you are interested in have tours, it may be worth it to do the Sidwell tour (even if it isn't on your list) just to warm yourself up to what the process is like and gain some confidence on the fall.

Thank you so much! I saw a lot of them have tours in the Spring but didn’t want to look silly if those were primarily for schools filling any last minute fall spots.

LOL I did them when I was pregnant with my first so I can guarantee you won't be their craziest! (My boss scared me straight by having just gotten off of maternity leave and was unable to get childcare for her kid because she waited too long so I was watching the chaos and was like whelp, might as well start it all now).

You toured Kindergartens when you were pregnant?!?!?

Yup! And honestly, I really appreciated how well it set me up for the process later. Like instead of doomscrolling while breastfeeding I sat there and thought about the schools we liked and what signs our child could show us that schools was the best match for them. Then as he grew spotted the signs. The school that came out on top as the best match had a pre-k program so I was able to go through the admissions in a much more relaxed state knowing we didn't have to get in that year because like OP we had until Kindergarten to figure it out.

I don't think parents "need" to get an early start on it, but I think we all can agree that life moves way faster with kids than without and the benefit was that it mitigated some if the effort from a time when life was hitting hard to a time when it felt like I had a lot of excited nesting energy to sort through things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is saying September, but look at the admissions pages of the schools you are interested in. I know Sidwell has tours happening now and it can take the pressure off to get a few done early so it doesn't feel like crunch time in the fall. If none of the schools you are interested in have tours, it may be worth it to do the Sidwell tour (even if it isn't on your list) just to warm yourself up to what the process is like and gain some confidence on the fall.

Thank you so much! I saw a lot of them have tours in the Spring but didn’t want to look silly if those were primarily for schools filling any last minute fall spots.

LOL I did them when I was pregnant with my first so I can guarantee you won't be their craziest! (My boss scared me straight by having just gotten off of maternity leave and was unable to get childcare for her kid because she waited too long so I was watching the chaos and was like whelp, might as well start it all now).

You toured Kindergartens when you were pregnant?!?!?

Yup! And honestly, I really appreciated how well it set me up for the process later. Like instead of doomscrolling while breastfeeding I sat there and thought about the schools we liked and what signs our child could show us that schools was the best match for them. Then as he grew spotted the signs. The school that came out on top as the best match had a pre-k program so I was able to go through the admissions in a much more relaxed state knowing we didn't have to get in that year because like OP we had until Kindergarten to figure it out.

I don't think parents "need" to get an early start on it, but I think we all can agree that life moves way faster with kids than without and the benefit was that it mitigated some if the effort from a time when life was hitting hard to a time when it felt like I had a lot of excited nesting energy to sort through things.

This is truly mental.

[Anonymous]

Highly recommend touring for PK if you’re interested in Primary Day. Kindergarten spots are hard to come by since PK is the entry year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highly recommend touring for PK if you’re interested in Primary Day. Kindergarten spots are hard to come by since PK is the entry year.

Yup! All of the schools OP mentioned have PK...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is saying September, but look at the admissions pages of the schools you are interested in. I know Sidwell has tours happening now and it can take the pressure off to get a few done early so it doesn't feel like crunch time in the fall. If none of the schools you are interested in have tours, it may be worth it to do the Sidwell tour (even if it isn't on your list) just to warm yourself up to what the process is like and gain some confidence on the fall.

I also toured preschools when my DC was about 4 months old and I was home on mat leave! And I did some of the virtual info sessions years in advance. Coming from NY, you start early. I think it’s helpful to figure out schools ahead of time that you’re serious about, then you can spend that admissions year fall concentrating on the ones you know you like. All the admissions events with the play dates really add up to a lot of time
Thank you so much! I saw a lot of them have tours in the Spring but didn’t want to look silly if those were primarily for schools filling any last minute fall spots.

LOL I did them when I was pregnant with my first so I can guarantee you won't be their craziest! (My boss scared me straight by having just gotten off of maternity leave and was unable to get childcare for her kid because she waited too long so I was watching the chaos and was like whelp, might as well start it all now).